Suzanne Capper, a gentle and easily influenced 16-year-old, was subjected to a week of unspeakable horrors by a group of associates who then set her on fire in a case that shocked Britain
Gemma Strong Lifestyle Writer
09:30, 26 Dec 2025Updated 09:34, 26 Dec 2025
Suzanne Capper. (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
Suzanne Capper was a kind-hearted 16 year old girl with everything to live for, before a dispute over a missing duffle coat escalated into seven days of fatal torture.
It was a shocking case that horrified Britain, even bringing jurors to tears as sickening details emerged in court. The teenager was held prisoner, subjected to beatings, injected with drugs and abused in a relentless cycle of brutality, all perpetrated by people she believed were her friends.
A group of six accomplices, aged between 16 and 29, subjected Suzanne to unspeakable cruelty during a week-long ordeal. The 16 year old, from Moston, Greater Manchester, was then taken to woodland near Romiley in Stockport where she was covered in petrol and set alight.
She survived long enough to identify her attackers.
Suzanne’s appalling ordeal commenced in December 1992. Described as a “a gentle and easily influenced girl,” she was residing with her stepfather but was spending more and more time at the home of Jean Powell, 26, reports the Mirror.
Suzanne had been babysitting Powell’s three children at a terraced property in Moston and had spent the night there. The teenager was said to be isolated with no friends, and sought companionship in Powell.
Suzanne was “polite” and “passive,” prepared to do anything her friends requested. Powell’s grim home was a hub for drug dealing, parties and sex.
The mother had also formed a friendship with Bernadette McNeilly, 23, who had recently moved in three doors down. McNeilly, a mother of three, subsequently moved in with Powell and her three children, where the two shared a bed in the downstairs dining room because the bedrooms were “full” of kids.
Bernadette McNeilly. (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)
Jean Powell.(Image: MEN Media)
Powell was separated from her husband Glyn, although they remained on good terms and he would visit regularly. McNeilly’s boyfriend, 16 year old Anthony Dudson, was also having a sexual relationship with Powell, who was also sexually involved with Jeffrey Leigh.
He was a frequent visitor to the house, as was Powell’s younger brother, Clifford Pook.
Powell and McNeilly would often bully Suzanne – according to her sister Michelle: “It was not that she was scared of them, it’s just that she would do anything for them. She pampered their every whim.”
At the time of Suzanne’s death, McNeilly and Dudson were angry because they had become infected by pubic lice, which they concluded they had caught from Suzanne, who regularly slept in the bed they shared. McNeilly also thought Suzanne had stolen a pink duffle coat worth around £50.
On 7 December, McNeilly and Powell found Suzanne at her stepfather’s home and lured her to Powell’s house, telling her that a lad she fancied was there. Glyn and Dudson were already waiting.
Upon her arrival, Suzanne was immediately seized and restrained while Glyn and Dudson shaved her head and eyebrows. She was then assaulted by the group and taken to the bathroom where she was compelled to shave off her own pubic hair in an act of ‘revenge’ before being confined in a cupboard for the night.
The next day, on 8 December, she was moved to McNeilly’s house due to worries that Suzann’es crying was disturbing the six children. At this location, she was bound to a bed base using cord, rope, electric flex, belts and a chain.
Suzanne endured another six days and nights in captivity, with blisters forming on her back and socks stuffed in her mouth to muffle her cries. The teenager suffered horrific torture.
She was frequently beaten, injected with amphetamines, and burned with cigarettes. Additionally, two of her front teeth were forcibly removed.
After lying in her own urine and faeces for several days, Suzanne was put in a bath filled with concentrated disinfectant and scrubbed with a stiff brush hard enough to remove skin.
In the early hours of 14 December 1992, Suzanne was forced into the boot of a stolen white Fiat Panda car and driven 15 miles to a secluded lane on the outskirts of Stockport.
In the car were McNeilly, the Powells and Dudson. Upon their arrival, Suzanne was shoved down an embankment, into a patch of brambles, where McNeilly doused her in petrol.
Glyn Powell. (Image: MEN Media)
Anthony Dodson. (Image: MEN Media)
She was then set alight with McNeilly reportedly singing “Burn baby burn! Burn baby burn!” from The Trammps song “Disco Inferno”.
Remarkably, she did not perish as her attackers had planned – swiftly and without identification. She managed to scramble back up the embankment and stagger along the country lane for approximately a quarter of a mile, where she was found with horrific injuries by workmen who raised the alarm.
Suzanne survived for four days, long enough to tell police who she was and who was responsible. She was able to give the names of her six assailants, as well as Powell’s address, before falling into a coma.
Having suffered from 80 per cent burns and multiple organ failure, Suzanne died on 18 December 1992, without regaining consciousness.
Her attackers were charged on 23 December 1992, and their trial commenced on 16 November 1993, lasting 22 days. All six denied murder and, in their testimonies, each tried to minimise their part in the crime.
After the trial, Jean Powell (now Gillespie), who was 26 at the time of the killing, Bernadette McNeilly, 24, Glyn Powell, 29, and Anthony Dudson, 16, were all found guilty of murder. Gillespie, McNeilly, and Powell were sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years.
Dudson was initially sentenced to a minimum of 18 years, which was later reduced to 16. Jean’s brother, Clifford Pook, and Jeffrey Leigh, aged 27, both pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and were handed sentences of 15 and 12 years respectively.
The brutal murder occurred just two months prior to the infamous James Bulger case in Liverpool. Despite the prolonged and sadistic violence involved, it did not receive the same level of media attention as the Bulger case.
All six individuals have since been released after serving their minimum sentences. Bernadette McNeilly was freed in 2015, while Jean Powell (later Gillespie) was released in 2017.
Anthony Dudson gained his freedom in 2013, and Glynn Powell was released in May 2023. Clifford Pook was released in 2001, and Jeffrey Leigh in 2008.
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