Murdered girl last seen in Beenham pub
Joel Bennathan QC, defending, claimed there were other candidates other than his client, David Burgess, who could have gone to the crime scene with Yolande Waddington the night she was killed.
Miss Waddington had only moved to the village from Newbury five days before she was killed, to work as a nanny for Peter and Rosemary Jagger at Oakwood Farm, Clay Lane, Beenham.
At about 10.15pm on October 28, 1966,
Miss Waddington left Oakwood Farm to post a letter to her then boyfriend, Philip Swain, at the post box near to the Six Bells pub, Beenham (pictured).
In a statement made to the police at the time Mrs Jagger, now Mrs Rutland, said her then husband, Peter Jagger, would bolt the back door before going to bed at night, but on that evening (October 28, 1966) Mr Jagger left the back door unlocked so Miss Waddington could let herself in.
However, Mrs Jagger had already given Miss Waddington a key to the French windows so she could gain entry to the home.
The key to the Jaggers’ French windows were found in a barn in Clay Lane next to the ditch where Miss Waddington’s body was discovered.
When Mrs Rutland awoke at 8.30am the next day (October 29, 1966) she noticed that Miss Waddington was not home and that the back door was unlocked.
Mr Bennathan asked Mrs Rutland in court yesterday whether she lied to the police at the time in order to protect her
then husband from being linked to Miss Waddington’s killing.
She replied: “I’m very moral and upright, and I wouldn’t have done it.”
Miss Waddington was last seen alive at the Six Bells pub on October 28 at about 10.30pm.
Statements read to the court from the licensees of the Six Bells pub at the time, Eric and Margaret Woodbridge, said Miss Waddington arrived at the bar at about 10.30pm on the night she went missing.
According to their statements, Miss Waddington bought a packet of cigarettes, sat down to smoke one and left.
Mr and Mrs Woodbridge said David Burgess, who was in the bar that night, left the pub within ten minutes later.
The following day Mrs Woodbridge recalled that Mr Burgess came into the pub with scratches on his face and told her: “I must have had a lot to drink last night. I slipped over and scratched my face on some brambles. I hope the police don’t think it’s me (that killed Miss Waddington) with all these scratches on my face.”
The court also heard about Miss Waddington’s family life in Greenham Road, Newbury, with her parents, William and Beryl, and brothers Philip and Giles, who were 14 and eight at the time.
The court was told that Miss Waddington attended St Gabriel’s School, Sandleford Priory, between 1963 and 1965.
After leaving school she had a number of jobs, including working as a shop assistant at Bayliss supermarket, Northbrook Street, Newbury, and later at Brookside petrol station, London Road, Newbury, before she became an au pair with the Jagger family on October 23, 1966.
The trial at Reading Crown Court continues.