Triple child murders: The lodger who destroyed a family.


 In 1973, a 20-year-old man murdered and mutilated his friends' three young children. No motive has ever been established and he has never expressed regret. Now, 45 years after being jailed, David McGreavy is due to walk the streets again.


It was a crime that would destroy a family, horrify the nation and - with its gruesome details - continue to provoke furious reaction in Worcester.


Yet it has largely stayed below the radar of the British public.

As far as Clive and Elsie Ralph were concerned, Friday 13 April 1973 had been unfolding like any ordinary day.


Mr Ralph was a lorry driver, Mrs Ralph was a barmaid and they lived on Gillam Street in Worcester with their children Dawn, Paul and Samantha, aged four, two and nine months.


Their lodger, Mr Ralph's friend David McGreavy, was helpful to have around, as Mr Ralph's job meant he was often away from home and Mrs Ralph sometimes worked evening shifts. McGreavy was good with the children and seemed to enjoy looking after them.


That spring evening, while Mr Ralph was combining a last-orders pint with collecting his wife from work, McGreavy, having drunk between five and seven pints of beer, could not stop baby Samantha's crying.


He later said he just put his hand over her mouth, left it there, and "that was it".

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