Inquest reopens into schoolboy's unsolved murder

An inquest has reopened into the death of a 15-year-old who was last seen when he rode his bike to fly a kite in 1984.

Mark Billington's body was found two months later hanging in a tree in woodland on the edge of Meriden, near Coventry, nearly seven miles (11km) from his house in Yardley in Birmingham.

Police at the time treated his death as a suicide, however, it became a murder inquiry in 2002. Nobody has ever been charged.

Opening the two-day proceedings on Monday, senior coroner Louise Hunt read out a statement from his 85-year-old father, Roy Billington, in which Mark was described as "lovely" and a "quiet lad" who loved animals, collecting stamps and riding his bike.

He said: "He had so many good and joyful days in his short life. He is terribly missed, the pain is as real today as it was the day he was taken from us."

Warning: This story contains distressing details

An open verdict was recorded by the original inquest held after Mark's death, but the High Court has overturned that ruling after a 42-year battle by his family.

In the days leading up to his disappearance on 1 September 1984, his father and mother, Winifred Billington, had no concerns about any mental health issues and going missing was "completely out of character", the court heard.

The couple had adopted Mark as a baby. Since his disappearance, the family has never stopped fighting to get to the truth.

Giving evidence, Dr Brett Lockyer, a consultant forensic pathologist, told the court that the rope found at the scene was "tied unusually" in an "elaborate arrangement" and it was unlikely that Mark would have been able to secure the knot himself.

Mark had a "weakness on the left side of his body", Birmingham and Solihull Coroner's Court heard, and struggled to maintain a grip.

The pathologist said that his feet would not have been able to touch the ground at the point of suspension.

Due to the condition of his body, Lockyer told the court that it was not possible to assess for blunt force trauma, strangulation, binding or sexual assault.

He recorded a medical cause of death as unascertained due to decomposition.

Jenny Birch, head of homicide at West Midlands Police, talked the coroner's court through the teenager's last known moments.

At around 07:45, Mark had done his usual morning paper round before returning home. A number of witness statements from 1984 and the re-investigation 17 years later were used to map his journey that morning.

Between 10:00 and 11:30, he was spotted flying a kite in the park, known locally as The Rec, with a group of five other boys. He was then seen going into the Birmingham and Bridgewater Building Society on Church Road and making a deposit of £8, which he had received from his boss earlier that day.

His last known locations were all within a short distance from his neighbourhood, however a witness told police that they had seen his bike parked up just off the A45 on Packington Lane near the location where he was later found.

Another witness reported seeing the bike near the archery club in Meriden, the day after he was reported missing.

The court heard that Mark's kite was found two weeks later "hidden" in a hedge behind the family home.

On the morning of 11 November, his body was found by four people who had gone to the woods to hunt when they came across what they had initially thought was a scarecrow.

The schoolboy's dental records had to be used to identify his body.

During the relaunched police investigation, three people were arrested but later released as there was not enough evidence for a charge.

The inquest heard that West Midlands Police was satisfied that the schoolboy was unlawfully killed. "It remains an unsolved murder," Birch said.

The head of the force's homicide unit admitted that there had been "failings" in the delays in finding the kite, Mark's body and the destruction of evidence in 1984. She said the force "now had a much higher standard".

Police started re-examining Mark's death in 2001, after the jailing of Brian Field, a farm labourer from Solihull, who pleaded guilty to the murder of Surrey teenager Roy Tutill, 14, in 1968.

The conviction led to police looking at several unsolved murder cases to see if they were connected to Field, but when the murder inquiry was publicised, it was stressed he had not been interviewed regarding Mark's death.

Field died in prison aged 87 in 2024.

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