Walter William Sykes

Walter William Sykes was convicted of the murders of Amy Nicholson 10 and Frances Alice Nicholson 7 and sentenced to death.

He cut their throats at Abdy's Farm, Kimberworth on 15 November 1912. It was also thought that he had outraged Amy Collinson although the medical evidence put forward said that she had been outraged some days before the murders.

The murders were unsolved for a while, but Walter Sykes later confessed to them. He made his first confession verbally to a collier in a urinal in Mexborough and later corroborated it with a policeman , and made his second confession in writing at a police station. He made two statements, the first at 4am which he said was not true, and the other at 7am which he later said was all lies.

However, his confessions were used against him in court and he was convicted. It was said that without the confessions there was virtually no evidence against him and certainly not enough to convict him, but that the other evidence found by the police corroborated his statements, and he was found guilty.