Happy New Year 🥳
We’ll get through this one as we did the last - by creating Wives & Knives and having a blast.
Hello and welcome to episode three of Wives and Knives a true crime podcast with your hosts Dani & Kelly. Happy New Year episode : Paige Chivers.
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We have an interest in true crime and related topics and whilst we may offer our own personal views on certain items it is meant to be educational and as light hearted as possible. The information we present is collated from research gathered from the internet and we reference and credit our sources wherever possible.
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H are you all out there?
We hope you are keeping safe, well and up to date with all the creepy stuff out there.
One of our reshuffled episodes recorded pre whatever level of apocalypse or district you live in now. This week is episode three - Paige Chivers.
Show notes.
Paige lived at home with her parents Frank Chivers and Sheila Houghton and her younger brother, Jack, in Bispham.
Dani your our resident Blackpool expert, could you tell our lovely listeners where Bispham is in relation to Blackpool city centre? How many bus stops is your usual unit of measurement isn’t it?
- imparts wisdom and adds Paige lived on Longford Avenue.
- Paige’s family life is reported as ‘dysfunctional’, and Paige is often described as ‘troubled’ and rebellious . At the age of 13 she was expelled from school due to her bad behaviour.
Paige was introduced to a girl called Tiffany Bell, the ex girlfriend of Paige’s half-brother, Peter Houghton and they became friends. Paige wasn’t in school and it is reported that she hung around with Tiffany - she started to take drugs with cannabis and alcohol becoming a huge part of her existence, there were also concerns about underage sexual behaviour.
- Tiffany had introduced Paige to Robert Ewing ‘Bob’ - he had a flat on All Hallows’ road and it was rumoured to be a well known hang out for underage girls to go and do drugs and socialise with the owner. It is reported that Paige was regularly visiting the flat. Paige who would often go missing for a few days, but always return home had begun staying out all night, often at the flat. She had even been seen outside the flat on All Hallows’ road in her underwear and obviously drunk on several occasions.
- sadly Paige’s mum became ill and family would pop in to check on Paige and jack but you can see what a tough situation that could be. In February of 2007 Sheila died and it was a huge loss for the family as a whole.
- understandably life for Paige became even more chaotic,
Her father Frank is reported to have started drinking heavily and also had began a relationship with another woman called Lorraine Reeky, and she said Frank had intimated he blamed Paige for Sheila’s death. Frank was known to have a very quick temper and this became noticeable when he lashed out at Paige after finding out she had started taking amphetamines.
- it’s so sad, we’ve got a young girl who Is clearly going through some shit, her mums Ill and sadly dies and her and her brother don’t appear to be getting any support from their father. I think that explains the vulnerable aspect of there being a connection between Paige and Charlene?! As an outsider looking in as we do with our research - Paige’s home life isn’t great but it’s a different ‘home life’ from Charlene - is what I’m getting at. There are different circumstances that get our girls in the paths of paedophiles.
And again no doubt similar failings in getting to these girls sooner however for Paige it seems that Paige was still trying to turn her life around and in May 2007 she contacted Connexions, a council-run support centre in Blackpool for 13 to 19-year-olds and was set to begin a new educational course.
- unfortunately despite this positive push forward this wasn’t meant to be because Paige didn’t make the next appointment at connexions.
On 23rd August 2007, a furious Frank had telephoned Jack telling him that he would kill Paige when he returned home after discovering that she had taken money from his wallet. She had also recently used his bank card without permission. When Jack relayed this to Paige, she threw her clothes into two carrier bags and left. Jack followed his sister down the road and Paige asked him to go with her but he refused. Jack watched Paige walk away and was the last family member to see her alive. Not long after, two of his friends saw her at a bus stop heading to an appointment at Connexions for which she never arrived. She was with an older man…. When Frank returned home, his daughter had gone.
Frank does a Karen - finally reporting his daughter missing on 26th August, the police call handler managed to input her year of birth incorrectly on the computer system. Instead of 1992, her date of birth was entered as 1962, and to make matters worse, it was also logged that Paige had gone missing of her own accord and so the crucial early days of an investigation were lost when police were looking for a missing 45-year old woman and not a vulnerable 15-year old - it wasn’t until 7th September that the error was realised and rectified.
That’s a 12-day period enabling Robert Ewing to cover his tracks… temporarily
Paige did not claim an inheritance left to her by her mother. There was no evidence that Paige was working or claiming benefits or using the health service. There was no trace of her anywhere.
- Let’s talk about Robert Ewing - He was a convicted paedophile.
Ewing convicted of two counts of gross indecency and one count of indecent assault at Wolverhampton Crown Court in 1995.
before eventually ending up in Blackpool.
He was an active member of the BNP & EDL right wing fanatics.
Both Ewing and Dewhurst were members of the British National Party (BNP) – an extreme right-wing group. Dewhurst ha been described “completely weird” and said he had a fascination with the Nazis, he and a Ewing are self proclaimed new Nazis. .
He is known to have attended marches in protest of how Charlene Downes and Paige Chivers because like we say those groups like/d to use their cases to promote racism.
- the BNP and paedophiles - is it a haven for them? Didn’t one of them at some point have a campaign to kill paedophiles?
- makes it a good place to hide?
And he is supposedly the ‘older man’ at the bus stop - the last person to see Paige alive.
-the police eventually realised that Paige wasn’t your usual run away teenager.
Police believe that within the following hours or days from her last being seen she was murdered/met foul play.
When they look further into Robert Ewing they can see that on 13th AUGUST 2007 the owner of the All Hallows Road flat telephoned police stating that he was concerned for the welfare of a girl he “just vaguely” knew after she had been thrown out of her home, although he did not know where she lived – which was a lie. He claimed he had sent her back home and was telephoning for police advice, but did not give his name. There was little advice forthcoming. In fact, the police were disinterested and this, the prosecution eventually claimed, was a tester as to whether she was on a radar.
It later transpired that the call was made from a telephone box right outside the police station.
Robert Ewing had an “inappropriate sexual interest” in Paige and had slowly groomed her. This was eventually proved when photographs of Paige were found on his phone, but his advances must have been unwanted as it is believed that during the summer of 2007, Paige threatened to report Ewing to the authorities.
- we cant know for sure what happened but this must have triggered Ewing, knowing that any complaint to police about impropriety would land him back in jail. It’s believed that when Ewing made the phone call on 13th August, he was doing so to test the water. Telling the police of his concern for a “problem child” had been met with total disinterest and so it was at that point that Ewing had made his decision to kill Paige and cover his tracks.
When he saw her at the bus stop or she turned up at his home on 23rd August with her belongings, he seized his opportunity and killed her on that day or at some point over that Bank Holiday weekend.
In January 2008, Ewing was arrested and questioned but denied any involvement in her disappearance or sexual contact with Paige beforehand. When asked why he allowed Paige into his home, he said that he used to let everyone in.
-just like TIFFANY BELL
Tiffany Bell was arrested in January 2008 and questioned by police about Paige’s disappearance. She and Paige had known each other for five years and it was Tiffany who first introduced her to Ewing. She was released without charge, but lost custody of her child. Five months later she contacted police and stated that Dewhurst had said something about Paige’s disappearance. Bell couldn’t remember making that call.
Bell had also spent nights at Ewing’s flat.
Another name we mentioned earlier -
Gareth Dewhurst, 46, of Duncan Road, Bispham, was a friend of Ewing and had started a relationship with a woman named Mary Washer in April 2008. During a few conversations he had mentioned Paige to Mary claiming that Paige and another girl would ‘prostitute themselves.’
During a late-night drink and cannabis-smoking session, Mary overheard a conversation between Dewhurst and her 16-year old son, Michael, in which he said he had taken a call from a friend called ‘Bob’ and gone to his flat in All Hallows Road. There he found Paige dead and that Ewing had forced him to have sex with Paige before also confessing that he helped to dispose of Paige’s body using his car, but refused to divulge where her body was taken, stating “I can’t tell you that, it’s too dangerous.”
Dewhurst explained how he and ‘Bob’ had put Paige’s body in the boot of his car. He was frightened that he was going to get arrested, or that Bob would kill him and so he wanted to set his car on fire to destroy any evidence. Mary and Michael gave statements to the police soon after.
In May 2008, Dewhurst turned up at Bispham Police Station asking to speak with a detective as he believed he was suspected of killing Paige.
Claiming he had only met Paige three or four times before her disappearance, he denied any involvement.In an even more bizarre twist, that same month Dewhurst went to Blackpool Police Station and gave a witness statement.
Police used covert listening equipment in Dewhurst’s car and Ewing’s flat at different periods over three years in order to obtain evidence. Eventually spots of blood matching Paige’s DNA were discovered at Ewing’s flat. Ewing claimed this had come from a cut on Paige’s arm, but forensic specialists were able to prove that the blood pattern was not consistent with a single cut.
It was also noted that a piece of carpet had been replaced. Ewing claimed that this was done after a cat had urinated on the previous one.
When Dewhurst learned that Mary and Michael had provided evidence to the police, a campaign of intimidation ensued. Abusive letters (with Dewhurst’s fingerprints on the envelope), threats of violence, attempting to attack Michael with a rusty machete and breaking their windows were all part of his campaign. Ewing also gave false information to Crime-stoppers about the family.
They also laid a number of false trails for the investigation. Ewing even went so far as to blame two other people of Paige’s murder – one being a severely ill man in the hope he would die and bring the murder investigation to a close.
Another interesting add in here is that of paiges father Frank
On 11th August 2013 Paige’s father, Frank Chivers, was found at his home in Layton with a head injury. He never regained consciousness and died from a bleed on the brain. He was just 49-years old.
Sean Conlon, 44, of no fixed abode was found guilty of the murder of Frank and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Lorraine Reeky claimed that Frank had a total breakdown following Paige’s disappearance and became violent towards her and her young daughter.
When police searched Ewing’s flat in connection to Paige’s disappearance, they discovered a dossier which Ewing had entitled ‘The Life and Death of Frank Chivers – Blackpool’s Hardest Man’ and contained articles relating to Frank’s death. Although an odd find, police maintain that Frank’s death was completely unrelated to the Paige investigation.
And so, in 2015 eight years after Paige first disappeared Ewing and Dewhurst appeared at Preston Crown Court charged with her murder/accessory to murder. Ewing, having had a previous conviction in 1995 of abusing a 13-year old girl, was sentenced to life imprisonment with the judge recommending he served a minimum of 32 years. At 60-years old that’s quite the sentence to live out.
As for Dewhurst, he was jailed for eight years accessory to murder.
At the end of the trial the judge, Mr Justice Baker, said:
“In the absence of any explanation from you, the full circumstances of precisely what happened to Paige Chivers may never be known.
“It may be of some significance that during the course of subsequent cover audio recordings you were heard to say ‘If anyone starts I don’t mess around. A quick hammer over the f***ing head. Then they will be sorry.”
- fast forward to 2018 headlines read -
The man who groomed and murdered Blackpool girl Paige Chivers has been given a further jail term for subjecting two young children to a catalogue of vile physical and sexual abuse more than a decade before killing the vulnerable teen.
Following his conviction It emerged that he terrorised a young girl and boy in the early 1990s, with one of the children as young as five.
He was given 15 years in jail after being found guilty at Preston Crown Court of two counts of indecently assaulting the boy, and a count of child cruelty towards each of the children.
– but the court heard due to his ongoing 32-year sentence he is not eligible for parole until the age of 92; I’m guessing that’s not going to be an issue.
You can do your own research on this vile creature Robert Ewing but I’ve got some quotes here for to read out.
Judge Philip Parry said Ewing could appear “charming and beguiling” to other adults.
But Behind closed doors with children he was brutal, perverted and a sadistic bully.
His victim who is now an adult said - He tried to rid me of my pride, my dignity, and my identity.
“He became a permanent image in my mind. I saw him all the time. I would wake up and I couldn’t breathe.”
She said she needed years of therapy to deal with the effects of her abuse, adding: “Now I know I can walk away from all of this and be free.”
The boy, in a statement, said: “I really believed when he made threats to kill me I thought he would do it.
The court previously heard how the child killer forced the girl to watch while he tortured the boy, who was just seven or eight-years-old at the time.
He would subject her to cold baths and would force her head under the water until she couldn’t breathe.
- and that is pretty much the case - there are a few tidbits to add
Ewing contacted the Daily Mail ‘newspaper’ and attempted to sell his story as to how he solved the mystery of her demise.
And the main point which we touched on last week, in that Gareth Dewhurst said that he couldn’t reveal where Paige is buried because it was too dangerous. What do you think he means by that?
-in your opinion is it a valid theory or consideration that Charlene could have gone to his flat to hang out?
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