Murder of Kelly Anne Bates

Who is Murder of Kelly Anne Bates?

Kelly Anne Bates was a British teenager who was murdered in Manchester on 16 April 1996 when aged 17. She was tortured over a period of four weeks, including having her eyes gouged from their sockets up to three weeks before her death, by her partner James Patterson Smith before being drowned in a bathtub.

The murder inquiry was headed by Detective Sergeant Joseph Monaghan of Greater Manchester Police, who said: "I have been in the police force for 15 years and have never seen a case as horrific as this." William Lawler, the pathologist who examined Bates' body, described her injuries as "the worst he had seen on a murder victim". Smith, a misogynist with a history of violence and torture against former lovers, denied murdering Bates but was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on 19 November 1997.