Murder of Daniel Handley

Background

Daniel Charles Handley (27 April 1985 – 2 October 1994) was a nine-year-old boy living in Beckton, East London. On 2 October 1994, while fixing a chain on his bicycle, he was approached by two men, Timothy John Morss and Brett Tyler, who were driving a Peugeot 405 and looking for a young, fair-haired boy to abduct. The driver claimed to be lost and asked Daniel to look at a map placed across the back seat of the car. When Daniel leaned in to look, one of the men pushed him into the vehicle and the other drove off.

The Crime

Morss and Tyler took Daniel to a flat, where each sexually abused him in turn while the other recorded the abuse with a camcorder. They then drove him to a layby near Hungerford, Berkshire, where he was sexually abused again before being strangled with a car tow rope. His body was buried in a shallow grave near a golf course close to Morss's home in Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, and later reburied deeper. Daniel's skull was discovered in March 1995 after being disturbed by foxes.

Investigation and Trial

Morss and Tyler had met while both incarcerated at Wormwood Scrubs Prison in the early 1990s for prior child sex offences. Morss had previously been convicted of raping two young boys in 1986, receiving a sentence later reduced to five years, while Tyler had been convicted of indecency with young boys and sentenced to four years. Morss lived in Bradley Stoke, where he co-owned a minicab firm. Following Daniel's death, both men fled to the Philippines. Morss returned to England and was arrested on suspicion of murder after Daniel's body was found; Tyler was later extradited to stand trial.

The pair were found guilty of Daniel's murder at the Old Bailey on 17 May 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial judge condemned them as "vultures" and recommended whole life tariffs. After the trial, it emerged that the two men were serial child sex offenders who had also abused children in the Philippines.

Sentencing Developments

On 24 November 2002, Morss and Tyler were among four child murderers — alongside Howard Hughes and Roy Whiting — given 50-year tariffs by then Home Secretary David Blunkett, meaning they would not be eligible for release until at least 2045. Within 24 hours, this tariff-setting system was ruled illegal by both the European Court of Human Rights and the High Court for England and Wales, following a legal challenge brought by a separate convicted double murderer. Responsibility for setting minimum terms for life sentence prisoners subsequently passed to the High Court following recommendations from trial judges.