The daughter of a miner who was brutally killed in his bed says she ‘will not stop’ until his attacker is brought to justice – 33 years after his shock murder.
Emma Childerley, now 38, was just five years old when her father Kevin Childerley, 30, was violently slashed with an axe or meat cleaver in the bedroom of his terraced house.
His wife Denise, who was 32 at the time, needed 160 stitches, lost her eye and had a metal plate fitted in her head after she was also caught up in the horrific attack.
Ms Childerley, who did not witness the murder, only found that her dad and ‘best friend’ had passed away when a social worker blurted out the shock news several days later.
And she was left ‘frightened to death’ of her mum when she saw her terrible injuries after coming home from the hospital.
Emma Childerley (pictured), now 38, was just five years old when her father Kevin Childerley, 30, was violently slashed with an axe or meat cleaver in the bedroom of his terraced house.
Emma Childerley as a child with her father, Kevin Childerley, 30, who worked as a miner
A locket containing a photo of Ms Childerley as a young child with her father Kevin
Ms Childerley, who has since started up a funeral firm dedicated to her father, believes the attack was ‘targeted’ and says she will now stop at nothing to get her family justice.
She said: ‘I’m not letting this lie anymore, we’ve all suffered long enough.. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been, and I will not stop. I’ve got the rest of my life to keep pushing this, and I will.’
‘I very much believe this was a targeted attack. It’s not just someone who broke in and decided to do this. This was clearly meant for my mum and dad and they were both meant to die.
‘My dad was my best friend. He was very much a family man. He was a bit of a trickster. He loved me and my brother, I was told he could handle himself and stick up for himself and his family
‘But unfortunately, on this particular night, he was struck while he was sleeping and had absolutely no chance to defend himself or his family at all.’
Two men were charged with murder and attempted murder at the time of Kevin’s death, but prosecutors later decided to discontinue their case.
And Ms Childerley now hopes her fresh appeal might lead someone to come forward who can help identify her dad’s killer.
She added: ‘They’ve literally got away with murder, and they may have moved out of this area.
‘But they might have boasted to a work colleague, saying they got away with this – and that person may know something.’
The terrible attack happened at Ms Childerley’s home in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire in the early hours of February 19, 1990, as the family were asleep in their beds.
Her parents had gone out for the evening at their Royal British Legion club, and a babysitter spent the night looking after Ms Childerley and her five-month-old brother.
After they returned they watched the television for a short while, before going to sleep in their two-bedroom terraced home.
But a few hours later, someone broke into the house armed with an axe or meat cleaver and savagely attacked Kevin and Denise.
Ms Childerley (pictured) now hopes her fresh appeal might lead someone to come forward who can help identify her dad’s killer
A family handout of a mosaic of photos of Kevin Childerley
Ms Childerley, who slept through the incident, said: ‘The first memory I have is being woken up by a police officer, who came into my bedroom.
‘He just said, ‘Wake up, wake up. You need to get dressed and you need to shout me. Do not come out of your room and don’t turn your lights on.’
‘We were immediately put into the next-door neighbour’s house, into their bed and I remember having the neighbour crying over me and stroking my hair.
‘It was only sometime later when a very unprofessional social worker blurted it out to me: ‘Your dad’s dead, you’re mum’s in hospital really injured.’
‘A that point, my world crashed down. That was my best friend she was talking about.’
Ms Childerley, who moved into a foster home before she was reunited with her mum, said she was shocked by her appearance when she first set eyes on her after the attack.
She said: ‘I remember coming down the stairs when I was told my mum was here, and what I saw in front of me frightened me to death.
‘All her hair was shaved off as they had to operate on her skull.
‘She obviously had an eye patch on as she’d lost her left eye. She’d got a lot of stitching and scaring to the side of her face.’
Ms Childerley said she would do everything with her loveable father and particularly remembered dancing with him to Top of the Pops on a Saturday evening.
She said: ‘There was a song I’ll always remember, which was Madonna’s ‘True Blue’. The video for that song is Madonna and some of her dancers waving these handkerchief-type things.
‘We used to grab a tea towel and do the same movement and pretend we were in the video together.
‘He also used to take me to school every day on his motorbike. He used to make me sit on the back with him, and he used to say ‘Put my hands in my pockets and don’t let go.’
‘He would never take that helmet off when he walked up to school, and all the kids were convinced he was an astronaut. He played up to that.’
Ms Childerley later moved to Darwen, Lancashire, where she set up her own bereavement business called K.C. funeral services, using her dad’s initials.
She added: ‘That helps me, living my life and trying to keep his memory alive.
‘It’s been more than 30 years, but I’m still doing something for him every single day. That helps me a lot.’
Nottinghamshire Police’s assistant chief constable Rob Griffin said: ‘This was a premeditated attack, with the sole intention to kill Kevin and Denise Childerley.
‘The wounds inflicted were personal and it was only by chance that Denise survived.
‘It maybe 33 years since this horrific crime occurred but we are still determined to catch the person responsible and are constantly reviewing the investigation tools now available to us, which were not in place in the 1990s.
‘This crime happened in a tight knit community, and we know that someone will hold vital information about what happened that night.
‘We want to put the person responsible behind bars and help the family receive the justice they desperately deserve.’
Police have urged anyone with information is urged to call call 101 quoting incident number 302 of February 16, 2023 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Alternatively, information can be shared with detectives via their website: https://mipp.police.uk/operation/33EM020212O01-PO1.
DailyMail
