A 64-year-old man has admitted
murdering a teenage girl who was
stabbed to death more than three
decades ago in Bath.
Christopher Hampton pleaded guilty to
murdering Melanie Road, 17, during the
early hours of 9 June 1984. Sentencing
him to life in prison, Mr Justice
Popplewell said he had carried out a
lengthy and brutal attack. “You will very
likely die in prison,” the judge added.
In the 32 years since Melanie died,
Hampton lived an apparently normal
family life a few miles from Bath.
He was finally caught in 2015 after
police matched DNA from her clothing
to a member of his family on the
national database following a cold case
investigation.
Melanie, described as bright and
outgoing by her family, was sexually
assaulted and died from multiple stab
wounds to her chest and back.
The teenager had decided to walk the
short journey home following a night
out with friends in Bath. Her body was
discovered at 5.30am by a milkman and
his 10-year-old son, close to a block of
garages a short distance from her home.
Hampton, from Fishponds, Bristol, was
to stand trial at Bristol crown court on
Monday after originally denying the
charge of murdering Melaine. But he
changed his plea and answered:
“Guilty”, when the charge was put to
him again.
Popplewell told Hampton, who has three
children: “You murdered and sexually
abused Melanie Road in a cul-de-sac in
Bath near where you and she lived.
“You were 32. You didn’t know each
other. Melanie was 17, a happy,
outgoing and sociable girl who at the
time of her death was about to take her
A-levels. It was a life full of promise.
“Only you will know precisely how you
approached her and carried out your
attack but certain things are plain from
the evidence. It was a lengthy and
brutal attack for your own sexual
gratification.
“She was repeatedly stabbed – 26 times
in all – with a sharp-edged knife,
causing four-inch wounds. Eight of the
wounds were to her breasts.
“You first stabbed her while she was on
her feet on the street on her way home,
before chasing her some 30 metres
round the corner to the cul-de-sac
where she died.”
Following the attack, Hampton
remarried. The judge said: “You lived
your family life for all those years
knowing the extreme misery you must
have inflicted on your victim’s family
but you were too callous and cowardly
to put an end to their heartache.”
Police have had a DNA profile of
Melanie’s suspected killer since 1995 but
there was no match on the national
database. In 2014, Hampton’s daughter
received a caution for criminal damage.
Her DNA was taken, as is routine, and
added to the database.
In May 2015, cold case detectives again
ran checks on the sample from the killer
and the link with the daughter’s sample
was found.
In June last year, Hampton provided a
voluntary DNA swab to police, which
was confirmed as a match with that
collected at the crime scene.
Melanie’s mother, Jean Road, said she
thought she would not live to see her
daughter’s murderer brought to justice.
Describing the moment she first saw
Hampton in the dock at the magistrates
court, the 81-year-old said: “It was
when we finally went to the court in
Bath and I saw this man standing there
that I thought: ‘He’s not a man, he’s a
monster. How could he do that?’Then I
realised that his wife and his daughter
were sitting behind me. Both with
blonde hair, the same as Melanie. How
could he do that to somebody and then
live with people like that and them not
knowing?
“It hurts beyond repair. I always said if
I got hold of him I’d strangle him or
stick a knife into him and that’s how I
felt but I wouldn’t even use my energy
up on him.
“I feel that he should be shut up in a
dungeon like they used to in the olden
days and just left to rot because he’s not
worth looking after. I know that’s
against the law but I can think that, I’m
allowed to think that.”
Road, speaking before Hampton
admitted murdering Melanie, paid
tribute to her daughter. She said: “She
made herself welcome wherever she
went. She would walk straight in and
she was at home. I think what helped
her was because she was so bright.
Everything that she did she did well. She
was very bright. I always look at her as
a child with an old head on her
shoulders.
“Even her siblings have said the same.
But she was loved by everybody. She
loved Bath, she really fitted in well with
everything that she did in Bath.”
Road, who has two other children, said
the fact that Melanie was murdered in
the city she had such affinity for hurt.
She described how the daughter’s death
had affected the family over the past 32
years, and her wish to see justice for
her other two children too. “Because I’m
81 I thought I might be dead before it all
finalised, but thank God,” she said.
She last saw her daughter alive at the
Francis hotel in Bath at lunchtime on 8
June 1984, the day before her body was
discovered.
She remarked on a red carpet at the
hotel. “Melanie got out of the car and
she said: ‘Look, there’s a red carpet laid
out for me.’ That’s her last words,”Road
said.
Road said her husband, Anthony, had
been concerned when they woke to find
Melanie had not slept in her bed on the
morning of Saturday 9 June.
Police traced her family after a
loudhailer alert when they discovered a
keyring with the name Melanie near the
body.
“I heard the loudspeaker outside the
house calling out ‘Melanie’,” she said.
My husband and I just looked at each
other and there was a police officer’s
car going past and he was calling out
‘Melanie’. That’s all I heard. Then I
opened the front door and ran after the
car, banging on the back of the boot. He
stopped and he said: ‘What did you
want?’ and I said: ‘We have a daughter
Melanie and she hasn’t come home.’
“I got into the car and he took me back
to the house and that’s when all hell let
loose and I knew my daughter was
never coming back again. And my
whole life was taken over by this
horrible deed. Melanie did not deserve
that, nobody deserves what happened to
her.”
Later they were taken to identify the
girl’s body. “That was a big shock to see
Melanie lying there,” Road said.
Timeline
Melanie Road’s body was discovered a short
distance from her home. Photograph: Avon and
Somerset police/PA
8 June 1984 Melanie Road, 17, goes on
a night out at Beau Nash nightclub in
Bath.
9 June 1984 Her mutilated body is
discovered by a milkman and his 10-
year-old son at 5.30am in Lansdown
area of the city. Police trace her family
after a loudhailer alert when they
discover a keyring with the name
Melanie near the body.
1984 to 1989 Police hunt for teenager’s
killer through Operation Rhodium. Tests
from the crime scene give police a blood
type with proteins which match just 3%
of the population. Ninety-four people
are arrested but none charged.
1995 DNA has become part of regular
police work and a DNA profile of the
suspected killer is developed and put on
the national database for the first time.
There is no match.
2000 A DNA review produces a more
detailed profile of the killer. Police start
looking at familial DNA matches –
people on the national database who
partially match, which suggests they are
related to the killer. There is still no
match.
2003 A cold case team is set up.
2009 The 25th anniversary of
Melanie’s death. A Crimewatch special is
shown. Seventy names are handed to
police, none of which are Christopher
Hampton. Police revisit every bit of
evidence gathered at the time by
transferring 14,339 index cards – one
for each person interviewed, named,
arrested, etc – on to computers.
2010 Police get funding for a £20,000
nationwide familial run. They compare
DNA from the scene with people on the
database, for family member matches. It
produces the top 400 most likely
relatives of the killer who are all
tracked down to see if they have male
relatives which match the estimated age
of the killer. The male relatives are DNA
swabbed in following years.
November 2014 Unknown to the cold
case detectives, Christopher Hampton’s
daughter receives a caution for criminal
damage after police are called when she
has an argument with her partner and
breaks his necklace. Her DNA is
routinely taken and added to the
national database.
February to March 2015 Police obtain a
rerun of the familial check on the
national DNA database to include people
added since the previous one in 2010 –
about 1 million people.
May 2015 Results come back with a
familial match to Hampton’s daughter.
Research by police revealed she was
from Bath and had brothers and a
father, who also had lived in Bath. She
provides a phone number for her
father.
1 June 2015 Hampton provides a
voluntary DNA swab to police in the car
park of a commercial building where he
was working in Ashton, Bristol. The
officer tells him he will get back to him
within five weeks and goes on to take
dozens more DNA swabs.
2 July 2015 Testing lab emails to say
Hampton’s DNA matches that recovered
from the scene and he is arrested that
day. He makes no comment to all
questions, but denies rape and murder
in a statement read by his solicitor.
Melanie’s family are informed.
4 July 2015 Hampton is charged with
murdering Melanie.
9 May 2016 Hampton pleads guilty to
murder.
murdering a teenage girl who was
stabbed to death more than three
decades ago in Bath.
Christopher Hampton pleaded guilty to
murdering Melanie Road, 17, during the
early hours of 9 June 1984. Sentencing
him to life in prison, Mr Justice
Popplewell said he had carried out a
lengthy and brutal attack. “You will very
likely die in prison,” the judge added.
In the 32 years since Melanie died,
Hampton lived an apparently normal
family life a few miles from Bath.
He was finally caught in 2015 after
police matched DNA from her clothing
to a member of his family on the
national database following a cold case
investigation.
Melanie, described as bright and
outgoing by her family, was sexually
assaulted and died from multiple stab
wounds to her chest and back.
The teenager had decided to walk the
short journey home following a night
out with friends in Bath. Her body was
discovered at 5.30am by a milkman and
his 10-year-old son, close to a block of
garages a short distance from her home.
Hampton, from Fishponds, Bristol, was
to stand trial at Bristol crown court on
Monday after originally denying the
charge of murdering Melaine. But he
changed his plea and answered:
“Guilty”, when the charge was put to
him again.
Popplewell told Hampton, who has three
children: “You murdered and sexually
abused Melanie Road in a cul-de-sac in
Bath near where you and she lived.
“You were 32. You didn’t know each
other. Melanie was 17, a happy,
outgoing and sociable girl who at the
time of her death was about to take her
A-levels. It was a life full of promise.
“Only you will know precisely how you
approached her and carried out your
attack but certain things are plain from
the evidence. It was a lengthy and
brutal attack for your own sexual
gratification.
“She was repeatedly stabbed – 26 times
in all – with a sharp-edged knife,
causing four-inch wounds. Eight of the
wounds were to her breasts.
“You first stabbed her while she was on
her feet on the street on her way home,
before chasing her some 30 metres
round the corner to the cul-de-sac
where she died.”
Following the attack, Hampton
remarried. The judge said: “You lived
your family life for all those years
knowing the extreme misery you must
have inflicted on your victim’s family
but you were too callous and cowardly
to put an end to their heartache.”
Police have had a DNA profile of
Melanie’s suspected killer since 1995 but
there was no match on the national
database. In 2014, Hampton’s daughter
received a caution for criminal damage.
Her DNA was taken, as is routine, and
added to the database.
In May 2015, cold case detectives again
ran checks on the sample from the killer
and the link with the daughter’s sample
was found.
In June last year, Hampton provided a
voluntary DNA swab to police, which
was confirmed as a match with that
collected at the crime scene.
Melanie’s mother, Jean Road, said she
thought she would not live to see her
daughter’s murderer brought to justice.
Describing the moment she first saw
Hampton in the dock at the magistrates
court, the 81-year-old said: “It was
when we finally went to the court in
Bath and I saw this man standing there
that I thought: ‘He’s not a man, he’s a
monster. How could he do that?’Then I
realised that his wife and his daughter
were sitting behind me. Both with
blonde hair, the same as Melanie. How
could he do that to somebody and then
live with people like that and them not
knowing?
“It hurts beyond repair. I always said if
I got hold of him I’d strangle him or
stick a knife into him and that’s how I
felt but I wouldn’t even use my energy
up on him.
“I feel that he should be shut up in a
dungeon like they used to in the olden
days and just left to rot because he’s not
worth looking after. I know that’s
against the law but I can think that, I’m
allowed to think that.”
Road, speaking before Hampton
admitted murdering Melanie, paid
tribute to her daughter. She said: “She
made herself welcome wherever she
went. She would walk straight in and
she was at home. I think what helped
her was because she was so bright.
Everything that she did she did well. She
was very bright. I always look at her as
a child with an old head on her
shoulders.
“Even her siblings have said the same.
But she was loved by everybody. She
loved Bath, she really fitted in well with
everything that she did in Bath.”
Road, who has two other children, said
the fact that Melanie was murdered in
the city she had such affinity for hurt.
She described how the daughter’s death
had affected the family over the past 32
years, and her wish to see justice for
her other two children too. “Because I’m
81 I thought I might be dead before it all
finalised, but thank God,” she said.
She last saw her daughter alive at the
Francis hotel in Bath at lunchtime on 8
June 1984, the day before her body was
discovered.
She remarked on a red carpet at the
hotel. “Melanie got out of the car and
she said: ‘Look, there’s a red carpet laid
out for me.’ That’s her last words,”Road
said.
Road said her husband, Anthony, had
been concerned when they woke to find
Melanie had not slept in her bed on the
morning of Saturday 9 June.
Police traced her family after a
loudhailer alert when they discovered a
keyring with the name Melanie near the
body.
“I heard the loudspeaker outside the
house calling out ‘Melanie’,” she said.
My husband and I just looked at each
other and there was a police officer’s
car going past and he was calling out
‘Melanie’. That’s all I heard. Then I
opened the front door and ran after the
car, banging on the back of the boot. He
stopped and he said: ‘What did you
want?’ and I said: ‘We have a daughter
Melanie and she hasn’t come home.’
“I got into the car and he took me back
to the house and that’s when all hell let
loose and I knew my daughter was
never coming back again. And my
whole life was taken over by this
horrible deed. Melanie did not deserve
that, nobody deserves what happened to
her.”
Later they were taken to identify the
girl’s body. “That was a big shock to see
Melanie lying there,” Road said.
Timeline
Melanie Road’s body was discovered a short
distance from her home. Photograph: Avon and
Somerset police/PA
8 June 1984 Melanie Road, 17, goes on
a night out at Beau Nash nightclub in
Bath.
9 June 1984 Her mutilated body is
discovered by a milkman and his 10-
year-old son at 5.30am in Lansdown
area of the city. Police trace her family
after a loudhailer alert when they
discover a keyring with the name
Melanie near the body.
1984 to 1989 Police hunt for teenager’s
killer through Operation Rhodium. Tests
from the crime scene give police a blood
type with proteins which match just 3%
of the population. Ninety-four people
are arrested but none charged.
1995 DNA has become part of regular
police work and a DNA profile of the
suspected killer is developed and put on
the national database for the first time.
There is no match.
2000 A DNA review produces a more
detailed profile of the killer. Police start
looking at familial DNA matches –
people on the national database who
partially match, which suggests they are
related to the killer. There is still no
match.
2003 A cold case team is set up.
2009 The 25th anniversary of
Melanie’s death. A Crimewatch special is
shown. Seventy names are handed to
police, none of which are Christopher
Hampton. Police revisit every bit of
evidence gathered at the time by
transferring 14,339 index cards – one
for each person interviewed, named,
arrested, etc – on to computers.
2010 Police get funding for a £20,000
nationwide familial run. They compare
DNA from the scene with people on the
database, for family member matches. It
produces the top 400 most likely
relatives of the killer who are all
tracked down to see if they have male
relatives which match the estimated age
of the killer. The male relatives are DNA
swabbed in following years.
November 2014 Unknown to the cold
case detectives, Christopher Hampton’s
daughter receives a caution for criminal
damage after police are called when she
has an argument with her partner and
breaks his necklace. Her DNA is
routinely taken and added to the
national database.
February to March 2015 Police obtain a
rerun of the familial check on the
national DNA database to include people
added since the previous one in 2010 –
about 1 million people.
May 2015 Results come back with a
familial match to Hampton’s daughter.
Research by police revealed she was
from Bath and had brothers and a
father, who also had lived in Bath. She
provides a phone number for her
father.
1 June 2015 Hampton provides a
voluntary DNA swab to police in the car
park of a commercial building where he
was working in Ashton, Bristol. The
officer tells him he will get back to him
within five weeks and goes on to take
dozens more DNA swabs.
2 July 2015 Testing lab emails to say
Hampton’s DNA matches that recovered
from the scene and he is arrested that
day. He makes no comment to all
questions, but denies rape and murder
in a statement read by his solicitor.
Melanie’s family are informed.
4 July 2015 Hampton is charged with
murdering Melanie.
9 May 2016 Hampton pleads guilty to
murder.
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