Bad influences: Murdered schoolgirl Tia Sharp, 12, was surrounded by criminality and casual sex in her home life
In their own way, those few simple sentences sum up the deep affection in which Tia was held, not just by her friends but by everyone with whom she had contact.
Small for her age, just 4ft 5in tall, but she had a big, infectiously sunny personality.
She loved films, music and singing and would often pretend her BlackBerry was a microphone. On Saturday nights, she would be glued to the television for The X Factor; one day, she said, she wanted to be an actress herself. She already had one star billing: above her bed her name was spelled out in giant letters on the wall in her favourite pink.
Her happy optimism helps explain why so many cards and flowers were left outside her grandmother’s home, where Tia spent much of her time.
The contrast between the bittersweet memories they represent and what happened just a few yards away, behind the now boarded-up front door of No 20, The Lindens, is almost impossible to convey in words.
Tia’s naked body was found wrapped in plastic bin liners in the tiny loft space of the property one day last August when the country was transfixed by the Olympics.
Her family had to wait until this
week to see her killer, Stuart Hazell, jailed for a minimum of 38 years
at the Old Bailey. But there is a much wider and no less disturbing
narrative to the Tia Sharp tragedy.
Tia was the product of a world most people could not begin to comprehend; a world of drug taking, alcohol abuse, domestic disturbances, social service interventions and loose sexual morals — fuelled by pornography — that has become part and parcel of everyday life in certain sections of welfare-dependent society.
Had this not been the case, had
the lines between what is right and wrong not become so grotesquely
blurred, then Tia Sharp might still be alive today. For she would never
have been left alone with such a vile misfit as Hazell, an individual
with 30 criminal convictions, including crack cocaine-dealing and
violence.
Much, if not all of this, was known to Tia’s family. Moreover, Hazell was not only the live-in lover of Tia’s grandmother Christine Bicknell, he had also dated Miss Bicknell’s daughter Natalie Sharp, the mother of Tia.
Back in Croydon this week, sympathy for Tia’s family was mixed, with anger at their failure to protect her. On the day Hazell, 37, was sentenced, eight police officers stood guard outside the house where
Tia spent her final hours amid fears
the address, which is due to be demolished, could provide a focal point
for ‘lynch mob’ violence and vandalism. Those
fears proved to be unfounded, but the ill-feeling towards Miss
Bicknell, 47, and Miss Sharp, 31, has intensified over the past few
days.
This is in the wake of their numerous TV appearances and the exclusive front page accounts they gave to rival red-top tabloids (‘My Lover The Monster’ and ‘Mum’s Message To Sex Monster’) for which it has now emerged they were paid tens of thousands of pounds.
In fact, money had already entered the equation within a few weeks of Tia’s death. Miss Sharp’s partner, David Niles, 29, was telling any journalist who approached him for an interview: ‘How much are you offering and can you pay cash? It’s not worth anything less than ten grand.’
This is the same David Niles who had professed his love for Tia shortly after she had gone missing.
‘I was in Tia’s life from when she was just four years old, so she grew up seeing me as her dad. I loved her like she was my own daughter,’ declared Mr Niles, who has been unemployed and claiming benefits for the past four years, according to neighbours.
We now know, however, that Tia had a less‑than-perfect home life with her mother and stepfather.
In fact, Mr Niles and Miss Sharp, who have two young sons — Tia’s half-siblings — were investigated by social services three times in recent years, twice in relation to Class A drugs and once over an argument at their flat in Mitcham, South London, when the police were called.
Tia, who was sometimes absent from school, was never placed on the at-risk register, but sought refuge with her grandmother in Croydon — which brought her under the same roof as paedophile Stuart Hazell. Tia had even expressed a wish to move in with her grandmother permanently once she turned 16.
This is the cruel irony at the heart of this story. Needless to say, David Niles was not asked about any of this when he appeared on ITV’s Daybreak the other morning. He received a fee of £2,000 for the four-minute interview.
The following day, after Hazell was jailed, Mr Niles and many of Tia’s relatives went to the ITV studios to complete a documentary (Living With A Killer) which was broadcast on Thursday evening. Perhaps the most revealing insight into this family occurred off-camera, however.
‘Some of the extended family
were asking for the autographs of the celebrities who work there,’ said
someone who witnessed this distasteful circus. ‘They were very excited
to be there.’
Of course, Tia Sharp is just the latest victim of the moral decay that now prevails in parts of Britain.
The names may change, they may come from different parts of the country, but all are casualties of the same underclass whose ‘values’ — subsidised in the most part by benefits — are being passed down from generation to generation, from father to son, mother to daughter.
Tia’s grandmother Christine Bicknell, the matriarch of the family, is the daughter of a warehouse worker who drank heavily. Christine became pregnant with Natalie at just 15. The baby’s father, Paul Sharp, a long-distance lorry driver, had been in and out of prison.
He and Christine were married shortly after Natalie was born, but broke up after 18 years together. Christine married again in 2004, but within a few years her second marriage had also ended. At the time, Christine was a barmaid at the Raynes Parks Tavern in South-west London, where regulars still remember her. One recalls her as being ‘uncouth and foul-mouthed’.
Among the hardened drinkers who propped up the dimly lit bar in those days was a loner with cropped hair and arms covered in tattoos.
Stuart Hazell made no secret of his background. His father was a recidivist criminal with a CV that included convictions for theft, burglary, damage to property and firearms offences. Stuart followed in his footsteps and referred to his chequered past as the ‘Hazell curse.’
Nevertheless, in around 2002, Christine introduced her own daughter to Hazell and they began going out together. Like
her, Natalie Sharp had also been a teenage mother: she gave birth to
Tia when she was just 18. By then, she had already broken up with Tia’s
father. In the eyes of her family, he was ‘just a sperm donor’.
What attracted a young woman like Natalie Sharp to Hazell, who was just four years her senior but looked old enough to be her father? Was the common denominator drugs?
In 2003, Hazell was jailed for nearly three years for being part of a gang selling crack cocaine and heroin. Hazell and his associates were caught with wraps of the drugs hidden in their mouths and in their underwear. Police said they had caused ‘misery and crime’ in the Kingston-upon-Thames area.
Hazell’s relationship with Miss Sharp was apparently short-lived, lasting only a matter of weeks, and was over before he was convicted.
Yet some time after he was freed from prison both Miss Sharp and her new partner, the aforementioned David Niles, were also arrested for possession of Class A drugs, although no charges were ever brought. Just a coincidence?
Either way, in 2007, Miss Bicknell, Sharp’s mother, started an affair of her own with window cleaner Hazell. She said it didn’t bother her that he had also been with her daughter. Just a week after they started going out, Hazell moved in with her in Croydon. And soon Tia herself would be left in his charge.
This is the shocking chronology that put Tia in mortal danger. Gradually, she would spend more and more time at her grandmother’s house in New Addington, a notoriously deprived area on the outskirts of Croydon.
The local shopping parade has a
cheap takeaway, a betting shop and a supermarket selling discounted
super-strength lagers and ciders. On the window of the Randall Tavern,
there is a police poster offering a reward for witnesses to an attempted
murder in the neighbourhood.
Stuart Hazell was a regular at the Randall Tavern until an ‘incident’ three years ago when he was kicked out for causing trouble. He returned a few hours later.
‘We saw him coming up the path carrying a machete,’ said the landlord. ‘It was about the time the kids were coming out of school. I locked the doors and told everyone to stay inside. Then I called the police.’
Hazell was jailed for 12 months for possession of a machete in a public place. Still, Christine Bicknell, who worked in a care home, and Tia’s mother were prepared to leave her in his care. There was no hint of his unhealthy interest in children but, by Miss Bicknell’s own admission, Hazell would drink ‘cans of Fosters and vodka and get very argumentative. And he used to smoke weed as well in front of Tia and all the other grandchildren. I used to hate that. I used to tell him: “No, not in front of Tia. You know I don’t like it.” But he’d carry on anyway.’
This is what passes for normal life — and a grandmother’s sense of propriety — on some housing estates in this country.
Only when it was too late did it emerge that Hazell was engaged in much darker activities. Police would find internet searches on his computer for ‘naked girlies’, ‘illegal underage incest pics’, ‘violent forced rape’ and ‘little girls with glasses’. Tia wore glasses.
There was only one individual, as the judge said, who was responsible for ending Tia Sharp’s life. But anyone who has followed this harrowing case, or is simply reading this article now, will surely agree that Stuart Hazell was not the only person to betray her trust.
DAILYMAIL
Tia was the product of a world most people could not begin to comprehend; a world of drug taking, alcohol abuse, domestic disturbances, social service interventions and loose sexual morals — fuelled by pornography — that has become part and parcel of everyday life in certain sections of welfare-dependent society.
Killer: Stuart Hazell, 37, was the live-in lover of Tia's grandmother Christine Bicknell and had dated Tia's mother
Much, if not all of this, was known to Tia’s family. Moreover, Hazell was not only the live-in lover of Tia’s grandmother Christine Bicknell, he had also dated Miss Bicknell’s daughter Natalie Sharp, the mother of Tia.
Back in Croydon this week, sympathy for Tia’s family was mixed, with anger at their failure to protect her. On the day Hazell, 37, was sentenced, eight police officers stood guard outside the house where
Refuge: Tia Sharp often preferred to stay with
her grandmother Christine Bicknell, which brought her under the same
roof as paedophile Stuart Hazell
This is in the wake of their numerous TV appearances and the exclusive front page accounts they gave to rival red-top tabloids (‘My Lover The Monster’ and ‘Mum’s Message To Sex Monster’) for which it has now emerged they were paid tens of thousands of pounds.
In fact, money had already entered the equation within a few weeks of Tia’s death. Miss Sharp’s partner, David Niles, 29, was telling any journalist who approached him for an interview: ‘How much are you offering and can you pay cash? It’s not worth anything less than ten grand.’
This is the same David Niles who had professed his love for Tia shortly after she had gone missing.
‘I was in Tia’s life from when she was just four years old, so she grew up seeing me as her dad. I loved her like she was my own daughter,’ declared Mr Niles, who has been unemployed and claiming benefits for the past four years, according to neighbours.
We now know, however, that Tia had a less‑than-perfect home life with her mother and stepfather.
In fact, Mr Niles and Miss Sharp, who have two young sons — Tia’s half-siblings — were investigated by social services three times in recent years, twice in relation to Class A drugs and once over an argument at their flat in Mitcham, South London, when the police were called.
Tia, who was sometimes absent from school, was never placed on the at-risk register, but sought refuge with her grandmother in Croydon — which brought her under the same roof as paedophile Stuart Hazell. Tia had even expressed a wish to move in with her grandmother permanently once she turned 16.
This is the cruel irony at the heart of this story. Needless to say, David Niles was not asked about any of this when he appeared on ITV’s Daybreak the other morning. He received a fee of £2,000 for the four-minute interview.
The following day, after Hazell was jailed, Mr Niles and many of Tia’s relatives went to the ITV studios to complete a documentary (Living With A Killer) which was broadcast on Thursday evening. Perhaps the most revealing insight into this family occurred off-camera, however.
Parents: Tia's mother Natalie Sharp and her
partner David Niles have been investigated by social services three
times in recent years
Of course, Tia Sharp is just the latest victim of the moral decay that now prevails in parts of Britain.
The names may change, they may come from different parts of the country, but all are casualties of the same underclass whose ‘values’ — subsidised in the most part by benefits — are being passed down from generation to generation, from father to son, mother to daughter.
Tia’s grandmother Christine Bicknell, the matriarch of the family, is the daughter of a warehouse worker who drank heavily. Christine became pregnant with Natalie at just 15. The baby’s father, Paul Sharp, a long-distance lorry driver, had been in and out of prison.
He and Christine were married shortly after Natalie was born, but broke up after 18 years together. Christine married again in 2004, but within a few years her second marriage had also ended. At the time, Christine was a barmaid at the Raynes Parks Tavern in South-west London, where regulars still remember her. One recalls her as being ‘uncouth and foul-mouthed’.
Among the hardened drinkers who propped up the dimly lit bar in those days was a loner with cropped hair and arms covered in tattoos.
Stuart Hazell made no secret of his background. His father was a recidivist criminal with a CV that included convictions for theft, burglary, damage to property and firearms offences. Stuart followed in his footsteps and referred to his chequered past as the ‘Hazell curse.’
Crime scene: Tia's body was found in the loft of her grandmother's house, where she had hoped to move at 16
What attracted a young woman like Natalie Sharp to Hazell, who was just four years her senior but looked old enough to be her father? Was the common denominator drugs?
In 2003, Hazell was jailed for nearly three years for being part of a gang selling crack cocaine and heroin. Hazell and his associates were caught with wraps of the drugs hidden in their mouths and in their underwear. Police said they had caused ‘misery and crime’ in the Kingston-upon-Thames area.
Hazell’s relationship with Miss Sharp was apparently short-lived, lasting only a matter of weeks, and was over before he was convicted.
Yet some time after he was freed from prison both Miss Sharp and her new partner, the aforementioned David Niles, were also arrested for possession of Class A drugs, although no charges were ever brought. Just a coincidence?
Either way, in 2007, Miss Bicknell, Sharp’s mother, started an affair of her own with window cleaner Hazell. She said it didn’t bother her that he had also been with her daughter. Just a week after they started going out, Hazell moved in with her in Croydon. And soon Tia herself would be left in his charge.
This is the shocking chronology that put Tia in mortal danger. Gradually, she would spend more and more time at her grandmother’s house in New Addington, a notoriously deprived area on the outskirts of Croydon.
Final hours: When Tia Sharp was pictured out with Stuart Hazell he admitted murdering the 12-year-old schoolgirl
Stuart Hazell was a regular at the Randall Tavern until an ‘incident’ three years ago when he was kicked out for causing trouble. He returned a few hours later.
‘We saw him coming up the path carrying a machete,’ said the landlord. ‘It was about the time the kids were coming out of school. I locked the doors and told everyone to stay inside. Then I called the police.’
Hazell was jailed for 12 months for possession of a machete in a public place. Still, Christine Bicknell, who worked in a care home, and Tia’s mother were prepared to leave her in his care. There was no hint of his unhealthy interest in children but, by Miss Bicknell’s own admission, Hazell would drink ‘cans of Fosters and vodka and get very argumentative. And he used to smoke weed as well in front of Tia and all the other grandchildren. I used to hate that. I used to tell him: “No, not in front of Tia. You know I don’t like it.” But he’d carry on anyway.’
This is what passes for normal life — and a grandmother’s sense of propriety — on some housing estates in this country.
Only when it was too late did it emerge that Hazell was engaged in much darker activities. Police would find internet searches on his computer for ‘naked girlies’, ‘illegal underage incest pics’, ‘violent forced rape’ and ‘little girls with glasses’. Tia wore glasses.
There was only one individual, as the judge said, who was responsible for ending Tia Sharp’s life. But anyone who has followed this harrowing case, or is simply reading this article now, will surely agree that Stuart Hazell was not the only person to betray her trust.
DAILYMAIL
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