Tony the Pervert

Rosie Palmer was three years old and lived with her family on Henrietta Street in Hartlepool, in northeast England. A few doors away, on Frederic Street, lived Shaun Armstrong, known as Tony, a man with a psychiatric history who had been released from hospital and rehoused in the neighborhood the year before.

On the afternoon of June 30, 1994, Rosie went out to buy an ice lolly from a van on her street and did not come back. Police searched the area and spoke to neighbors, including Armstrong, more than once. On July 3, officers noticed he seemed nervous and on edge. They arrested him and found Rosie’s body hidden inside his flat.

While Armstrong was on remand, crime writer Bernard O’Mahoney wrote to him while posing as a woman. Armstrong wrote back admitting the killing and describing a plan to fake mental illness so he could plead to manslaughter. The letter reached police, and in July 1995 he pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life. A judge later set his minimum term at 16 years. Rosie’s mother sued the health authority for releasing him, but the courts dismissed the claim in 1999. The Parole Board has refused his release several times, including in 2021 and 2025.