Man charged over first appeal on ‘Crimewatch’

Police have charged a 50-year-old man with the murder of teenager Colette Aram, the hairdresseer whose case was the very first appeal on the BBC’s Crimewatch TV programme.

Colette, 16, was discovered dead in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, on October 31, 1983. She had been on her way to visit her boyfriend when she was killed.

In November last year, detectives investigating her murder revealed that they had taken more than 100 calls from members of the public after compiling a DNA profile of the killer. |Colette’s mother, Jacqui Kirkby, who now lives in Greece, said the family had been devastated by her daughter’s death.

“It broke the family. It broke my marriage,” she said during a recent appeal to mark the 25th annivesary of her murder.

“I don’t think I will ever come to terms with it.”

Police have been swamped with information after a further two Crimewatch appeals, including one on the show’s 20th anniversary edition in 2004.