Murder of Naomi Smith

Naomi Louise Smith (4 March 1980 – 14 September 1995) was a 15-year-old schoolgirl from the Bretts Hall Estate in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, who attended Hartshill School. On the evening of 14 September 1995, she left home at approximately 9:45pm to post a letter for her mother at a post box roughly 200 yards away. When she failed to return, her father Brian Smith and her best friend Emma Jones searched for her, discovering her body shortly before midnight beneath the children's slide of a local playground a few hundred metres from her home. A post-mortem revealed she had been sexually assaulted, her throat had been cut, and her body mutilated, including a bite mark left on her breast.

The investigation was led by Detective Superintendent Tony Bayliss of Warwickshire Police, with an incident room established at Bedworth Police Station. Up to 50 officers were assigned to the case. Police made unusual public appeals, including releasing details of Smith's injuries on 17 September 1995 in hopes of prompting information from anyone shielding the killer. Witnesses reported seeing Smith near the post box and a man running from a nearby alleyway known locally as "the jitty."

Five men were arrested in coordinated raids on 21 September 1995 but were later released without charge. A month after the murder, police obtained a DNA profile of the killer and, working with forensic psychologist Paul Britton, conducted a mass DNA screening of around 800 local men aged 15 to 28; approximately 135 samples were ultimately taken. This was among the earliest mass DNA screenings carried out by the Forensic Science Service, which had only recently established the world's first DNA database in April 1995. Forensic work was led by Senior SOCO Paul Taberner and forensic scientist Hazel Johnson.

Following further arrests on 16 November 1995, 19-year-old Edwin Hopkins was charged with murder on 18 November 1995. He was remanded in custody and denied bail. Hopkins' trial began on 22 January 1997 at Birmingham Crown Court. His sister Julie, who had initially provided him an alibi, later testified that he had returned later than expected on the night of the murder, having changed clothes, and described his collection of hunting knives. Prosecutors presented DNA evidence matching Hopkins at odds of 36 million to one, along with forensic odontology testimony that a dental cast of his teeth matched the bite mark on Smith's body.

On 30 January 1997, an eleven-person jury convicted Hopkins of murder by a 10–1 majority and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial judge, Mr Justice Tucker, described the killing as "savage" and "sadistic." His minimum term was later set at 18 years by the Home Secretary in 1999. Hopkins has consistently maintained his innocence and unsuccessfully sought a tariff review in 2010. He was moved to an open prison in 2021, released in December 2023, and recalled to prison 23 days later after breaching release conditions.