Father's 32-year wait for justice

Fred Anderson said his daughter was a "big loss"

The father of murdered schoolgirl Lesley Molseed thought he would never see justice for his daughter's killer.

When Stefan Kiszko was cleared of her murder in 1992, after spending 16 years in jail, Fred Anderson assumed he would die before her real killer was caught.

But DNA evidence helped to convict 54-year-old Ronald Castree of Lesley's 1975 murder.

Mr Anderson, from Rochdale, said: "Our family can now put this to rest and get on with what's left of our lives.

"I never felt in my lifetime that this would happen, that they would be doing another murder trial.

"He [Castree] has walked the streets for all these years. Someone else paid the penalty for what he did. I'd like to see him strung up to be honest. That would be the ultimate justice."

'So savage'

Lesley, 11, left her Rochdale home on 5 October 1975 on an errand for her mother but never returned.

Mr Anderson and Lesley's mother April were separated at the time. Lesley was living with her mother, step-father Danny Molseed, brother Freddie, then aged 12, and her 13-year-old sister Laura.

Mr Anderson said he received a call to say Lesley was missing on the evening of 5 October, and joined the search for her at first light the next day.

Lesley was stabbed and sexually assaulted

"I knew in my heart that she had died," he said. "Everyone was out looking, but I knew nothing was going to happen."

Three days later her body was found on moorland just off the A672 in Ripponden, West Yorkshire. She had been sexually assaulted and stabbed 12 times.

Mr Anderson said he hoped to speak to Castree and get some answers from him.

"I would like to ask him why did he have to kill her and kill her so viciously. I can't handle that. It was savage."

Mr Anderson said Lesley was "a big loss".

"She was very, very bubbly. She was only a tiny little thing. She was very cheeky. She had black curly hair and she looked like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth."

Stefan Kiszko was convicted of Lesley's murder in 1976 and spent 16 years in prison before being freed on appeal. He died of a heart attack the following year.

Siblings 'suffering'

"When Kiszko was arrested and charged with the murder we thought 'that's it, we can get on with our lives'," Mr Anderson said.

"But it kept cropping up because he was always going for appeals. Unfortunately a lot of things that happened to him in prison weren't very nice.

"I went and apologised to his family because I gave his mum a hard time. I never met Kiszko himself."

Mr Anderson said some of Lesley's siblings were still having counselling.

He said: "The thing that hurts me is that my kids are still going through it now. To this day they are going through terrible times, they were suicidal for a long time.

"My grandkids, when they were growing up, suffered because their mothers were so overprotective because of what happened to Lesley on that Sunday dinnertime.

"She went out for a loaf of bread, the last thing you are expecting is never to see her again."