The bodies of a teenage couple were found in a dyke on the edge of the marshes at Gravesend.

On 10th September 1961 the couple had gone to evensong at their local Baptist Chapel and then gone for a walk by the canal where they were confronted by 28 year old Edwin David Sims who was armed with a shotgun.

He forced them to lie down then tied them up. He next gagged and strangled them. He said that he killed them on impulse and impulses are funny things". Next day the girl's clothes were found scattered along the dyke. When found her body had been mutilated.

At Snow Hill police station, the same day, two detectives received a telephone call from the Daily Mirror reporter Tom Tullett. Sims was in his office confessing to the murders. As proof of what he said he not only had the two wristwatches and the girl's handbag but, in the newspaper parcel that he was carrying the girl's breasts.

Sims was arrested, DS Newdick is carrying the newspaper parcels, Sims was sent for trial. He was diagnosed as a grossly perverted sexual psychopath and that this condition had substantially impaired his mental responsibility. The abnormality of his mind existed at the time of he killings".

On 29th November 1961 Sims was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility and sentenced to 21 years imprisonment.

Rjerrard.co.uk