WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Mary Flora Bell was just 11 when she killed a three-year-old and a four-year-old in Newcastle in 1968, disposing of one body on waste ground
An 11-year-old girl who endured horrific childhood abuse posed a “grave risk to other children” after she murdered a three-year-old and a four-year-old, abandoning one toddler’s body on wasteland.
Shockingly, 10-year-old Mary from Newcastle deceived her victims by claiming they had sore throats and offering to massage them before throttling them to death. Prior to facing trial for the killings, the young girl received a diagnosis of psychopathy.
There were disturbing early indicators that Mary would carry out such bone-chilling crimes, rooted in her troubled upbringing. Mary was an unwanted and abandoned child – her father’s identity remained unknown whilst her mother worked as a prostitute who screamed “take the thing away from me!” when hospital staff placed baby Mary in her arms.
Mary Flora Bell received a life detention sentence at Newcastle upon Tyne Assizes in 1968, though a jury found her not guilty of murder and she was jailed for manslaughter. Norma Joyce Bell, aged 13, who was unrelated but lived neighbouring Mary in Scotswood, was cleared of murder and manslaughter on both counts.
Both girls had pleaded not guilty to all charges. Mary, her mother and grandmother were left in tears as the jury delivered their verdict, reports the Mirror.
Mr Justice Cusack, while pronouncing the sentence, labelled Mary as “dangerous” and warned of “a very grave risk to other children if she is not closely watched.”
Four-year-old Martin Brown was discovered dead with his arms stretched over his head in a derelict house on 25 May. Brian Howe, three, who lived on the same street as Mary and Norma, was found on waste ground near his home two months later, as reported by the BBC.
Betty, Mary’s mother, took up work as a dominatrix and it was alleged that she tied up Mary and sexually abused her whilst working. On another occasion, she sold her daughter for adoption, and it was claimed she also gave her sleeping pills and dropped her from a first-floor window.
Mary was a habitual bed wetter and would frequently strangle her classmates and once blocked a girl’s throat with sand. It was alleged that Mary had pushed a boy from an air raid shelter and had tried to strangle three girls.
In a statement, Norma said Mary asked: “What happens if you choke someone; do they die?’ Then Mary put both hands ’round the girl’s throat and squeezed. The girl started to go purple. I told Mary to stop, but she wouldn’t. Then she put her hands around Pauline’s throat and she started going purple as well … another girl, Susan Cornish, came up and Mary did the same thing to her.”
Mary and Norma then forced their way into a nursery and scrawled messages on a blackboard confessing to the killing. After overturning tables and daubing ink across the walls, the notes declared: “I murder SO That I may come back. WE did murder martain brown f*** of you bastard. Fuch off we murder. Watch out Fanny and F*****. You are mice Y Becurse we murdered Martain Go Brown you Bete Look out THERE are Murders about By Fanny and auld F***** you Screws.”
Two days afterwards, on 29 May, ahead of Martin’s funeral service, they appeared at his mother’s doorstep requesting to play with him before confessing “oh, I know he’s dead; I want to see him in his coffin.”
Come July, young Brian was last spotted playing alongside Mary, Norma and his pet dog. His lifeless body was discovered barely hidden beneath weeds and grass, with a pair of broken scissors lying beside his feet.
Most chillingly, a crude attempt to scratch the letter ‘M’ was discovered carved into his stomach. Despite initial questioning by the police, Mary and Norma managed to avoid immediate consequences.
However, a coroner’s report determined that Brian’s murder had been committed by a child. In her statement, Mary alleged she had seen an eight-year-old boy assaulting Brian on the afternoon of 31 July.
She claimed to have seen Brian with a small pair of scissors, stating “I saw him trying to cut a cat’s tail off with the scissors, but there was something wrong with them-one leg was broken or bent.”
Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) James Dobson deduced that Mary was the killer, as only the police were aware of the broken scissors discovered at the crime scene. Subsequently, several eyewitnesses refuted any sightings of an eight-year-old boy.
Dr David Westbury, a Home Office psychiatrist, informed the jury that Mary had a psychopathic disorder within the definition of the Mental Health Act. When asked by the judge if he knew of a suitable place for her, he responded, “No”.
Upon being questioned by Mr Harvey Robson representing Mary, Dr Westbury suggested her treatment should last “some years”.
The Judge said: “It is a most unhappy thing that in all the resources of this country it appears there is no hospital available which is suitable for the accommodation of this girl.”
Dr Westbury proposed that the health department of the Ministry of Social Security should manage the case, but the department stated it needed ” time to consider what they are to do and no specific time is indicated.”
He added: “It is an appalling thing that with a child as young as this one, one has to take into consideration such matters. I am not entirely unsympathetic but anxious as I am to do everything for her benefit, my primary duty is to protect other people. There is a very grave risk to other children if she is not closely watched and every conceivable step taken to see that she doesn’t do again what she has been found guilty of. In the case of a child of this age, no question of imprisonment arises. I have power to order a sentence of detention and it seems to me that no other method of dealing with her in the circumstances is suitable.”
Speaking directly to Norma, the Judge expressed his hope “that nobody will attempt to discuss the matter with her. It seems to be in the interests of this child that the matters we have had to deal with should be put behind her”.
In 1972, whilst Mary was detained at the Red Bank approved school in Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, BBC Midweek alleged that as the sole girl amongst 23 boys she found herself embroiled in a sex and pornography scandal. By November 1973, she had been transferred to the “secure” facility at Styal in Cheshire – with all requests for parole being turned down, the Guardian reported.
In 1977, she managed a brief escape from prison with Annette Priest, a 21-year-old sex worker who had been convicted of theft from her punters. Nevertheless, both women were recaptured within days.
Mary was eventually freed from detention in May 1980 at the age of 23. She received a new identity and anonymity protection upon becoming a mother.
Their anonymity was set to expire when Bell’s daughter, who resided with her, reached 18. However, a temporary court order was secured whilst legal proceedings continued.
The sister of four year old victim Martin Brown argued that Bell had forfeited her right to anonymity by publishing her biography Cries Unheard, for which she received £50,000.
Yet Inspector John Reynolds of Staffordshire Police held a different view, stating in 2003: “There is no organised search. The Home Office is quite happy that Mary Bell is not dangerous. Bell killed some smaller children when she was 11 years old. Now she is 20 and prison authorities say she is not the slightest bit dangerous.”
