Cold case detectives have arrested a man over the murder of a six-year-old boy whose body was found in woodland near his home more than 20 years ago.
Rikki Neave was last seen heading to school on the Welland estate in Peterborough on 28 November, 1994.
He was discovered dead the next day just five minutes’ walk from his home. A post-mortem found he had been strangled.
Cambridgeshire Police said yesterday they had arrested a man in his 30s from Peterborough on suspicion of murder.
Rikki’s mother Ruth Neave, now 45, was charged with murder at the time but was later found not guilty by a jury following a trial. She admitted child neglect and cruelty and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
‘Living hell’
In 2014, she called a press conference to urge the police to re-open their investigation and described how the previous 20 years had been a “living hell”.
She called for Cambridgeshire Police to re-launch the case, saying his killer remained at large.
“I loved Rikki,” she said at the time. “He was a wonderful child.”
In June last year, officers from the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit relaunched the investigation and made a national appeal on Crimewatch.
A team of specialist officers have been working to build up a timeline of Rikki’s final movements.
A spokesman for the force said a man arrested on suspicion of the murder was being held in custody at a police station in Cambridgeshire yesterday.
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