Yeovil people

The Michael Fry Murder

March 1994 - Beaten to death, partly decapitated

 

 

On 30 March 1994, 44-year old Michael Fry, a cleaner at Tesco, was found in his dressing gown, tied to a chair in his Cavalier Way home in Yeovil. Fry, who lived alone, had massive head injuries and police believed he had been beaten to death with a claw hammer. It was also revealed that he had been partly decapitated with a saw, leaving a "deep and dreadful wound". Police immediately launched a murder inquiry.

During June 1994, the police renewed their appeal for help on national television, and the BBC’s Crimewatch programme broadcast a reconstruction of the crime. This initiated a call from a jeweller in Sheffield, where a sales assistant remembered an inscribed watch being brought in that was very similar to one taken from Mr Fry's house on the night of his death.

With the case going 'cold', police reviewed the case in 1997 by going over the statements again and considering DNA technology.

In October 1998, more than four years after the horrific murder, Nicholas Redding, then aged 26, was charged with the murder of Michael Fry. Redding, formerly of Northbrook Road, was described as white, 6ft, slim build, dark brown hair and with hazel eyes although blind in his right eye, which appears to be opaque. He has a West Country accent.

On 20 December 1999, Redding was tried for murder at Bristol Crown Court. Redding, who admitted in court to a drug habit costing between £200 and £300 a week, was always the prime suspect - but police found it difficult to prove he was the culprit. Although his fingerprints were on the saw, he maintained that was because he had borrowed it from Michael Fry some weeks earlier to mend a door.

Redding, of no fixed address but formerly of Yeovil, denied murder. However, nine witnesses told the court that Redding had confessed his guilt to them. Nigel Pascoe QC, prosecuting, said DNA evidence linked Redding to the string used to tie up Mr Fry.

The jury unanimously found Redding guilty of murder, and he was described as looking ‘expressionless’ when the guilty verdict was delivered. The judge, Mr Justice Jackson, told Redding: “You have been convicted of murder... On the night of 29 March 1994, you tied up Michael Fry and killed him by hitting his head several times with a hammer... You then mutilated his body by partly cutting through the neck with a saw... This was a brutal and barbaric crime. You will go to prison for life.” Redding then began serving his life sentence for murder.

But the story didn't stop there. After 23 years in prison, Redding was being held at Spring Hill Prison in Buckinghamshire, a category D open prison, which prepared prisoners for release. On 19 November 2017, he absconded from HMP Spring Hill together with three other prisoners, including a burglar and a drug dealer. They were recaptured within days, but Redding managed to reach Bristol and stayed on the run for almost three weeks. After being at large for 18 days, Nicholas Redding, by this time aged 45, was arrested in Bristol by Thames Valley police officers on Thursday, 7 December 2017.

 

From my book "Crime and Punishment in Yeovil".