Murder of Joe Geeling
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The Murder of Joe Geeling (1995-1 March 2006) was an English youth who, upon being lured to the home of a fellow student Michael Hamer, was beaten and subsequentally murdered.
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[edit] Background
Born to Tom and Gwen Geeling [1], Joseph Geeling lived on Devon Street in Bury, Greater Manchester [2] where he attended St Gabriel's High School with Hamer.
Michael Hamer had an older half-brother called Mark, who died of cancer, and had little contact with his father who went on to start another family. He also has two younger half-siblings. He was bullied at school [3]. Hamer spent his time drawing up school timetables featuring the real names of younger pupils at St Gabriel's High School in Bury, Greater Manchester [4].
[edit] Geeling Murder
Geeling, who suffered from cystic fibrosis, was expected home from school for a hospital appointment on 1 March 2006 [5]. When he did not return home, his mother reported him missing at 17:24 GMT.
Joe had been lured to Hamer's house with a letter which claimed to be from the deputy headteacher at his school. [6] Joe was suspicious and showed the letter to a teacher, who confirmed it wasn't from the deputy headteacher and told Joe to go straight home[7]. He didn't. At Hamer's trial, the Court heard how when Hamer made sexual advances to Joe, Joe called him "gay" and threatened to tell on him. Hamer picked up a frying pan and beat Joe around the head, resulting in heavy bruising and a fractured eye socket. He was also stabbed a total of 16 times. When Hamer returned to the house he began cleaning Joe's blood and told his mother the stains on the carpet were caused by a leaking red pen. Hamer proceeded to do his homework that evening, an exercise based on the Ten Commandments.
[edit] Searching for the body
Joe's body was placed in a wheelie bin and then dumped underneath debris in a gulley in a park in Bury. Within minutes of Joe's mother ringing the police, a search was immediately launched, with police, rescue teams, firefighters, neighbours and the Geeling family all joining the hunt. Whitehead Park, not far from the Geeling home on Devon Street, was part of that search - although Joe's body was not found until 1045 BST the following day by a police dog.
[edit] Catching the suspect
Hamer's fingerprint was found on Joe's buttocks [8]. When police searched his house they found a second letter, which showed a clear sexual interest in Joe by Hamer. Hamer was found guilty on 16 October 2006 and was told that he would serve a minimum of 12 years before being eligible for parole.
The murder was revealed to be due to a rejected sexual approach by Hamer towards Geeling [9]. The trial judge sentenced him to life imprisonment and recommended that he should serve at least 12 years before being considered for parole, but the High Court later overruled the judge and said that Hamer should remain in prison for a minimum of 15 years. [10].
The terms of Hamer's sentence now mean that he is set to remain in prison until at least 2021 and the age of 30.
