Vice girl murders rekindle dark memories

RICHARD BATSON The Ipswich murders have rekindled painful memories for the mother of murdered Norfolk prostitute Natalie Pearman.

RICHARD BATSON

The Ipswich murders have rekindled painful memories for the mother of murdered Norfolk prostitute Natalie Pearman.

Mother Lin told the EDP last night: “I feel so sorry for the parents of those girls. They are going through the hell I went through 14 years ago. What they don't know is it will be with them for the rest of their lives.”

Natalie's half naked body was found at Ringland Hills near Norwich in November 1992 - after a tragic story which saw the once-happy, home-loving 16-year-old, who was good at sport at school, spiral into a murky world of kerbside vice and small-time pimps as she fell in with the wrong crowd.

Mrs Pearman, from Mundesley, said she never dreamed she would still be waiting for her daughter's killer to be found so many years later.

But she said of the Ipswich killer: “This man must be caught. He is incredibly evil. If I was in Ipswich I would be petrified.”

Every time there was a prostitute murder, interest from the media in the Pearman case always reawakened the tragedy.

She had been contacted by a police liaison officer over the Ipswich cases, but there was no news over whether it was being connected with Natalie.

Mrs Pearman said people should not judge the activities of the prostitutes without knowing the stories behind them.

“You don't know why they go on the streets. Just like Natalie a happy, healthy girl can be dragged down, and it's difficult to come back up again.”

She praised the work of the Magdalen Trust charity which goes out on to the streets to try to help and support the girls. Mrs Pearman has done talks for them and made donations, adding: “Some of the girls won't listen, but if it saves just one or two it helps.”

Each new prostitute murder also however provides a ray of hope that it lead to finding Natalie's killer too.

“I hope and pray for the day I get a phone call saying' We've got him',” added Mrs Pearman.

“This could be him, but equally Natalie's killer could be caught because he is thieving.

“We would like him found because we don't know why Natalie was killed, and it would give us some kind of closure.”

She said there were many emotions to go through for the murdered girls' parents, as they trod the “stepping stones” of moving on from the death of a loved on.

“It is the little things that do it. Natalie used to like pierot dolls. Every time I saw one in a shop window it would trigger things off.”

Each new street girl murder provided the kind of “hiccup” that got in the way of trying to lead as normal a life as possible, as she got on with work as a home carer, and bringing up four other children who are now aged 35 to 20 and have flown the nest.

The latest murders come at what is already a difficult time of year for Mrs Pearman. Natalie would have been 31 on Christmas Day.

“The first thing I would do every Christmas is to wake up and say “happy birthday darling” said Mrs Pearman. “And I still do.”