Jessie Wright – After a shocking murder, Bemerton estate asks: why did everyone give up on killer?

Published: 15th April, 2011
by PAVAN AMARA and DAVID ST GEORGE

ZAKK Sackett won no sympathy as he was jailed for a minimum of 25 years at the Old Bailey on Tuesday for the rape and murder of Jessie Wright. His low IQ of just 64, his troubled upbringing, his “complex emotional needs” all counted for nothing. His crime is of the kind that cannot be forgiven, perhaps. 

Yet many people on the estate where the two youngsters grew up together are wondering why, considering all the warning signs, this youth was free to kill at all.

An investigation by the Tribune has revealed that Sackett was notorious on the Bemerton estate for violence, assaults against women and thefts. He had been under the care of social services since the age of seven, the court was told. 

Neighbours revealed this week how people were so scared of him they referred to him in whispers. Even his youth worker admitted to being afraid of him. He threw fireworks, eggs and bottles at people, was the subject of – it is said – more than one anti-social behaviour disorder – and the week before the murder had assaulted a woman and stolen her handbag.

Yet the combined efforts of police, social workers, psychiatrists and the court system failed to bring the “out of control” youth into line. 

Those who live on the estate say they were “abandoned” to him. Richard Baldwin is typical of Jess’s neighbours in describing her as a “lovely, pretty girl”.

“She started a trend on this estate,” he said. “She used to love her fur Uggy [Ugg] boots and she used to tuck them into her pyjamas. Pretty soon all the girls round her were doing that. It makes me laugh.”

But about Sackett, he said: “The police have really clamped down on the area now, but that wasn’t the case before. Trying to take care of that boy was like trying to bang your head on a brick wall over and over again. 

“Eventually everyone just gave up on him – the social, the police, everyone. So we were all left to somehow take care of him.”

Others blame the courts. Sackett, it is thought, had at least one anti-social behaviour order against him. 

Islington Social Services are believed to have had a massive file on him. There were even attempts to have him evicted, but these failed because, it is believed, of his learning difficulties.

One Town Hall insider said it was a “failure of the court system”. 

“There had been a string of offences,” the source said. “And all sorts of actions to try and put him away, but there was nothing that could finally pin him down. 

“This was a kid who was completely out of control. People would drop their voices and start whispering at any mention of him. He had a rough upbringing and went off the rails at an incredibly early age. There was nothing anybody could do about him. It leaves you with a sense of frustration.”

A neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “He caused havoc. He was a one-man crime performance. This was a no-go area during his reign. The police did a lot. There was one officer who put together a file on him the size of yellow pages. 

“The problem the police came up against every single time was the magistrates who do not have everyday dealings outside their worlds. They think: ‘Poor boy, he had a tough background’.”

The police even had a special advisory unit just for Sackett – described by one resident as a “crime mentor” – and his gang.

Just a week before Jessie’s murder in March last year Sackett is believed to have assaulted a woman and stolen her handbag – it was found in his flat when police investigating Jessie’s killing searched it.

Laura Mullins, whose daughter was friends with Jess, said: “He was emotionally unbalanced from a baby, but if someone had been there for him it might have made him stable.”

Even his youth worker was afraid of him. “I suppose I was the stable adult in his life, and he really needed that,” said Martin Willis, who works at Crumbles Adventure Playground. “But I was also scared of him. Any sane person would be. 

“He wasn’t that tall, only average height, but he was a big guy and when he was in a temper he could do some serious damage. 

“All of the youth workers had no idea how to deal with his special needs. We just weren’t specialist enough. It’s money isn’t it? It all comes down to that.”

The warning signs over Sackett were there from the beginning. His father left when he was a child and his mother was stabbed to death by another woman at a party. He also watched as his grandfather was brutally stabbed and beaten to death.

Jessie befriended Sack­ett out of sympathy, the court heard, but had no sexual interest in him. A pupil at Maria Fidelis School in Somers Town, she was popular, universally described as polite, friendly and funny.  Hundreds of teenagers organised a candlelit vigil and march through the streets to vent anguish in the days after she was found dumped at the back of the Outram estate, off York Way. She had been raped and strangled.

This week, Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Mike Wise, thanking police officers who brought Sackett to justice, paid tribute to the community’s support, particularly at the vigil.  

Sackett, who Jessie befriended not because he was a “bad boy” but because she felt sorry for him, had claimed the sex was consensual. 

On Tuesday, the Old Bailey jury rejected this defence and judge Timothy Pontius jailed him for a minimum of 25 years, finally bringing to an end his reign of terror on the Bemerton estate, but at an incalculable price for Jessie’s family.

See related:

• Family’s grief for the girl ‘who wasn’t flash, who just loved life’