Steven Grieveson is serving four life sentences for the murders of four teenage boys in Sunderland, in the north east of England. A jury convicted him in February 1996 of murdering Thomas Kelly, 18, David Hanson, 15, and David Grieff, 15, who were killed in 1993 and 1994. He received three life sentences with a minimum tariff of 35 years.
The first of his victims was the last to be recognized. Simon Martin, a 14-year-old schoolboy, was found dead in Sunderland on May 26, 1990. His death went unresolved for more than two decades. In January 2012, in an interview with police that Grieveson himself had asked for, he confessed to killing the boy. At his trial in October 2013 he admitted the killing but denied murder, arguing diminished responsibility. The jury convicted him of murder on October 24, 2013, and he received a fourth life sentence with a minimum term of 35 years.
The Sunderland Echo, the city's daily paper, has called him the Sunderland Strangler.
Simon Martin was 14 and still at school when he died in 1990. At the sentencing hearing in 2013 the judge, Mr Justice Ramsey, described him as a schoolboy who had become Grieveson's friend, who came from a supportive family and who "had everything to live for." His parents said after the 2013 verdict that losing him had changed their lives.
Thomas Kelly was 18. David Hanson and David Grieff were both 15. In a joint statement in October 2013 their families said that the boys would have been grown men by then, that they would never be forgotten, and that they were innocent boys whose own actions had in no way led to their deaths.
Simon Martin's body was found in Sunderland on May 26, 1990, according to The Irish News, which reported the verdict in 2013. ITV News reported that he had been missing for several days before he was found. A pathologist's report read to the jury in 2013 gave the cause of death as a brain injury.
Grieveson was 19 at the time. Nobody was charged. The Sunderland Echo said in 2023 that the killings left an innocent man under suspicion for more than a decade; it did not name him.
Over the following years three more boys from Sunderland were killed. Thomas Kelly's body was found in November, and David Hanson's on February 8, 1994, according to ITV News. David Grieff's body was found on February 25, 1994.
The Irish News, reporting what the jury heard in 2013, said all three boys had been strangled, and dated the killings to 1993 and 1994.
Grieveson was tried for the three murders and convicted in February 1996, ITV News reported in 2013. He received three life sentences, with a minimum tariff of 35 years before he could be considered for release.
For the rest of the 1990s and the 2000s, Simon Martin's death stayed open. The break came from Grieveson himself. In January 2012 he asked to be interviewed by police, and in that interview he confessed to killing Simon in 1990, ITV News reported from his trial.
According to The Irish News, he told detectives that he and Simon had played football together before going to the place where the boy died, and that he had then killed him to keep his own sexuality hidden. He said he was now haunted by what he had done. He also told police that he had sniffed glue since he was 11 and needed it every day, including on the day he killed the schoolboy, the jury heard.
The trial opened at Newcastle Crown Court on Monday, October 14, 2013. Grieveson, then 42, admitted unlawfully killing Simon Martin but pleaded not guilty to murder on the ground of diminished responsibility.
On the second day the court heard that he had shown no signs of mental health problems while in police custody. The jury also heard the pathologist's evidence on the cause of death, and the account he had given police about his glue sniffing. Jurors were told of his 1996 convictions for the murders of Thomas Kelly, David Hanson and David Grieff.
On Thursday, October 24, 2013, after a nine-day trial, the jury found him guilty of murder.
Mr Justice Ramsey passed a life sentence with a minimum term of 35 years that afternoon, as ITV News and The Irish News reported. The judge called the attack horrendous. He said the term had to be significantly increased because Grieveson was a multiple murderer. It was his fourth life sentence.
Detective Superintendent Roger Ford of Northumbria Police called Grieveson "a calculated serial killer" in a statement after the verdict, and paid tribute to Simon's family and friends for their long wait. The Irish News reported that he said the crimes had shocked people in Sunderland and overshadowed the community for years.
Outside the court, Simon Martin's father read a statement, which he said was for his family, himself, his wife, his son, and the son who was no longer alive. Simon's parents said the verdict marked the end of a long journey and would finally give them closure. They thanked Northumbria Police and others who had worked on the case, described the experience as traumatic and life-changing for all of the families involved, and said that Grieveson could now spend the rest of his life behind bars. "No other family should have to lose a son and suffer the heartache we have had to endure," they said.
The families of Thomas Kelly, David Hanson and David Grieff issued their own statement. "Our sons were taken away from us by a cruel man whose despicable actions cost four boys their lives," it said. They said the trial had brought back painful memories, sent their sympathy to Simon's parents, and hoped the outcome would help them feel that justice had been done for Simon. "Our sons would be grown men now," they said. "We will never forget them and they will live on in our hearts forever."
That evening ITV Tyne Tees broadcast a report on how people in Sunderland, more than two decades later, still remembered the four boys.
In February 2014 Northumbria Police arrested Grieveson on suspicion of the murder of Nikki Allan, a seven-year-old girl from Sunderland. She had disappeared on October 7, 1992, after leaving her grandparents' flat, and was found stabbed to death the next day. A neighbour, then 24, had been tried for her murder at Leeds Crown Court in 1993 and acquitted, after the judge excluded recordings of police interviews with him and criticised the police for oppressive questioning. Northumbria Police denied the criticism.
Grieveson was questioned and released on bail. Detectives later said his bail had been cancelled and no further action was being taken, the Sunderland Echo reported in 2016. He was never charged.
Nikki's mother wrote to him in prison twice, asking whether he had killed her daughter or knew who had. She told the Echo in October 2016 that he had received her first letter and had not replied, and that she saw "a lot of similarities" between her daughter's case and the boys' murders.
The answer came from elsewhere. On May 12, 2023, a jury convicted David Boyd, a former neighbour of the family, of Nikki Allan's murder. On May 23, 2023, Mrs Justice Lambert jailed him for life with a minimum term of 29 years.
In October 2016 the Sunderland Echo reported that Grieveson was held at Full Sutton prison in Yorkshire and was serving four life sentences. In December 2023 the Echo described him as a serial killer who claimed four teenage victims, and noted that the last murder for which he was convicted was that of his first victim, Simon Martin.
The date of Simon Martin's death is reported differently. One ITV News update from the first day of the 2013 trial said he was accused of murdering the boy in February 1990, while other ITV updates and The Irish News give May 1990, and The Irish News dates the finding of his body to May 26, 1990.
Grieveson's age is also reported inconsistently. ITV News gave it as 42 at the October 2013 verdict, and The Irish News said he was 43 when sentenced the same day. Sunderland Echo reports of 2016 and 2023 described him as 47 at the time of his 2014 arrest.
His arrest in 2014 over Nikki Allan's death led to no charge, and another man has since been convicted of her murder. He has never been convicted of, or charged with, any killing other than the four boys.
May 26, 1990: Simon Martin, 14, is found dead in Sunderland.
1993 and 1994: Thomas Kelly, 18, David Hanson, 15, and David Grieff, 15, are killed in Sunderland.
February 8, 1994: David Hanson's body is found.
February 25, 1994: David Grieff's body is found.
February 1996: Grieveson is convicted of the three murders and receives three life sentences, minimum tariff 35 years.
January 2012: At his own request he is interviewed by police and confesses to killing Simon Martin.
October 14, 2013: His trial for Simon Martin's murder opens at Newcastle Crown Court. He admits unlawful killing and pleads diminished responsibility.
October 24, 2013: The jury convicts him of murder. Mr Justice Ramsey imposes a fourth life sentence, minimum term 35 years.
February 2014: Northumbria Police arrest him on suspicion of the 1992 murder of Nikki Allan; he is bailed and later told he faces no further action.
October 2016: Reported held at Full Sutton prison, Yorkshire.
May 12, 2023: David Boyd is convicted of Nikki Allan's murder; he is jailed for life on May 23, 2023.