The evil monster who committed one of the most chilling child murders Greater Manchester has ever seen will be considered for release in just a few months time. Darren Vickers, now 56, kidnapped and murdered eight year old, Jamie Lavis in May 1997.
The paedophile has served his 25 year life sentence in prison and could now be released as early as February. Vickers was married with two children of his own when he abducted the school boy and sexually assaulted him after the youngster boarded the bus Vickers was driving, Manchester Evening News reports. After the crime, he befriended his victim's family, playing the role of the 'innocent' bus driver who was the last person to see the boy alive and pretended to help them find their missing son.
The eight year old who went missing on a bank holiday Monday wasn't found until two years after his disappearance. During that time, Vickers would make very public appeals on television as he urged the public to help find Jamie and took part in searches he knew were going nowhere.
The evil killer even moved in with Mr and Mrs Lavis, and slept in their bed as the couple offered to sleep on the sofa to accommodate their guest. Vickers' cunning plan to build a relationship with his victim's parents allowed him to hide in plain sight for months after his heinous crime while staying up to date on the police investigation.
The Manchester Evening News revealed that hundreds of evidential documents and statements will be thoroughly inspected throughout the course of a day before the Parole Board makes a decision on the killer's release early next year. However, detectives on the case believe that if Vickers had not been brought to justice for Jamie's murder, it's likely he would have killed again.
Former police officer, Asif Hussain, 60, who spent weeks working alongside the Lavis Family in his role as family liaison officer has confessed that he always had his suspicions about Vickers and believes the killer should never be freed. "Vickers will be a danger to children for the rest of his life," he said.
"He was a married man with two children of his own and yet he was able to take the life of another child. He can never be rehabilitated in my opinion."
Asif who worked at the GMP force for 25 years says the murder was the worst case he worked on throughout his entire career. He recalled how the detectives donated overtime money to pay for Jamie's devastated family and that he has kept a hold of touching thank you notes that the Lavis family wrote to him for his support and care.
"Darren Vickers was a very manipulative person," Asif said. "I thought that the first time I met him. I knew he was a wrong 'un straight away. I went to the detective in charge and told him Vickers had done it.
"At the time I had two young children of my own. It was a very stressful time. I had to deal with the family and at the same time deal with Vickers, who had moved in.
"It was awful. I pretended to be his friend. I could not be nasty to him otherwise the family would have told me to leave. I couldn't leave. I had to keep an eye on what was going on."
Jamie's mother, Karen, told the M.E.N. at the time Vickers was caged: "I was destroyed when Jamie went missing and when I found out he was dead. For five months I lived through pure hell wondering what had happened to him.
"My life was in limbo and I was helpless." Detectives eventually picked up on manipulative Vickers' persistent interactions with the family and the case updates which they said was 'bordering on obsessive'. He was so heavily involved with his victim's family that the married father lost his job and neglected his own family, Manchester Crown Court heard at his trial.
Vickers, who kept up his public appeals for help in locating the 'missing' youngster, was arrested for Jamie's abduction in October 1997. The brazen killer said in one appeal: "We've been out 24 hours a day looking for Jamie,"
The eight year old's remains were uncovered in undergrowth at Reddish Vale in 1999 and Vickers was subsequently jailed for life for the murder of Jamie, being sentenced to 25 years behind bars. Sentencing, Mr Justice Forbes said: "These are truly wicked crimes.
"Jamie's final epitaph came from the lips of his grandmother, Barbara Lavis, who said 'he was streetwise but he was a lovely little boy'." He added: "Jamie's brief life was cruelly and prematurely brought to an end because he had the tragic misfortune of boarding your bus at around 10.30am on Ashton Old Road on May 5 1997.
"Thereafter you carefully groomed this little boy so he stayed on your bus for the rest of the day. You did this for your own base motives and intended to, and did, sexually abuse this little boy and then killed him and abandoned his body in Reddish Vale.
"You unclothed his body and left it naked on the ground." A 2018 TV documentary, Faking it: Tears Of A Crime explored how the deceitful murderer got away with his crime for so long by making his way into the lives of the Lavis family in order to keep tabs on the on going police investigation.
The show displayed the unsettling image of Jamie parents unknowingly sitting at either side of their son's bare chested killer. Forensic psychologist Kerry Daynes described the chilling image of Vickers with his arms around Mr and Mrs Lavis as the 'most bizarre image I think I've ever seen'.
She said: "Where Jamie should be, right in the middle of the picture, is Darren Vickers and he's spread-eagled. He's got a very dominant body posture and he's got two arms wrapped possessively around Jamie's parents, who look shell-shocked, traumatised and just bewildered by the position they find themselves in."
Body language expert Cliff Lansley added: "Here we have a viper in the nest. The perpetrator has implanted himself in the family and had the nerve to have his picture taken with them, without a top as well. How bizarre is this?"
The documentary delved into the psychological evidence taken from statements and interviews by Vickers during the search that ultimately blew the killer's cover. Mr Lansley shares that Vickers unconsciously revealed himself through his telling body language after he repeatedly shook his head and shrugged his shoulder when speaking to TV crews which indicated that he was lying.
The analyst explained: "The head shake is tiny but its a gift to a body language analyst because those tiny gestures are below consciousness and they leak the contradiction to the statement he is making," Language experts also analysed his statements and concluded that Vickers' deliberate refusal to personally name Jamie was an attempt to distance himself from the horrific crime as he often referred to him as 'the child'.
Roy Rainford, who was the senior investigating officer on the inquiry, told the programme: "Darren Vickers should never be released. He will be a danger to children."
Vickers' minimum tariff expired last month after 25 years and The Parole Board is set to review his case in February. A spokesman for the Parole Board said: "An oral hearing has been listed for the parole review of Darren Vickers and is scheduled to take place in February 2023.
"Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community. A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and impact the crime has had on the victims.
"Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports in the lead up to an oral hearing. Evidence from witnesses including probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison as well as victim personal statements are then given at the hearing.
"The prisoner and witnesses are then questioned at length during the hearing which often lasts a full day or more. Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority."
In 2005, Vickers made an appeal against his conviction for the second time but was unsuccessful. His mother Wendy said: "It's been so hard while Darren's been in jail. I feel like I'm in prison too. I'm doing everything in my power to fight his conviction."
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