Every Town - 17 yr old Kelly Loved 48 yr old James, But It Was A Terrible Mistake

Episode Date: September 29, 2023

Seventeen-year-old Kelly Bates from Manchester, England had met the love of her life, 48-year-old James Smith. He swept her off her feet and things were looking up for the young girl….at least in the beginning. But over time that changed…..and James turned out to be a very bad man..someone who over time, slowly dug his fangs into the girl, both metaphorically and literally…until it was too late. 💥 Watch On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries🎧 Our Other Podcast: https://scarymysteries.buzzsprout.com💥 Exclusive Podcasts: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579/subscribe 💀 Follow Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 💀 Follow Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg👁 Follow Our TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald💥 Follow Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial🗣 Business Inquiries: [e-mail] Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you love true crime, grab your favorite mug and pour yourself a dose of creepy true crime every single morning with morning cup of murder. This short daily show is the perfect podcast to incorporate into your morning routine, because in less than 15 minutes, you'll hear about a true crime that took place on a day's date in history. Each day's dark history lesson will kickstart your morning with intriguing tales of murder, abduction, serial killers, cults, and everything in between. With over 20 million downloads, Morning Cup of Murder has something for every true crime lover. One listener describes the show as a small package with a powerful punch of crime.

Another writes that the show is an absolute delight in the morning. Support yourself a piping hot cup of murder every single morning with Morning Cup of Murder. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every town has a dark side. Up front, I want to let you guys know that there's some content in this story that will be upsetting to some. But if you don't want to hear the details of this case, then it's probably best to sit this one out. 17-year-old Kelly Bates from Manchester, England, met the love of her life, 48-year-old James Smith. He swept her off her feet and things were looking up for the young girl, at least in the beginning.

But over time, all that changed. James turned out to be a very bad man. Someone who over time solely dug his fangs into the girl, both metaphorically and literally, until it was too late. The once enamored Kelly had fallen for his trap, hookline, and sinker. And her story is one filled with tragedy, and also serves as a cautionary tale to the rest of us. I'm Maitreve it's Gerald and welcome to this week's episode.

episode of Everytown. The story of Kelly Bates is truly heartbreaking. A young and naive girl who really didn't know any better, wasn't capable of seeing the red flags. So let's head over to England and try and figure out how exactly this tragedy occurred and was there something that should have been done to stop it. Kelly was born on May 18, 1978 and raised in Greater Manchester, England. She was described as having an outgoing personality. smart and mature for her age, which made sense that she liked to hang out with an older type of crown. Her big goal in life was to one day become a teacher, which was admirable. In 1993, when she was 14 years old, she was babysitting a family friend's children when she met James Smith

for the first time. He was also a friend of that family, and he was 30 years older than her at the time, as is often the case when an older man is interested in a much younger girl, He began to groom her, chatting her up and telling her how pretty she was. The attention, Kelly Gott felt good. So good, in fact, they soon started a date, but of course had to keep it on the down low, seeing as it was illegal. Kelly's parents, Tommy and Margaret, surely would not have approved, and so for two years they snuck around keeping their relationship a secret from the outside world.

He had her all to himself without any outside influence telling her that it was probably a bad idea. So over that time, she felt deeply in love with the man. But then one day, after running some errands, Mrs. Bates came home where she found Kelly in the kitchen making a snack. With that, James walked into the room where Margaret was shocked to see a man in his 40s. They had been caught. There was no way to avoid it, and so they revealed their secret relationship. And so on that day, the truth had been revealed. After James left, Tommy came home and was told about what was happening with his daughter. Of course, neither parent was okay with it, but they were caught between a rock and a hard place. Their girl was 16 years old, and officially, that is the age of consent in

England, so from a legal standpoint, there was nothing they could do. As the parent, the best course of action would be to convince Kelly that she was most certainly headed down the wrong path, which is exactly what they did. But Kelly didn't feel they understood the love they had for one another. So if Margaret and Tommy pushed too hard, they would just end up creating resentment, which would make Kelly leave with the man for good. Beyond just the huge age difference, there were other things that bothered her parents. Margaret's motherly instincts told her that it was something wrong with this guy right off the bat. In an interview later on, she would go on to say, this wasn't the man I wanted her for my daughter. I vividly recall seeing our bread knife in the

kitchen and wanted to pick it up and stab him in the back. So in that house, a wall was being built between the Bates's and their daughter as they tried to make her see the error of her ways. By November of 1995, after Kelly graduated from high school, she moved in with James and nearby Gorton. Her parents hated that decision. The icing on the cake was that James was unemployed, so another sign of trouble on the horizon. But they let her go, under the condition that she regularly kept in touch with them. She agreed, and then off she went. Over the next several months, there was a noticeable change in Kelly. The person everyone knew as fun and outgoing withdrew from her family and friends. Something bad was happening. On a few occasions, she did make it back home.

She'd showed up there with fresh bruises and even bite marks. Each time, having new excuses like she'd been beat up by some random girls or that it was an accident that just looked like a bite mark, but it actually wasn't. Neither out of shame or denial, Kelly never spoke about any sort of abuse James may have inflicted, which is exactly how he wanted her to be, submissive and under his control. James was a jobless divorce, say, lived about six miles from Hatter'sley, where Kelly's family lived. And those who knew him, described to him, as, house-prowed and well-groomed. He never drank and didn't smoke, so he was always in control.

On the outside, he painted the picture that he wanted everyone to see, a normal, well-respected, upstanding person. But of course, in reality, James had some deep-seated issues. His first marriage lasted a decade, but it ultimately crashed and burned due to his violent nature. He went on and had a relationship with a 20-year-old woman named Tina Watson, who endured his torment between 1980 and 82 while carrying their child. Miss Watson had this to say about his ability to draw women in to his abusive side. At first, it was now and again just a little tap, but in the end it was every day. He would smack me in the face or hit me over the head with an ashtray. It would kick me in the legs or between the legs. Eventually, this all culminated in James attempting to drown her one night

while she was taking a bath. That was enough for her to say goodbye for good. He then moved on to an even younger girl after that. And this is when he started dating 15-year-old Wendy Motorshed. One attack on her, he held her head under the water in the kitchen sink in an attempt to kill her. So by 1993, it was Kelly's turn. After moving in with him, she ended up quitting her part-time job that December.

Soon her parents would find that he wasn't 32 years old. as they had told him. But in fact, he was 47 by the time the girl moved in. Margaret expressed her utter disgust at the relationship saying, as soon as I saw Smith, the hairs on the back of my neck went up. I tried everything I could to get Kellyanne away from him. James tried to put his best foot forward with the family, even when as far as to call her parents to discuss his concerns for her after she began staying out all night. But this was all a cover-up for, which was all of. what he was doing to her, laying the groundwork to hide any outward sign of abuse from him, by making it seem like she was the actual problem, someone who couldn't stop getting into trouble.

Kelly began talking less to her family. On the rare occasion, they did see her. They noticed she had begun to lose weight, stopped taking care of herself. She didn't care what she looked like, and she even stopped bathing. Margaret will receive birthday and anniversary cards from their daughter, only they were all written in James's handwriting. On a few occasions, Kelly's brother would try to go see her at her new home, but each and every time, James would answer the door, and Kelly was conveniently not at home. When a concerned neighbor who hadn't seen the girl in a while asked about her,

James pointed to an upstairs window where she was standing, but other than that, no one had interacted much with her. By this point, James was essentially holding her captive up there. Her marking, so prominent that he couldn't let her out, out of the house, even if you wanted to, because it would immediately attract unwanted attention. Eventually, Margaret contacted the local police and expressed her concerns about the situation. But because James had no prior criminal record, and no one had ever officially reported him for domestic abuse, there was nothing they could do. All they did was Henderson pamphlets about

identifying abuse and ways to get out, which her mom took, but she never got the chance to get him to her. It was on April 16th of 1996 when James called the police to let them know. Hello. He may have done something wrong and accidentally killed Kelly while she was in the bathtub. He explained that they had an argument when things got slightly physical, and Kelly must have accidentally inhaled some water before pretending to be unconscious. This is a little game they played from time to time, and as a joke, Kelly would pretend to die in the bathtub.

But once he realized this wasn't her memory, messing around, he tried as hard as he could to revive her, but couldn't. When the investigators arrived, though, and what they saw made it clear that the 17-year-old's death had been anything but accidental. James was so used to his abusive ways he didn't even see all the clear marks he had left. Kelly was found in the bedroom, but her blood was splattered all throughout the house. In the odd autopsy, Kelly's emaciated body revealed 150 separate injuries, as she had been beaten, burned, and stabbed. Her kneecaps had been completely crushed, so she couldn't walk.

She'd been blinded, starved, and dehydrated, tied up, and finally, after being knocked unconscious over the head with the shower head, she drowned. So it wasn't just one night of something going wrong here in this home. Suffering had gone on for weeks until finally there was no coming back. The only option was to end it. Pathologist William Lawler, who examined the body, said the horrific injuries done to her, proved to be one of the worst methodical tortures he'd ever witnessed. In my career, I have examined almost 600 victims of homicide.

I've never come across injuries so extensive. Indeed, Kelly suffered so much that even if she didn't drown in that tub, she had very little chance of ever coming out of that house alive. The list is long as to what happened to her. It included burns on her thigh caused by applying a piping hot iron to it, multiple stab wounds from various items, including a fork, knife, and scissors. She had a fractured arm and both of her hands had been crushed. She even had stab wounds inside her mouth and had been partially scalped.

The list goes on and on, but we'll spare you all the details. Knowing what her daughter went through, Margaret would subsequently come to regret her choice of not stabbing Mr. Smith when she first met him and her instincts kicked in. This case enraged people all around the UK. How could this have happened and why didn't the authorities help before it came to this? During the trial of prosecution presented a long list of items that the poor girl had been subjected to. But James stuck to his story and denied murdering Kelly. He went back to his old go-to and trying to convince everyone that It was Kelly's fault that any of this happened.

He said she would put me through hell winding me up. He further explained that Kelly had taunted him about his mother who had passed away. The 17-year-old girl had the habit of harming herself so that he would be blamed. As to why he would inflict so much harm, James explained that she had dared him to do it, challenging him to do harm as if she got pleasure out of it. A consultant psychiatrist told the court that James had, a severe, paranoid disorder with morbid jealousy and lived in a distorted reality, which would help explain why he called the cops on himself, thinking his lie would work,

and why he kept on denying any wrongdoing in court, despite it being clear what he had done. At the trial of the women that James had abused finally came forward to paint a picture of a man who was obsessively jealous and turned to violence to control others. Ultimately, the jury at Manchester Crenner, court took just one hour to find 49-year-old James Smith guilty of murder, and as a result, they sentenced him to a life behind bars. The judge, Mr. Justice Sack, stated, This has been a terrible case. A catalog of depravity by one human being upon another. You are a highly dangerous person. You are an abuser of women, and I intend, so far as it is

in my power, that you will abuse no more. 19th of 1997, he was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison, although some accounts say 25, where he remains to this day. And as a testament to just how terrible his treatment of Kelly had been, for the first time ever, every single juror involved in the case was offered and accepted counseling. James becomes eligible for his first parole hearing this year, 2023, echoing the sentiment of pathologist William Lawler. Detective Sergeant Joseph Monaghan of the Greater Manchester Police Force, who headed the murder inquiry, said,

I have been in the police force for 15 years and have never seen a case as horrific as this. And definitely, it was Tommy and Margaret that carried the unbearable pain even decades after James Smith had been sentenced. Margaret unfortunately passed away in 2020. And one question, though, seems unanswered, even up till now. Despite their wide age gap and her parents' disapproval,

what is the real reason Kelly pursued an abusive relationship with James Smith? If someone you know is experiencing abuse at home, help is available via national hotlines based both in the UK, Refuge 0808-200247, and the United States, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, at 1-800-799 safe. There are also options for texting

or contacting these organizations online if making a phone call is impossible. The websites also offer a wealth of information on the signs of abuse as well as other resources. For those living in the U.S., there are organizations and shelters available in most states. So that's going to do it for this week's episode of Everytown.

If you enjoyed it, remember you can watch this episode on our YouTube channel, if you want to check out some of the footage we discussed in the case, just look up the Scary Mysteries YouTube channel, and you'll find it there, along with other cool content. If you do go, please subscribe to help us out. Thanks for tuning in today. Remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories, because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.