New inquiry after killer’s deathbed confession

Detectives across the country are to examine whether violent sex offender Christopher Smith, from Leeds, can be linked to a catalogue of cold cases.

Lancashire Police confirmed on Tuesday that Smith, a grandfather who died of cancer aged 60 in 2008, would have been charged with the 1975 murder of Joan Harrison, from Preston, if he were still alive.

The murder was once feared to be the work of Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe but Smith apparently confessed to the crime in a three-page note penned the day before he died, in which he stated: “I can’t go on with the guilt.”

Only six days before he died, Smith’s DNA was taken when he was breathalysed for drink-driving and police were eventually able to connect him to evidence found at the scene of Mrs Harrison’s death.

Mrs Harrison’s body was found in a disused lock-up garage in Berwick Road, Avenham. A bite mark was found on her breast and several items of jewellery were missing including two gold wedding rings.

Detective Chief Supt Graham Gardner, head of crime for Lancashire Police, said Smith mainly committed petty thefts from his late teens until Mrs Harrison’s murder in November 1975.

He was jailed for two years and nine months in 1981 for the attempted rape of a 17-year-old girl in the Manchester area.

In 1983 he received a suspended sentence for the manslaughter of his first wife, Violet.

He was cleared of murder after he claimed that she fell on a knife he held during a row.

Smith married three times and his second wife has since told detectives he threw her out of a window when she was six months pregnant.

Smith, who used 14 aliases, was born in Northern Ireland but moved to Newport, South Wales, when he was 15 and later lived in Bolton, Salford, Stoke-on-Trent and Leeds.

Detective Supt Colin Prime, of West Yorkshire Police’s homicide and major enquiry team, said there was “no evidence at this stage” to link Smith to any unsolved offences on its files.