Raymond Leslie Morris

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Raymond Leslie Morris (born 1929 in Walsall, Staffordshire, England) is a British murderer.

[edit] Biography

Morris was living in a council-owned flat in Birchills, Walsall, before he was found guilty of the rape and murder of seven-year-old Christine Darby on 16 November 1968. Christine had been enticed into a car by a strange man near her home in Coronation Street, Caldmore, Walsall, on 19 August 1967, and her body was later found on Cannock Chase.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment and is still behind bars after 40 years, placing him among the longest-serving prisoners currently behind bars in England and Wales.

Morris has also been suspected of murdering two other children whose bodies were found on Cannock Chase in 1966.

Margaret Reynolds (aged six), went missing on her way to school in Aston, Birmingham, on 8 September 1965.

Diane Tift (aged five), went missing on a short walk to her grandmother's house in Bloxwich, just one mile from Morris's flat, on 30 December that year.

The bodies of the two girls were found together on Cannock Chase on 12 January 1966.

10-year-old Jane Taylor disappeared from the Cannock area on 14 August 1966 and has not been seen since. Morris has also been named as a possible suspect in connection with Jane's disappearance, although not as frequently as he has been in the hunt for the killer or killers of Margaret or Diane.

Morris was finally arrested on 4 November 1967 in connection with the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl in Walsall. He was accused of Christine Darby's murder, despite his wife's claim that they were shopping together on the day Christine went missing. She changed her alibi after a police search of their flat uncovered a pornographic photograph of the couple's niece.

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