He Admitted Murder But Escaped Conviction

Is it an unsolved murder case, or a case of a murderer set free?

It was Sunday 27 January 1992, as the cold frost of an English winter set in that Patricia Hall, 39, went missing from her home in Leeds, England.

Patricia was reported missing by her husband, Keith, who told police the couple had argued, and in the heat of the row, Patricia had stormed out of their home. She angrily drove away in their car, but he hadn’t seen her since.

As police began to investigate Patricia’s disappearance, they started to gather whatever they could to help them piece together her life and the life she had with her husband.

There was a distinct lack of evidence that Patricia had been planning on running away to start a new life. In fact, the more they looked into the couples life, the more they began to focus on Keith as a prime suspect.

Detectives grew suspicious when neighbours told them they overheard and argument the night she went missing — an arguement which ended abruptly. Patricia’s clothes will still in her wardrobe and her bank account was untouched. It didn‘t add up to the police.

Her car was found abandoned a mile away, and on the same street the night she disappeared, a witness saw a man lifting something into or out of a Sierra on the same road.

The more they searched, the more they found — and what they found was that Keith had not been entirely honest with them, and ultimately that he had a lot to hide.

As they looked into the final weeks and days of Patricia’s life, they discovered she had recently met with a divorce solicitor, and was allegedly planning on leaving her husband for another man. Pat’s sister-in-law told police that 3 months before she went missing, Pat told her that Keith had tried to strangle her.

Despite the police believing they had their prime suspect in their sights, there wasn’t any evidence Keith had done anything and no evidence Patricia was even dead.

Patricia Hall

The Honeytrap

Honey trap def: a stratagem in which an attractive person entices another person into revealing information or doing something unwise.

Months went by without any leads and without any sign of Patricia. In an attempt to make progress, the West Yorkshire Police decided to set a honey trap.

An undercover policewoman “Liz” was deployed to work on Keith. He had begun placing lonely hearts ads in the local paper, and so she replied. The two began a romantic relationship.

Between November 1992, and February 1993, they met six times. Keith was smitten, so much so, that he proposed.

Liz got the police their breakthrough when she managed to record a conversation with Keith while they sat in her car. In the recording, Liz said she was concerned that Patricia would return, and ruin their romance, to which Keith replied that Patricia was dead.

When pushed on how he could know this for sure he confessed to her murder, telling Liz that he strangled his wife, because a voice in his head told him to do it. He then claimed to have burned her body in an incinerator.

Three days after the recorded confession he was arrested and charged with the murder of Patricia Hall.

The trial

It took 12 months for the trial to make it to court, but eventually, Keith appeared at Leeds Crown Court, with the prosecution alleging he murdered his wife in cold blood, to avoid losing his house, business and two sons.

The recording taken by Liz had been approved by the Crown Prosecution Service to press charges, but judge Mr Justice Waterhouse refused to let the tapes be heard in court after his defence successfully argued that the confession breached the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.

Specifically, they argued the undercover policewoman had tricked Keith into incriminating himself. Without the tapes, the prosecution struggled with their case, and the trial lasted 9 days before the jury went to deliberate.

They returned quickly and acquitted Hall of all charges.

Following the trial, the judge allowed the release of the full transcript of the ‘confession‘. Hall maintained his innocence and accused the police of manipulating his confession out of him, telling anyone that would listen he had been robbed of a year of his life while awaiting trial.

Attempts have been made to reopen Patricia’s case and get justice, with her sister Christine Weatherhead attempting to have her sibling declared dead, stating she would never have left her sons, but was refused.

There have been no sightings or signs of life for Patricia, and the case into her disappearance remains open.

In 2011, Hall was jailed for four years after he attacked a former neighbour with a brick. The neighbour had lived next door to Hall and Patricia at the time of her disappearance, and had been a witness at the murder trial.

He continues to deny murdering his wife, or having anything to do with her disappearance.