High Court quashes boy's 1984 inquest verdict

An open inquest verdict recorded over the death of a 15-year-old boy in 1984 has been quashed after a 40-year battle by his family.

Mark Billington, 15, was last seen alive when he rode out on his bike to fly a kite near his Birmingham home. His body was found hanging in a tree in woodland two months later.

Initially treated by police as a suicide, in 2002 it became a murder inquiry, but no-one has ever been charged.

After his death, an open verdict was recorded, but the High Court has overturned that ruling, and a fresh inquest is expected to be held.

Mark's sister Cheryl Jeyes welcomed the decision made by Lady Justice Whipple and Mr Justice Hilliard, but said it came too later for her mother Winifred, who before her death "never stopped fighting for answers for Mark".

Speaking previously to the BBC, Mark's mother said police decided "it was suicide so we didn't get fair treatment". At the time, West Midlands Police said as with all unsolved crimes it remained "ready to follow up any new information".

Mark had developmental delays and a weakness on one side of his body and his family were convinced that he would have been neither capable of tying the complicated knot that was used, nor cycling the seven miles from his home in south Yardley to the edge of Meriden.

Jeyes said the High Court ruling did "not answer all of the questions surrounding Mark's death", but was a "significant step towards ensuring that all of the available evidence is properly examined in a fresh inquest".

She was seven at the time of her brother's disappearance and said the judges' decision was "bittersweet" as her mother was "not here to see this day".

A photo of her mother was, however, taken to court.

"It felt important that she was there with us in spirit, witnessing a moment that she fought so hard to make possible," Jeyes said.

She added her father Roy, "now 85 and increasingly frail", was unable to attend the hearing, but "shares our gratitude for today's decision".

Wyn and Roy had adopted Mark as a baby, and since his disappearance in September 1984 never stopped fighting to get to the truth.

"We would like to thank Birmingham Senior Coroner Louise Hunt, the Attorney General and the High Court for their diligence, careful consideration and support throughout this process," Jeyes said.

She added she would also like to thank "everyone who has supported us on this journey, especially those who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to help uncover new information and bring this matter before the courts".

Police started re-examining Mark's death in 2001, after the jailing of Brian Field, a farm labourer from Solihull, who pleaded guilty to the murder of Surrey teenager Roy Tutill, 14, in 1968.

The conviction led to police looking at several unsolved murder cases to see if they were connected to Field, but when the murder inquiry was publicised, it was stressed he had not been interviewed regarding Mark's death.

Instead, detectives were focusing the investigation on a group of teenagers seen in a park behind the boy's house as he flew his kite.

Field died in prison aged 87 in 2024.

West Midlands Police previously told the BBC that, as Mark's death had originally been investigated as suicide and the case passed to the coroner, rules at the time meant it was not required to keep items which may now be considered as evidence.

A date for the new inquest has yet to be set.

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