The Only Light in a House of Horrors
For Kelly Higgins, childhood memories of cuddles remain vivid—warm, protective, and soothing. When fear or sadness overwhelmed her, those embraces brought comfort. Yet today, as a mother of three, those recollections evoke powerful emotions. While most children remember tender hugs from parents, for Kelly and her younger brother James, their sole source of affection was their babysitter, 16-year-old Suzanne Capper.
A Final Wave Before Unimaginable Horror
Kelly's last memory of Suzanne is her waving the children off at their primary school gates in early December 1992. Shockingly, as they would later discover, Suzanne was tortured to death days later in a killing so violent and heinous it almost defies belief. The perpetrator? Kelly's own mother, Bernadette McNeilly.
Kelly Higgins, now 40, was scarred by physical, mental, and sexual abuse at the hands of her mother and her occultist friends. Bernadette McNeilly, along with a gang of Satanic co-conspirators, kidnapped and tortured Suzanne Capper before burning her alive in December 1992. Suzanne was subjected to horrific torture and set alight, dying from her injuries.
Petty Accusations Spark a Satanic Nightmare
The horrifying murder was driven by petty and false accusations, including an argument over McNeilly's pink duffel coat. A believer in the occult and a devoted horror movie fan, McNeilly and her gang kidnapped and tortured the teenage Suzanne. McNeilly even became known as the ‘Chucky killer’ for playing a dance song sampling the character's voice from the infamous horror movie at top volume to inflict psychological torture on Suzanne as she was bound to a bed.
She was also alleged to have used the character's catchphrase 'Chucky's coming to play' as she jabbed Suzanne in the arm with a needle filled with amphetamines, part of the relentless abuse over eight days of captivity.
Suzanne: The Sole Beacon of Hope
For Kelly, Suzanne made up the only happy memories of her entire childhood. ‘Suzanne is our only pleasant memory. When we were beaten, she would give us a cuddle. Once, she bought a loaf of bread in. She was the light in the dark in that house,’ Kelly told the Daily Mail.
Aged just seven at the time of Suzanne’s murder, Kelly remembers hearing screams as the teenager was forcibly shaved from head to toe, beaten, and locked in a cupboard after being lured to their house in Moston, Greater Manchester. Little did she know then that the screams were coming from her beloved babysitter.
Years of Trauma and Counselling
The trauma of these horrifying memories led to years of counselling for Kelly. 'When I was younger, a lot of my counselling was about hearing the girl who was killed scream out,' she recalls today. 'My biggest memory was hearing her scratching on the wall. But then they moved her [to another house] so we could not hear her.'
There, Suzanne was subjected to more horrifying torture—tied spreadeagled to a bed with cords, power cables, and chains, her teeth removed with pliers—before being dumped in scrubland, set alight, and left to die.
Cleaning Up the Crime Scene
Meanwhile, Kelly and her brother, then just six, had been brought in to clean the bedroom where Suzanne had been held before police stormed the house to arrest the babysitter's killers. It was a gruesome finale to a truly terrible childhood in which their twisted mother beat them and would have sex in front of her children with a stream of lovers.
No Remorse, Only Notorious Friendships
Far from feeling remorse when she went to prison, Kelly reveals her mother felt no such thing. Instead, she became friends with notorious child killers including Myra Hindley and Rose West. She also embarked on an affair with prison governor Mike Martin, who later quit his post in disgrace.
The Killers and Their Sentences
Along with Bernadette McNeilly, three others were convicted of Suzanne's murder: Jean Powell, 26, and her ex-husband Glyn Powell, 29, were given life sentences. Anthony Dudson, 16, was ordered to be detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. Jeffrey Leigh, 27, was sentenced to 12 years for false imprisonment; Clifford Pook, also known as Clifford Hayes, 18, was sentenced to 16 years in a Young Offenders' Institution for false imprisonment and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm.
All are now free—Leigh in 1998, Pook in 2001, McNeilly in 2015, Jean Powell in 2017, and Glyn Powell in 2023—despite persistent campaigning by Suzanne's mother Elizabeth Dunbar and veteran Manchester MP Graham Stringer opposing their release.
An Insignificant Cue for a Terrible Crime
Mr Justice Poots, sentencing them in December 1993, said the killing was 'as appalling a murder as it is possible to imagine.’ What is incomprehensible is how the cue for this terrible crime was something entirely insignificant, as Kelly reveals.
One afternoon in December 1992, Kelly recalls waving off Suzanne from their front door after she had picked her and James up from school. She remembered thinking Suzanne’s jacket looked familiar. 'Our last memories of Suzanne was when she picked us up. She gave us both a hug, watched us cross the road safely, then turned and ran,' she said. 'I remember thinking: she’s got my mother's coat on.'
It later emerged that McNeilly believed Suzanne had stolen her pink duffle coat—which in part led to the killing.
A Childhood of Neglect and Abuse
Kelly and her brother’s existence was one of neglect against a backdrop of theft, drug-dealing, wild parties, and sex acts carried out in front of them by their mother and her gang. 'There are no good memories of Bernadette at all,' Kelly said. 'I was physically, mentally and sexually abused [by a member of her mother's gang]. But we have always been led to believe our mother was the ringleader.'
The torture only intensified when Bernadette McNeilly met Jean Powell in 1992 and moved in with her and her three children, along with Kelly and James. In this new house of horrors, the children were subjected to twisted games and savage beatings.
Horrific Rituals and Occult Symbols
Kelly recalls being made to hold her hand over a fish tank and being told, at age seven, that it contained a flesh-eating piranha. In a horrifying incident, she was made to watch as the gang took a live swan into the house, daubed it with occultist symbols, and beheaded it. 'When you cut an animal's head off, the body is still moving,' she said. 'Blood was everywhere. We were screaming. The swan was still running around with its head cut off.'
Suzanne's Vulnerability and Tragic End
Suzanne Capper was 16 when she was introduced to the Moston gang by Clifford Pook and began babysitting Jean Powell's three children. Suzanne was vulnerable, having spent time in social services care. A kindly but lonely girl, she tolerated the abusive behaviour of Powell and McNeilly rather than having no friends at all.
When McNeilly and Dudson contracted a lice infection, they blamed Suzanne. The ‘stolen’ duffle coat further infuriated them. On December 7, 1992, they lured Suzanne to the house, telling her a boy she liked was waiting. It was a lie. When she arrived, Suzanne was stripped, had her head shaved, and was beaten before being locked in a cupboard overnight.
Moving the Torture and Final Atrocity
When it became clear the children could hear her crying, Suzanne was moved to McNeilly's house. There, she was bound spreadeagled to a bed, blindfolded, gagged, injected with drugs, and poked with a lit cigarette. Pook laughed as he yanked out two of her teeth with pliers, keeping them as trophies.
After days of abuse, the gang dunked Suzanne in concentrated disinfectant and scrubbed her with a yard brush. Finally, on December 14, they bundled her into a stolen car, drove her to scrubland, doused her in petrol, and set her alight. As she burned alive, they sped off singing 'Burn, baby, burn!'
Suzanne's Courageous Final Act
Despite 80% burns, Suzanne stumbled back up to the road and staggered a quarter-mile seeking help. Rushed to hospital, she gave police her captors' names and the address where she had been held before slipping into a coma and dying on December 18, 1992. Coroner Leonard Gorodkin said she had 'suffered tremendously', with 'no chance of survival'.
Police Raid and Aftermath
Within two hours of Suzanne being found, police raided the house. Kelly recalls: 'James and I were in the bedroom where they had been torturing [Suzanne]. James was cleaning the room with a dustpan and brush. We weren't allowed to go to school that day.' She and James waved off McNeilly as she was driven away in a police van.
Kelly and James were passed into their father's care, then to social services, and eventually foster homes. They were separated but reunited years later at secondary school.
Prison Visits and Notorious Encounters
Despite begging not to, Kelly was made to visit her mother in Durham Prison by social services. It was there that McNeilly's affair with governor Mike Martin unfolded. Kelly has unhappy memories of these visits and recalls encountering Myra Hindley during one in 1996. McNeilly was also said to be on good terms with serial killer Rose West.
Discovering the Truth
Kelly did not find out her mother's role in Suzanne's murder until over 15 years later, when she read about it in a book called ‘Sadistic Killers’. 'We always knew she had killed a child. [That it was Suzanne] was obviously a shock to me and James,' she said. She has not heard from her mother since.
Campaigning for Change
Scarred by her experiences, Kelly has applied for a Parliamentary petition to strip parental rights of criminals jailed for child abuse. She explained: 'Children should not be forced to visit parents who have been their abusers. Parental rights need completely reassessing.'
Life After the Horror
McNeilly was released in 2015, reportedly taking the name Bernie Gardner. As of 2019, she was living in a halfway house in Reading with Karen Matthews and working at a BP petrol station.
Today, Kelly works as a beautician and is happily married with three children. She remains traumatised by her upbringing. ‘My brother and I were abused at the hands of our evil mother and there is still no circle of protection for us. We are not allowed to know where our mother is. I am as all right as I can be. But it is difficult to live your life grieving for the mother you never had.’
