charged her with neglect. dressed in blue denim dungarees, a grey t shirt and cream, zip upjacket, ruth neave sat emotionless next to a woman police officer throughout. i wasn t the greatest mother in the world, but i want the worst. and the police decided to go into the neglect and cruelty and get all the ridiculous statements from people who wanted to be in the news. you know, i m not going to be accused of hanging my son over a bridge or choking him half to death or starving him or beating him up or punching him because it s all all wrong. things were to get much worse for ruth. a small crowd gathered outside peterborough magistrates court, hoping to catch a glimpse of ruth neave.
ijust loved him so much and even thinking about it hurts. ijust miss him so much. ijust didn t think it was everfair. why my child? over the years, ruth neave has shared her story with us, remembering the last time she saw her son alive. i woke him up in the morning, and i had been up all night because my baby had been in hospital a week before and ijust got home, he got ready for school and i always take him to school. this morning, he actually ran out the house so quickly. apparently, he was meant to be stealing some barbie shoes for his sister. he said he would go straight to his friends. it got to 5pm and i thought, it s never this late.
and i didn t look at it to say, well, i m going to prove who murdered your son. i said i would hope to find truth and justice, and that s what we done. we got to this point today because i worked on evidence that s 28 years old now. the evidence was always there. it s just the way the police tried to bury it, twist it, and if you imagine it like a jigsaw puzzle, they were trying to force pieces of a jigsaw puzzle into places they shouldn t be. in 2014, 20 years after rikki s death, ruth and gary persuaded the police to reopen the case. i never set out to solve a murder. paul fullwood asked me if i could give him some fresh, new and compelling evidence. we gave him all the fresh, new and compelling evidence. he s the one, he and his team solved this murder, not me. ijust kept a promise.
into justice for ruth and the fight to clear her name. while she pleaded guilty to neglecting her children, she maintains most of the claims against her were false. is there anything cambridgeshire police could do now? yeah, apologise. apologises for making my life hell. living under a cloud. everybody thinking i murdered my son. there s nothing left apart from apology. i don t like saying it to gary, but i go to gary to know if it alive. officer won t be here. i m saying. if rikki was alive, you know, he would be a strapping lad and i d have all the grandkids and all the kids around me. and, you know, so i always wanted a big family. i had four kids. i d have friends, family
was found near his home in peterborough the day after he disappeared in november 1994. james watson, who is now 41, was found guilty of his murder at the old bailey. ruth was unable to attend court on medical grounds, but in a statement after the sentence, she told us.