Rat Alley

In 1968 Scotswood was a working-class district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, where children played among derelict houses and waste ground. Mary Bell lived there, and she spent much of her time with her neighbor, thirteen-year-old Norma Bell, who was not related to her.

On May 25, 1968, the day before Mary turned eleven, four-year-old Martin Brown was found dead in an abandoned house. It was at first thought to be an accident. Days later, a nursery nearby was broken into and notes were left behind claiming responsibility for Martin’s death. On July 31, three-year-old Brian Howe was found strangled on nearby waste ground. Police questioned hundreds of local children, and inconsistencies in Mary’s and Norma’s accounts drew detectives to the two girls.

Both girls were tried at Newcastle in December 1968. Norma was acquitted. Mary was found guilty of manslaughter for both deaths on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was ordered to be detained indefinitely. She was released in 1980 at the age of twenty-three with a new identity. In 2003 the High Court granted her and her daughter lifelong anonymity, and the order was later extended to her granddaughter.