The Murder of June Anne Devaney and The First Mass Fingerprinting

Content Note: This case involves the murder of a young child.

On this day in 1948, three-year-old June Anne Devaney was kidnapped from her bed at Queen’s Park Hospital in Blackburn, England. She had been admitted to the hospital on May 5 due to a mild bout of pneumonia. At 1:20 am, on the morning of May 15, nurse Gwendolyn Humphreys noticed that a door was open at the end of the children's ward. As she went to close the door she saw that June Anne Devaney was no longer in her bed. She also saw what appeared to be adult-sized footprints on the hospital's well-waxed floor. The drop side of June Anne's bed was still in place, meaning that someone lifted her out of her bed. After searching for the girl for thirty minutes, Humphreys called the police. Upon arriving at the hospital, they launched an extensive search of the hospital grounds and found the body of June Anne Devaney at 3:55 am. She was laying face down in the grass near a boundary wall on the hospital grounds. Her nightdress was torn and stained with blood and it was obvious to investigators that she had numerous skull fractures.

After discovering the body of June Anne Devaney, police secured the ward and conducted another search. A medical examination showed that June Anne Devaney not only died from injuries to her skull but also from internal injuries consistent with rape. Her body also had numerous bite marks. It was determined that her murderer had picked her up by her ankles and swung her head multiple times against the boundary wall where her body had been found. Police suspected that a Blackburn resident had committed the murder and their suspicions were confirmed when a taxi driver informed them that he had picked up a man with a local accent near the scene of the crime.

As investigators examined the area around June Anne Devaney's hospital bed, they found several footprints indicating that the murderer had taken his shoes off and walked around each child's bed before taking June Anne. They also found a glass water bottle that had been moved from its normal place on the nurse's trolley to the side of June Anne's bed. The bottle contained several sets of fingerprints. Over 2,000 people who had access to the hospital were fingerprinted and all of them were ruled out as suspects. It was then that Detective Chief Inspector John Capstick decided that every man in the town of Blackburn had to be fingerprinted. He asked the public to cooperate with the promise that the fingerprints would not be used in any other investigation and that they would be destroyed once they had been compared to the Devaney murder suspect's prints.

Over the next two months, the Blackburn police force proceeded to fingerprint every male resident of Blackburn age 16 and older who was listed in the Electoral Register. Still, no match was found to the prints on the water bottle. Investigators began to track down those male citizens who were not listed in the register. On August 11, 1948, they arrived at the home of 22-year-old Peter Griffiths, an ex-serviceman who was now working as a packer on the night shift at a local flour mill. Griffiths did not hesitate to provide his fingerprints. By the afternoon of August 12, police determined that his prints were a match. By this time, they had examined 46,253 sets of prints.

Upon being arrested and informed that his prints were found at the site of June Anne Devaney's kidnapping, Peter Griffiths stated: "Well, if they are my fingerprints on the bottle, I'll tell you all about it." He told investigators that on the night of May 14, he had decided to go out drinking by himself. He became severely intoxicated and decided to walk home to try to "sober up." As he was walking, he approached a man in a parked car to ask him for a cigarette lighter. The man said, "Get in, open the window and I'll give you a spin." According to Griffiths, the man ended up parking his car near Queen’s Park Hospital. Griffiths broke into the hospital and picked up the glass bottle to use against the hospital staff if they confronted him.

While Griffiths did not go into detail about what he had done to June Anne Devaney, he did admit to carrying her across the field to the boundary wall where he assaulted and murdered her. He ended his confession with the wish that he be hanged, saying "I hope I get what I deserve." After he made his confession, he refused to cooperate any further with investigators. In addition to the fingerprints on the bottle and the footprints on the waxed floor, police were able to find a suit belonging to Griffiths stained with June Anne Devaney's blood. His trial began on October 15, 1948.

On behalf of the prosecution, Inspector Colin Campbell demonstrated to the jury how investigators determined that Griffiths' fingerprints were a match to the ones found on the glass bottle. Other experts testified to the blood evidence on Griffiths' suit and how fibers from that suit were found on the body of June Anne Devaney and the window ledge where the murderer entered the hospital. The defense chose not to cross-examine these experts.

Griffiths' defense lawyers had decided to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. They were not fighting for Griffiths' freedom, they told the jury, but for his life. Dr. Alaistair Robertson Grant testified that Griffiths was showing early signs of schizophrenia. He had treated Griffiths' father for the same condition. He also testified that while Griffiths knew what he was doing when he murdered June Anne Devaney, he did not know that it was wrong. Dr. F.H. Brisby, who had observed Griffiths while he was being held at Walton Gaol, refuted this testimony and stated that Griffiths was sane at the time of the crime.

During his trial, Peter Griffiths testified that he was extremely intoxicated when he entered Queen's Park Hospital. While he admitted to kidnapping June Anne Devaney and swinging her head against the boundary wall, he would not respond to questions about the sexual assault. At the conclusion of the two-day trial, it took the jury 23 minutes to deliberate. Peter Griffiths was found guilty of murdering June Anne Devaney. He did not appeal his conviction and was hanged on November 19, 1948, at Liverpool Prison.

Related Reading:

The History of the First Mass Fingerprinting Operation


In 1948, the First Mass Fingerprinting Operation Snagged a Horrific Child Killer