Killed for kicks

But little did the naval lieutenant's wife who had discovered the unconscious 16-year-old know, the other motorist offering to help was really a sadist who had just deliberately run her over.

Stephen Conway-Miller carried the girl to the back of his green van on the pretext of following 22-year-old Olivia Macmillan to Droxford police station.

That was the last anyone saw of Carol Heath until her naked body was discovered near Corhampton golf course.

Police launched a hunt for the killer of the schoolgirl, who had been found by Mrs Macmillan as she drove the quiet Corhampton to Kilmeston road on January 29, 1968.

She thought Carol had fainted and stopped Conway-Miller, a father of seven, for help and he carried her to his van. He appeared to follow Mrs Macmillan towards the police station. But when she arrived, there was no sign of him or the vehicle.

Swanmore plumber and engineer Robert Harvey found Carol's crumpled body in Sailor's Lane.

Droxford's tiny police station was transformed into the nerve centre for detectives, with additional phone lines, office staff and equipment brought in.

A post-morten revealed that Carol, who lived in the village, had been strangled.

The shy, fair-haired girl, had taken her spaniel Danny over the downs, one of her favourite walks.

She had been wearing a pale blue raincoat, a pink knitted jumper, and a pale blue denim skirt with navy blue shoes.

She had left school in July and taken jobs at a fruit farm and a nursery before starting work with a Southsea firm of brokers only two weeks earlier.

Her family had lived in Droxford for eight years and John Gimblett, the head teacher of Swanmore Secondary School, led the tributes, describing Carol as a person any school would be proud to have. "She was a bright girl and very popular," he said.

Her closest friend and former classmate Philippa Davis, 16, who also lived in Droxford, told the Echo: "She had only had one boyfriend. She studied nearly every night. She was trying to pass maths and biology O-Levels to become a laboratory assistant. She loved taking Danny for walks and I usually went with her on Saturdays, but this time I had to go to the doctor's."

Leading the hunt for the killer was Det Chief Supt Cyril Tank' Holdaway, head of Hampshire CID, and Det Supt John Hawtin, crime co-ordinator for south eastern Hampshire.

Following a description of the bottle-green van from Mrs Macmillan, the hunt swiftly moved to Lowestoft, Suffolk.

Supt Hawtin drove through the night from Fareham to question a suspect who had gone to see his son.

Hours later, he told a press conference: "We are in the process of interviewing a man who has been detained here. He is a Hampshire man, aged 40. He was detained at 4.10pm yesterday by three Lowestoft CID officers who visited a house in Lowestoft. The officers also took possession of a green van."

The following day, Conway-Miller, a 40-year-old crane driver, from Owlesbury, appeared before Droxford magistrates, charged with Carol's murder. He was remanded in custody to attend Winchester County Magistrates' Court the following week.

Droxford's shops were closed on the day of Carol's funeral at the 13th century parish church of St Mary and All Saints. The rest of the village was silent with residents staying in their thatched cottages.

Mourners walked into the church past wreaths of carnations, daffodils, tulips, irises and snowdrops in the shape of a large cross. A cushion of white chryanthemums with a rabbit in violets was simply inscribed From the parishioners of Droxford'.

Conway-Miller appeared at Hampshire Assizes at Winchester on Mary 23, 1968 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter through diminished responsibility and was jailed for life.

His not guilty' plea to murder was accepted by the prosecution after a psychiatric report that he suffered from schizophrenia, with an inability to adjust to society and a callous lack of pity and emotions to explain his crime.

The son of a priest had spent ten years in jail - his convictions including the theft of a valuable boat that he had sailed from its moorings - but his record had not hitherto included anything violent or sexual.

Defence counsel George Poulson QC - who became the Honorary Recorder of Exeter - told Mr Justice Veale: "Then, for whatever reason, there was a sudden manifestation of the disease of which he suffers."

In his confession, the deep-rooted cause of his horrific and macabre crime lay in his abnormality.

Prosecutor Raymond Stock QC read out a series of Conway-Miller's statements to the police, one of which revealed: "From the age of 14, I discovered I had an abnormal outlook on sex. I used to live in a world of dreams."

It transpired that he had been overtaken by a similar impulse two weeks before when he tried to knock down a girl walking in Allington Lane between West End and Fair Oak. He felt he had wanted to hurt her, brushing her with his van.

Mr Stock commented: "That girl can consider herself lucky that she is still alive."

Carol had not been so fortunate. Examinations showed that Conway-Miller had deliberately struck her from behind with his van.

He remained impassive as the judge told him: "The opinion of the doctor and the appalling details of this dreadful crime make it quite clear to me that, in the present state of medical knowledge, you must never be allowed to be at liberty."

Conway-Miller was refused parole in 1995. He was being held at Lindholme Prison at Hatfield, South Yorkshire, when it was revealed in 1997 he had been released on several occasions for supervised days out in the community.

Carol's brother, Denis, who lived in Droxford, said Conway-Miller should spend the rest of his life behind bars and travelled to South Yorkshire to wage a leaflet and poster campaign near the prison. He had said he had also written to the Home Secretary but had not received a reponse.

There is a permanent reminder to Carol in the country churchyard that lies adjacent to the still waters of the River Meon. Her father, Frank, paid for its gravel path to be relaid.

The Rev Strangeways reflected: "This gift is very acceptable to the village as a whole."