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'My evil mum helped torture babysitter who burned alive I still remember her screams'

WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT Kelly Higgins has opened up about her harrowing memories of her evil mum and her pals who tortured and murdered 16-year-old Suzanne Capper

[Kelly Higgins ]

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Kelly Higgins has been bravely sharing her story (Image: YOUTUBE/@Anything Goes With James English)

Kelly Higgins was just seven years old when her mum took part in the torture and murder of a 16 year old girl and she can still remember hearing the screams.

Suzanne Capper was burned alive after being held captive for several days by Kellys mum, Bernadette McNeilly, and her five other gang members, ages ranging from 16 to 29 at the time, in Moston, Manchester.

Kelly knew Suzanne and she said the babysitter showed her and her little brother, James, nothing but kindness and love.

But speaking about her memories of her murder, Kelly said: I just remember her screaming. Theyve removed her hair. Theyve removed her fingernails. Theyve pulled her teeth. Shes been injected, shes been drugged.

Theyve shaved her pubic hair. Theyve sexually abused this girl.

[Bernadette McNeilly ]

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Bernadette McNeilly was released in 2015 (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

Suzanne was tortured at McNeillys home before being moved to a different address and Kelly can even remember hearing scratches on the wall.

After the abuse that lasted one week, Suzanne, who was briefly released after three days to pick Kelly and James up from school, was eventually killed.

This was after being forced into a car, driven to woodland, where McNeilly, aged 24 at the time, and her satanic cult burned her alive after she was doused in petrol.

Kelly, who said Suzannes killers played the Chucky theme tune as she was being tortured in the days prior, told LADbible Stories: Bernadette attemps to set Suzanne on fire, it didn't work. Jean (Powell) attempts to set Suzanne on fire, it didn't work. So then the 16-year-old, he's the one who set Suzanne on fire. She luckily, it is incredible, manages to pull her own body out.

She added: Let me just say though, Bernadette walks away, so my mother walks away from a 16-year-old child who is on fire and sings Burn Baby Burn. Shes that psychotic.

[Suzanne Capper]

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Suzanne Capper died in December 1992 (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

Suzanne somehow managed to stay alive long enough to reveal to police who her killers were.

This led to McNeilly, along with Jean Powell, Glyn Powell and Anthony Dudson being jailed for murder. The two other members of the cult, Jeffrey Leigh and Clifford Pook, were sent to jail for false imprisonment.

Kelly, who was born in Blackpool, has shared what it was like living with her mum before she became a killer.

She claimed she and her brother James, who was two years younger, were constantly beaten and tortured by their mum who would allegedly hit them with belts and tie them to chairs.

However, according to Kelly, the evil mum would even allow her friends, the sickos mentioned above, to come over and join in with the abuse.

[Jean Powell, convicted killer of Suzanne Capper, who was released in 2017]

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Jean Powell, convicted killer of Suzanne Capper, who was released in 2017(Image: MEN Media)

She remembered: They brought a swan into the house. A swan to a child is massive. I mean, its massive to an adult, but you can imagine being little in that house. This swan came in. They're laughing. Theyre talking about what theyre gonna do.

And then were just made to stand in the room, and they chop its head off. When you chop an animals head off, the animal will still move. It still runs. Its feet was huge, it was just running around, blood.

Its neck spins, so theres no head on it so its just spinning. Theres blood. They just enjoyed every minute of causing that weird reaction from them children to be feared.

As a mother, there were no protection, there were no love.

Everything changed after the murder of Suzanne who Kelly had met on many occasions and described her as being more of a mum to her than McNeilly was.

She said Suzanne was an extremely comforting person and she and James were in the house while the teenager was being tortured.

[Glyn Powell given a life sentence in November 1993 for the murder of Suzanne Capper, with a minimum tariff of 25 years]

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Glyn Powell given a life sentence in November 1993 for the murder of Suzanne Capper, with a minimum tariff of 25 years(Image: MEN Media)

And after her mum was jailed in 1993, Kelly, who went on to live with loving foster parents and was petrified of McNeilly, had to visit her behind bars, because she still had some parental control.

Giving an insight into the prison visits, she said: The odd thing is, for a child whos visiting a mother who has been so evil, and psychotic, and horrendously dark, when youre in this prison, this mums everything you wanted her to be.

So youre walking in, shes open armed, shes loving, shes, Oh my baby girl. My beautiful baby girl. Youre getting everything that you never had.

So even though you dont wanna go through that door cause you dont wanna see her, cause you dont wanna see this person, you're scared to death of her, but you go in, you get this lovely version, you then dont wanna leave. Its horrible for a child. Its horrible.

Kelly, now 40, no longer speaks to her mum who left prison in 2015 after serving 25 years for Suzannes murder.

She has been calling for a change in the law that would mean abusive parents lose the right to see their kids.

[Anthony Dodson, convicted of the murder of Suzanne Capper, who was released in 2013]

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Anthony Dodson, convicted of the murder of Suzanne Capper, who was released in 2013(Image: MEN Media)

Despite the trauma she and James went through, both managed to go on and find happiness, something Kelly is extremely proud of.

And as for her message to her seven-year-old self, she said: Id tell her Im proud of her. Id tell her not to panic because shes gonna be a good mum. And Id tell her not to worry because shes not gonna have a bad bone in her body like her mum has, and shes not gonna represent evil.

Shes just gonna be a good person.

Kelly now has an amazing husband and three wonderful children and she said they enjoy a beautiful life together.

And continuing her advice to her younger self, she concluded: Just say to her that, you know, you get to live that childhood that you never had anyway through your children.

You get to use your imagination with your own little girls. And I still got to play with dolls, and Ive still got to, you know, run around the park, and be on adventures on holidays, and still be childlike.

Me and James still say, were the kids that never grew up.

So yeah, just reassure her that shes loved, shes safe, shes a good person."

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