Shirley Leach grave (1927 to 6th January 1994)

In January 1994 grandmother Shirley had visited her daughter who was in hospital. She had to get two buses home. At the Interchange station in Bury she got off the first bus and waved goodbye to her grandson. She never boarded the connecting bus and was murdered in the toilets. Here I am at her grave.

Waiting for the second bus Shirley visited the toilets but once inside the cubicle she was savagely attacked. Ian O'Callaghan, who was 25 at the time, sexually assaulted her with a bottle, strangled her and then sliced off her right breast. He accidently cut himself and left spots of his blood on the toilet door. They would lock him in prison years later.

Despite their exhaustive efforts twelve years passed before the police were rewarded with a breakthrough. In 2006 O'Callaghan was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving and police took a DNA swab. It matched that left in the toilets at Bury Interchange. At the trial the court heard that 38-year-old O'Callaghan had a string of convictions for sex offences. They concluded he'd amputated Shirley’s breast to destroy evidence or to take a trophy home. Receiving a life sentence with a minimum of 28 years he collapsed in the dock and began crying.

Bury Cemetery is sprawling and it took about thirty minutes to find Shirley's grave. She lies with her husband who had died two years before her murder. Their 48-year-old daughter Beryl joined them, dying without knowing who'd murdered her mum. What a miasma of misery dwells here - and not one bright flower to counter the sadness. Had Shirley not needed the toilet she would have probably have lived for a few more years. I did a salute and left.

The toilet where Shirley was murdered...