Her parents were out, and 16-year-old Heather Rata was alone at their King’s Cross, London, flat on JUNE 27th, 1968, when there was a knock at the door. She opened it to see Kenneth Rolfe, a 42-year-old mobile greengrocer who she knew. On their return home her parents found she had been strangled with one of her black stockings, and a medical examination established that she had been raped.

The police launched an investigation which ended on December 19th, 1968, with Rolfe’s conviction for Heather’s murder. Pleading “Guilty” at his trial, he had admitted to detectives that he raped and strangled the schoolgirl when she refused his demand for sex, and after killing her he had taken £200 from the flat.

After the court heard that he had a long criminal record for having sex with under-age girls and sexually assaulting young women, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.