THE BRUTAL TORTURE AND MURDER OF KELLY ANNE BATES

A 17 year old girl would be horrendously tortured and murdered over a 4 week period at the hands of her own boyfriend, James Patterson Smith. The lead detective on the case, Joseph Monaghan, stated that this was the most horrific case he has ever seen during his 15 years on the job. Pathologist William Lawler also stated that Kelly’s injuries were the worst he had ever seen on a murder victims body.

Kelly Anne Bates was born on May 18th, 1978, and raised in Greater Manchester, England. She was described as a mature, very friendly, outgoing, and bubbly girl, who also liked to hangout with older crowds. When she was 14 she met a man named Dave Smith who began to groom her. When she turned 16 she told her mother Margaret that she had an older boyfriend, but he wasn’t just older by a few years… This man was 32 years old. Margaret claimed that when she had first met him, the hairs on the back of her neck went up. Even though Margaret had her concerns about him, he showed what seemed to be sincere concern and love for Kelly, even going as far as calling her when he became worried about Kelly staying out all night. However, it would later come out that Kelly had lied about some information regarding her new boyfriend. Dave wasn’t 32 years old, he was actually 48, and his name wasn’t Dave… It was Jimmy (James).

A Brief Background About James Patterson Smith

James was unemployed and divorced, living around the Gorton area of Manchester. His marriage ended in 1980 after 10 years due to being extremely abusive and violent towards his wife. 20 year old Tina Watson would become his next girlfriend, who “he used as his punching bag” for two years, going as far as inflicting severe beatings upon her while she was pregnant with his baby. That relationship ended in 1982 when Tina was able to escape his clutches during an attempt to drown her while she was taking a bath. James then began to groom 15 year old Wendy Mottershead, who he also abused and attempted to drown her in the kitchen sink. He then began to groom Kelly in 1993, and moved in together two years later.

How It Started…

When the two first began dating, Kelly started to spend a lot of time at his home, and would sometimes go multiple days without checking in with her parents. When Kelly did come to see her family on the rare occasion, her parents became concerned about her wellbeing. She had started to lose weight, stopped showering and taking care of her appearance, and she was covered in bruises and on one occasion, she was also covered in bite marks. Kelly refused to admit that James was beating her and she refused to leave him. When she turned 16, she stopped coming to see her family completely. That year her parents would receive birthday and anniversary cards that were apparently from Kelly, but they were written in James’ handwriting. They knew something was wrong but they couldn’t do anything, and they felt so powerless.

The Murder…

On April 16th, 1996, James Smith walked into his local police station to report Kelly’s accidental death. However, when the police entered the home and saw her body, they knew this was far from accidental. They knew they were looking at a homicide case. Her naked body was found in the bedroom, and her blood was found all throughout the home. Kelly’s autopsy revealed that she had 150 separate injuries on her body. For four whole weeks she had been kept bound, tied up to a radiator and furniture by her hair, and sometimes she’d be tied up by her neck.

These are the injuries found on Kelly Bate’s body:

• Scalding to her buttocks and left leg
• Burns on her thigh caused by the application of a hot iron
• A fractured arm
• Multiple stab wounds caused by knives, forks, and scissors
• Stab wounds inside her mouth
• Crush injuries to both hands
• Mutilation of her ears, nose, eyebrows, mouth, lips, and genitalia
• Wounds caused by a spade and pruning shears
• Both eyes gouged out
• Later stab wounds to the empty eye sockets
• Partial Scalping

The pathologist determined that her eyes had been removed “not less than five days and not more than three weeks before her death.” It’s very likely that Kelly had gone at least two or three weeks without eyesight during her suffering. She was also starved and didn’t receive any water for several days before her death. She was beaten on her head with the shower head right before she was drowned to death in the bathtub.

The Trial…

James Smith denied that he had murdered Kelly and claimed that she would “put him through hell, winding him up.” He also claimed that she would “taunt” him about his dead mother and would “purposely hurt herself to make things look worse for him.” When he was asked why he had brutally tortured her the way he did, he said that she had dared him to do it, and challenged him to do her harm. A Consultant psychiatrist, Gillian Mezey, told the court that James had “a severe paranoid disorder with morbid jealousy,” and lived in a distorted reality. It took the court one hour to find 49 year old James guilty of murder and was sentenced to life in prison with the minimum of 20 years.