The Upper Norwood aunt of murdered schoolboy Roy Tutill has this week revealed the private heartache behind her nephew's death which ripped their family apart.

Monique Guerin, from Sylvan Road, this week spoke of how the youngster's sexual assault and murder was thought to have brought on the early death of his own father.

Roy's brother and sister, unable to cope with the devastation surrounding their sibling's death, emigrated to other countries.

And Roy's mother, Hilary, firmly believed her husband died from heartache following their son's brutal strangulation.

Dennis Tutill died aged 46, two years after his 14-year-old boy was found raped and murdered in 1968.

Hilary died two years ago and the memories from beyond the grave are preserved by Roy's aunt, 67-year-old Monique Guerin.

"Dennis suffered from asthma but it got worse after Roy's murder," she said.

"He took it very badly. He would not talk about it and he became introverted in his grief."

Two years after Roy's killing, Dennis suffered a serious asthma attack and died.

"Hilary always maintained that Dennis went to his early grave because of the shock."

Monique is one of Roy's four surviving relatives.

Roy's brother Colin lives in America, his sister, Margaret, in Australia and Monique's son Howard, is in South Africa.

"None of us has ever been able to come to terms with Roy's killing," she said.

The death devastated the family, and was one of the reasons the children moved away.

For years, Colin was weighed down by guilt at the knowledge that he arrived on a scooter at the Bridge Road roundabout in Chessington minutes after Roy got off the bus to hitch a ride.

"Colin was full of grief and wanted vengeance. He was very protective of Roy and felt guilty for a very long time after because he felt he could have prevented it."

Until her death in 1999, Hilary, who had re-married and was living in Dorset, kept a photograph of Roy the one used in witness appeals by her bedside, like a shrine.

"It never moved from her bedside table. Roy was her last thought at night before she went to sleep.

"Her main concern was that Roy's killer was still at large and possibly doing the same things to somebody else's child. That made her terribly upset and gave her a lot of pain.

"For years she was thinking how unfair it was that Roy's killer was still out there living his life while a 14 year old boy was lying in a grave because of him."

Monique remembers vividly the moment she discovered Roy's disappearance on April 23, 1968.

"I got to know it through the newspaper. It was a Saturday afternoon. I was flicking through the pages and suddenly I saw Roy's picture. I was so shocked I couldn't get off my chair. It was a terrible shock, I couldn't speak to Hilary and Dennis for two days."

Monique divorced Roy's uncle Alan, with whom they had a son, Howard, in the early sixties but stayed in close contact with Hilary until she died from cancer, aged 64.

"I have been angry for all these years and I have felt frustration because this evil man had not been found."

She was at the Old Bailey two weeks ago where Brian Field, 65, was sentenced to life in jail for Roy's murder.

"It's just a shame Roy's parents weren't there to see justice being done. Roy can finally rest in peace."

December 6, 2001 11:30