How little we know about the action of the mind and its reaction on conduct, and how wildly we grope for the chain of causation

Alexander Paterson

In 1921, in the Monmouthshire town of Abertillery, eight-year-old Freda Burnell and eleven-year-old Florence Little were brutally murdered by a callous killer, so devious and plausible that he was acquitted of the first murder, allowing him to perpetrate the second seventeen days later. The murderer, Harold Jones, was only fifteen and of previous good character. While on remand he confessed to Percy Nash, the chaplain, that he had murdered Little. A few days later, on 17th September, he wrote down his confession. When he told Nash that he did not know why he had done it, the chaplain suggested he write down ‘the reason for doing so was the desire to kill’. Again at Nash's prompting, on a separate sheet he wrote that he had murdered Freda Burnell as well. This time he gave no reason, perhaps because there was undoubtedly a sexual motivation behind that killing (and probably both). He later made a statement to his solicitor, admitting the second murder. He duly pleaded guilty, but being too young to hang, he was sentenced by Mr Justice Roche to detention during His Majesty's Pleasure, the juvenile equivalent of a life sentence.

Jones was moved to the ‘juvenile adult’ section at Dartmoor. He proved so well-behaved that after a year he was transferred to Maidstone prison to serve the remainder of his sentence. The remarkable progress of this youth aroused Paterson's interest and he requested Jones's record with a view to re-classifying him as a ‘Star’. He was not alone in his interest. The case was notorious and attracted much attention. The medical profession had from the first been fascinated by this case of a boy who had twice killed children, and he was regularly seen by doctors eager to demonstrate or improve their understanding of ‘sexual sadism’ and ‘the new science of psychology’.

In February 1922 the Dartmoor medical officer, Alexander French, reported that he had seen Jones frequently and gained his confidence. Jones had spoken ‘unreservedly on all subjects [and] answered all [his] questions readily and with obvious veracity’.