‘Gut feeling’ helped catch evil murderer

Retired cop tells how he solved horrific killing

- BY DAMON WILKINSON

Nicholas Burton was jailed for life for the 1997 murder of Rachel McGrath

A FORMER detective who helped solve one of Greater Manchester's most shocking murders has told how the killer was caught due to a ‘gut feeling!

Retired GMP cop Paul Moores was the case officer for the investigation into the 1997 murder of Rachel McGrath.

Rachel, a ‘vibrant and talented’ — 27-year-old mortgage advisor, was hacked to death with a hunting knife as she waited to pick up her boyfriend from a pub in Bramhall.

Her killer Nicholas Burton then went on to kidnap a 17-year-old girl and hold her hostage during a terrifying 11-hour ordeal.

In April 1998 a jury at Liverpool Crown Court took just 55 minutes to find Burton, then 27, guilty of murder, kidnapping, false imprisonment and making a threat to kill.

It came after a psychiatrist had described him as one of the most dangerous men she had ever come across in her career.

Sentencing him to three life terms Judge Mr Justice Morland - who also presided over the trial of James Bulger’s Killers - recommended he should stay in custody indefinitely.

“I shall recommend that no Home Secretary is ever likely to allow your release,’ the judge told Burton as he was sent down.

But were it not for a ‘gut feeling’ - and the remarkable courage of his teenage kidnap victim - Burton might not have been brought to justice - and may have killed again.

On April 25, 1997 Rachel, from Wilmslow, had gone to collect her boyfriend from Victoria Tavern in Ack Lane.