Murder of Rachel Moran
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Rachel Louise Moran (17 January 1981 - 1 January 2003) was a 21-year-old college student from Hull, Yorkshire, England, who went missing during the early hours New Year's Day, 2003.
Amid intense media coverage, Humberside police conducted a door-to-door search of every property on the Orchard Park Estate, Hull. Moran's body was eventually found hidden in a cupboard inside a council flat belonging to Michael Little, less than 200 yards from her own home. Little was a total stranger to Moran and she to him. Little was charged with Moran's murder and found guilty at Hull Crown Court twelve months later, despite attempting to lay the blame on a friend who was in Little's flat when Moran's body was discovered.
Little was sentenced to life imprisonment, though no official minimum term was recommended by the trial judge and the Home Secretary had lost powers to set minimum terms for life sentence prisoners. Four years later Little still has no tariff set, leading Moran's family to believe that if and when a tariff is finally set it will not reflect the seriousness of his crime due to the length of time since the crime was committed.
Little is one of over 400 convicted murderers and rapists sentenced to life imprisonment in the UK who still have no tariff, a minimum time to be served before they are eligible for parole, set.
Moran was born in Ireland before moving to Hull when she was a few months old. Many of her relatives reside in Greystones, Co. Wicklow and this connection led to great interest in the case in the Irish media. Her mother, Wanda Moran has written a book entitled "Rachel - A Stolen Life" which was published in March 2007.
