UK UK - Andrew Gosden, 14, Doncaster, South Yorks, 14 Sep 2007 #2

[paracletus____]

Apologies if this was discussed years back but there was an article on Saturday in a U.K national newspaper about a new book out called Inside Belmarsh. This gives information on some of the notorious killers inside the complex.

Anyway there was a passage amongst the article that caught my eye:

"One inmate said of John Worboys: "He would joke about his victims at times. He was very polite and quite pleasant to talk to. But as I got to know him well, I saw another side."

Worboys' prison pal Derek Brown, 61, lured two women from the streets of London's East End before murdering them in his home. Neither body has ever been found.

One ex-con told the authors Worboys had confided in him that he "murdered a boy." The lag alleged: The boy he claimed to have murdered was a young boy from up north who travelled to London.
"He was 15, had a young face and glasses. I don't remember the name.
Worboys said he was a hide and seek champion too, and referred to the missing boy. Him and his mate in Bournemouth, Dave, did the boy."

"I left it and thought nothing of it, then it came on TV about the missing boy, a cold case. I saw it. Worboys referred to it again and said that was his case."
Just had a look at what else is out there and there was a user on reddit speculating this as a theory two years ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AndrewGosden/comments/18f62ng/a_somewhat_out_there_theory

Now of course it does seem "somewhat out there" to think that day in London, Andrew would've got into a taxi driven by that monster but I've always thought he disappeared late afternoon/early evening and that would've been an obvious way to go off the grid.

Worboys was still at large at that time as he was not arrested until February 2008. Committed 12 attacks on women between 2007-08 so very much in his peak offending period around September 2007. Worboys operated around central London.

However all the individuals he attacked were female and none were kidnapped. Andrew also 14 rather than 15 when missing and I'm sure there are plenty of other adolescences with his profile who have gone missing in London from the North but when I was reading that passage today his name just sprung into my head and it was obviously given prominence on TV in the years after.

Would you happen to have a copy of that article?

 

[Inspector Evans]

Would you happen to have a copy of that article?

It is behind a paywall on the Sun's website. Just google search "the Sun inside Belmarsh" and it comes up.

Think the book is already out if you live in the U.K. Might pop into a waterstones tomorrow and see if there's a bit more depth to the Worboys chapter as regard him claiming he murdered a young boy. Will report back on here if there is anything else.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I wonder what LE thinks about his story.

 

[wtiger]

The actual evidence all points to Warboys having a predilection for attacking young adult women - if this is his target demographic then the chances of him also attacking an adolescent boy would be very very low indeed.

imho everyone who ever shared a cell with a "celebrity" inmate has a sensational story to tell and almost none of those stories are based in any sort of reality

 

[Inspector Evans]

The actual evidence all points to Warboys having a predilection for attacking young adult women - if this is his target demographic then the chances of him also attacking an adolescent boy would be very very low indeed.

imho everyone who ever shared a cell with a "celebrity" inmate has a sensational story to tell and almost none of those stories are based in any sort of reality

Yeah he's revelling in the notoriety of his crimes and sees a high profile missing person and wants to link himself to that. Seen that in many other cases although we've also seen others like John Cannan vehemently deny having anything to do with the Suzy Lamplugh disappearance despite him clearly getting a kick from all his crimes.

From reading the excerpt it seems whoever he told had no idea about Andrew Gosden's disappearance and basically describes what Andrew looked like and near enough his age so being told those specifics is interesting.

As I said previously when I was reading the article the first thought in my head was that is Andrew Gosden being described. Think one of the posters on that reddit thread perhaps Andrew wanted to go to his relatives house in Kent and so travelled in a taxi. I guess there's no way of knowing of any alibi for Worboys on that Friday?

I will read the chapter in the book shortly and see if the author expands more on the claim and perhaps even mentions Andrew or any other young person still missing.