The murder of Carol Wilkinson was committed on 10 October 1977 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Anthony Steel spent 19 years in prison for the murder under wrongful conviction, and was acquitted in 2003. Due to poor health, he died shortly after in 2007 at the age of 52.
Murder
Carol Wilkinson was killed as she walked to work in October 1977. The attack took place in a field at the back of the bakery where Wilkinson worked, about fifteen minutes' walk from the estate where she lived. Her best friend at work had heard her say she would not be walking the "muck road" route which Anthony Steel was said to have described in his confession. She was found lying in a pool of blood, with her clothes ripped off. She had been battered with two heavy stones.
She was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary and placed on a life support machine for three days before the machine was turned off. This was the first time in Britain that a murder victim was certified dead while on life support.
Conviction and acquittal of Anthony Steel
Eighteen months after the killing, Steel's mother-in-law gave the police a keyring in the shape of a fish. The keyring was said by the Crown to have been taken from Wilkinson's handbag by the killer. This keyring was alleged to have been given by Steel to his future wife at about the time of the murder. At the time of the murder, Steel was working as a council gardener on the Ravenscliffe estate where the victim lived. The Crown also argued that Steel told the police details that only the murderer would know.
Speaking in an interview about signing the confession, Steel said:
Acquittal
Steel was initially released on licence in 1998 before having his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal in February 2003, due to new evidence from both defence and Crown consultant psychologists indicating that Steel "is and was mentally handicapped and at the borderline of abnormal suggestibility and compliability. He was therefore a significantly more vulnerable interviewee than could be appreciated at the time of the trial."
Steel received an official police apology and about £100,000 in compensation from the government, but he was in poor health following his release from prison. He died from a heart attack aged 52 in September 2007. None of the police officers involved in the wrongful conviction were reprimanded or prosecuted.