Every time we put someone else in charge of our children, we run the risk that bad something might happen. Maybe it’s an irrational fear because ultimately, something bad could happen when we’re with our children as well. But it’s the unknown that gets the better of parents at times. More often than not, things go smoothly and children usually love their babysitters, but for every 1000 great stories, there’s always one that scares even the bravest of parents. This story is one of them…
Clive & Elsie
Clive and Elsie were a young couple doing what they could to make ends meet while also trying to raise three, very young, children. They didn’t have a lot of childcare options, so when a trustworthy friend came along, they took a chance: one that they would, unfortunately, live to forever regret…
 Live-In Babysitter
One evening, Clive had gone to pick up his wife Elsie from her barmaid job. It was late and he hated leaving his children alone, but luckily, they had a live-in babysitter in the form of their friend David, who had needed a place to stay and, in turn, would watch the children when he was around.
Police on the Scene
Clive and Elsie returned home about an hour later. When they arrived back home, they noticed something strange: a slew of police cars parked around their Worcester home. Surely this was a mistake, they had only been gone an hour…
Drinking Problem
Their friend, David, was 21, and despite his age, had been struggling for a number of years. He’d been kicked out of the Royal Navy, which had subsequently seen him kicked out of his parents’ home. Of course, both of these unceremonious exits were not without reason, as David had a serious drinking problem…
Take Him In
Regardless of this problem, Clive Ralph and his wife, Elsie were sympathetic to their friend. David was a good guy and their kids absolutely loved him. Both Clive and Elsie worked full time: one as a truck driver and the other as a barmaid, so they needed someone to be home with the three kids when they couldn’t be. David fit the bill perfectly…
Mutually Beneficial
Whenever Clive or Elsie went out to work, David would babysit the children: 4-year-old Paul, 2-year-old Dawn, and 9-month-old Samantha. David McGreavy liked playing the part of dad to the little ones and it seemed that, despite the last few rough years, his life was starting to turn around. That is until the bottle beckoned him back…
Rough Night
It was Friday the 13th and David had gone to a local pub at happy hour to get himself a drink. But one drink soon turned to several and before long, David was well past his limit. He got so drunk that he even got into a fight with a fellow barfly over him putting his cigarette out in the man’s beer. Luckily, the other patrons pulled them apart in time for David to depart the pub and head home…
David on Watch
After he had straightened himself out, David came home from the pub in order to look after the three kids while Clive drove out to pick up Elsie. He figured, while he was picking her up from the pub, he’d stop in for a pint himself. After all, the kids were safe at home with David, they had no reason to worry about them. But it was Friday the 13th, after all…
The Terrible News
David had been apprehended at around 4 am that morning, around the time that Clive and Elsie were leaving the bar. “I put my hand over her mouth and it went from there,” he explained. “It’s all in the house. On Paul, I used a wire. I was going to bury Paul but I couldn’t… I went outside and put them on the fence. All I can hear is kids, kids, kids…” it wasn’t until sometime later the police would learn what it all meant…
Hungry
Apparently, not long after Clive had left, little Samantha began to cry for her bottle. Try as he might, the slightly-inebriated David could do nothing to quiet the crying child. What’s worse, Samantha’s crying had woken up the other children as well. Now he had a house full of grumpy, crying infants, and he was just not emotionally prepared to deal with it…
Broken Doll
Instead of reaching for the bottle to try and placate the now screaming infant, David instead grabbed Samantha by her legs and began to swing her about. He began to knock her repeatedly against the wall, shattering her skull and ending her life. Meanwhile, the other two children stared on in disbelief, frozen in terror…
Turning on Them
David McGreavy was a man possessed. He had killed an infant to stop her crying and now he had two witnesses. Without hesitation, he found a razor blade and slashed it across 2-year-old Dawn’s throat. When he had dispatched her, he turned his sights on four-year-old Paul, whom he strangled to death…
The worst was yet to come, however. After he had realized what he had done, David took the lifeless bodies of the children out into the yard, but rather than try to bury them, decided to profane them even further. He took them into a neighbor’s garden and impaled their bodies on the spiked gate…
Shocked the Nation
When the police found the bodies later that morning, they were speechless and so, for that matter, was the entire nation. No one could believe that this act of grotesque savagery was real or that it was committed by a man like David McGreavy. Especially since the only motive was given was that he had killed them all because of Samantha’s crying.
Life Sentences
It was an open and shut case for the self-confessed “Monster of Worcester.” He had admitted to the crime and had left his fingerprints all over the scene. There was no room for reasonable doubt. David McGreavy was sentenced to multiple life terms with a minimum of 20 years. But that wasn’t the end of his story…
Most Notorious Killer
During the course of his many years in prison, “The Monster of Worcester” was often targeted by other inmates due to the viscous nature of his crimes. Even in prison, those who kill or abuse children are especially low on the totem pole. But that didn’t mean that McGreavy didn’t “own” his name. He once challenged Ian Brady to a fight to prove he was the “most notorious” killer…
Easy Time
Overall though, his inmates’ distaste for him notwithstanding, McGreavy had an easy time in prison. He would keep to himself and lived as he pleased. He had his own cooking facilities and access to any book he could imagine from the prison library. The only real problem was that eventually, everyone stopped speaking to him. He became a social pariah…
Transfer
In 2006, McGreavy was transferred to what is considered an “open prison.” These types of prisons are essentially government-regulated hostels. Try as they might to keep it a secret, news of the transfer made headlines and Liverpool natives became outraged. They didn’t want this child killing criminal to be allowed essentially free reign in their neighborhood. McGreavy was sent back to closed prison…
Waiting
As for Clive and Elsie, they never got over their loss. Elsie almost died after self-overdosing six months after her children’s deaths and eventually moved away from Worcester and Clive. She says that she has lived through 40 years of hell and is awaiting the day that David McGreavy gets released…
No Remorse
Elsie feels no remorse at all for what happened to McGreavy. “If he was released, I’d be waiting outside with a gun,” she explained. “’Life should mean life and he should never get to walk free. He got off lightly with a life sentence – he should have been hanged… For what he did to my three children and me, he deserves the same treatment that they got – death.”
Later this Year
Unfortunately for her, David McGreavy has finally been put up again for parole in 2018. Though he has tried nine other times and been denied each time, there is still the chance he will be set free. Frankly, if I were him, I’d be more concerned with what might happen to me outside of prison than what’s going on inside…