Murder of Bernadette Walker

Bernadette Walker, born 24 July 2002, was a photography student at Peterborough College. On 18 July 2020, she was last seen when her stepfather, Scott Walker, picked her up from his parents' home in Peterborough, where she had spent the night. During the journey, Scott's phone was switched off between 11:23 a.m. and 12:54 p.m. He later claimed that Bernadette had got out of the car and run away on Skaters Way during this period. Prosecutors said this 91-minute window was when he killed her. She has not been found and is presumed dead.

Days before her disappearance, Bernadette had told her mother, Sarah Walker, that Scott had been sexually abusing her for several years. According to evidence at trial, a diary found in Bernadette's rucksack — recovered from a lock-up garage in Walton owned by Scott's parents — recorded an entry from 16 July in which she wrote that she had told her mother about the abuse and that her mother had called her a liar and threatened her. Cambridgeshire Constabulary established that, contrary to his account, Scott had gone to the Walton lock-up garage that morning rather than driving Bernadette elsewhere, and that he returned to the location several times after she was reported missing. Police also determined that Scott's first phone call after 12:54 p.m. was to Sarah, lasting more than nine minutes, which investigators concluded was to tell her he had killed Bernadette.

Sarah told police that she continued receiving messages from her daughter after the disappearance; investigators found these messages, sent from Bernadette's Instagram account, had actually been sent by Sarah. A friend of Bernadette's, Warren Naylor, testified that Bernadette had told him she was sexually abused by her stepfather over a seven-year period, and that he too had received a message on 19 July, purportedly from Bernadette, claiming she had lied about the abuse — a message he suspected was sent by Sarah.

Scott and Sarah reported Bernadette missing on 21 July 2020, three days after her disappearance. Both were arrested on 14 September 2020 for murder and perverting the course of justice. Police carried out extensive searches across Gunthorpe, Newborough, and other parts of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire using dogs, diving equipment, and drones, but her body was never located.

Scott Walker's trial began at Cambridge Crown Court in June 2021. On 26 July 2021, a jury found him guilty of murder. He was sentenced on 10 September 2021 to life imprisonment; the newly passed "Helen's Law" (Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act 2020), which allows for longer sentences for those who withhold information about a victim's location, was cited as a factor in his sentencing after he refused to disclose where Bernadette's body was. Sarah Walker was convicted of perverting the course of justice and sentenced to six years.

Scott Walker died on 22 December 2023 at HM Prison Full Sutton from complications of bladder cancer, having served 26 months of his sentence, without ever revealing the location of Bernadette's body. In July 2025, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman found that prison staff at Full Sutton had failed to complete timely paperwork that would have allowed consideration of his compassionate release.