EXCLUSIVE: Child-killer bus driver who befriended his victim’s parents and even slept in their bed after raping and murdering their eight-year-old son is refused parole
- Darren Vickers was jailed for life for the rape and murder of Jamie Lavis, eight
- Vickers groomed Jamie then snatched him from onboard a bus in May 1997
A paedophile bus driver who raped and murdered an eight-year-old boy and then moved in with his parents has been refused parole.
Darren Vickers, now 56, was caged for life for the abduction and murder of eight-year-old Jamie Lavis, a schoolboy from Openshaw, Greater Manchester.
Vickers had groomed Jamie and then snatched him after he boarded the bus he was driving in May 1997.
Schoolboy Jamie’s body wasn’t discovered for two years after he vanished on a bank holiday Monday.
In the days after he disappeared, sick Vickers wormed his way into his parents’ lives, claiming to be haunted by the knowledge he was potentially the last person to see him alive.
Darren Vickers (pictured), now 56, was caged for life for the abduction and murder of eight-year-old Jamie Lavis
Vickers had groomed Jamie (pictured) and then snatched him after he boarded the bus he was driving in May 1997
Vickers even fronted media appeals for the devastated family, including going on TV to speak.
He also took part in searches for the boy and then moved in with Mr and Mrs Lavis, sleeping in their bed.
Vickers was sentenced to a minimum 25-year term when finally brought to justice in 1999.
A three-person Parole Board panel spent a day assessing the case earlier this month.
Today it was announced that Vickers would not be released and would not be moved to an open jail.
A spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board refused the release of Darren Vickers following a paper review. The panel also refused to recommend a move to open prison.
‘Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.
‘A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.
‘Under current legislation he will be eligible for a further review in due course. The date of the next review will be set by the Ministry of Justice.’
In a summary of their decision, the Parole Board said Vickers had made progress and since 2014 had admitted his guilt.
The killer had also ‘undertaken accredited programmes to address his decision making and sexual offending’.
It added: ‘He has since progressed to a regime designed and supported by psychologists to help people recognise and deal with their problems.’
In the days after he disappeared, sick Vickers wormed his way into his parents’ lives. Pictured left: Faye Stafford, centre: Karen Lavis, right: Darren Vickers
But it concluded: ‘After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented in the dossier, the panel was not satisfied that Mr Vickers was suitable for release.
‘Nor did the panel recommend to the Secretary of State that he should be transferred to an open prison.’
Detectives became suspicious of Vickers because of his constant involvement in the family that was ‘bordering on the obsessive’.
His involvement was so great the married father lost his job and neglected his own family, a trial at Manchester Crown Court heard.
By the time he was arrested for Jamie’s abduction in October 1997, Vickers had made repeated appeals for help in tracing the youngster.
‘We’ve been out 24 hours a day looking for Jamie,’ brazen Vickers said in one appeal.
In 1999, after Jamie’s remains had been found in undergrowth at Reddish Vale, Vickers was jailed for life for murder.
This was his first parole after his minimum term expired.
Sentencing Vickers to life, Mr Justice Forbes said: ‘These are truly wicked crimes. Jamie’s final epitaph came from the lips of his grandmother, Barbara Lavis, who said ‘he was streetwise but he was a lovely little boy’.’
He added: ‘Jamie’s brief life was cruelly and prematurely brought to an end because he had the tragic misfortune of boarding your bus at around 10.30am on Ashton Old Road on May 5 1997.
‘Thereafter you carefully groomed this little boy so he stayed on your bus for the rest of the day. You did this for your own base motives and intended to, and did, sexually abuse this little boy and then killed him and abandoned his body in Reddish Vale.
‘You unclothed his body and left it naked on the ground.’ A 2018 TV documentary, Faking It: Tears Of A Crime, analysed how the manipulative killer tried to get away with his sickening crime.
Experts told the programme Vickers attempted to supplant Jamie by worming his way into the heart of the family so he could keep tabs on the police investigation.
The programme featured the chilling image of Jamie’s parents, with the man they didn’t know had murdered their son, sitting between them bare-chested.
Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes described the picture of Vickers with his arms around Mr and Mrs Lavis as the ‘most bizarre image I think I’ve ever seen’.
She said: ‘Where Jamie should be, right in the middle of the picture, is Darren Vickers and he’s spread-eagled.
‘He’s got a very dominant body posture and he’s got two arms wrapped possessively around Jamie’s parents, who look shell-shocked, traumatised and just bewildered by the position they find themselves in.’
Body language expert Cliff Lansley added: ‘Here we have a viper in the nest. The perpetrator has implanted himself in the family and had the nerve to have his picture taken with them, without a top as well. How bizarre is this?’
The statements and interviews Vickers, of Gorton, made during the search for Jamie were analysed in the documentary to show how he gave himself away.
Mr Lansley told the documentary Vickers unconsciously revealed he was lying by repeatedly shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders when speaking to TV crews.
‘The head shake is tiny but it’s a gift to a body language analyst because those tiny gestures are below consciousness and they leak the contradiction to the statement he is making,’ the analyst said.
Former investigator Asif Hussain spent weeks embedded with the Lavis family in his role as family liaison officer.
He believes Vickers should never be freed. ‘Vickers will be a danger to children for the rest of his life,’ he said.
‘He was a married man with two children of his own and yet he was able to take the life of another child. He can never be rehabilitated in my opinion.’
Jamie’s mother, Karen, said at the time Vickers was caged: ‘I was destroyed when Jamie went missing and when I found out he was dead. ‘For five months I lived through pure hell wondering what had happened to him. My life was in limbo and I was helpless.’
Source: Read Full Article
