Teenager who murdered mother-of-two identified after ban on naming him lifted by judge
13 August 2020, 13:45
A teenager who murdered a mother-of-two in Accrington can be identified after a judge at Preston Crown Court lifted reporting restrictions.
Rocky Marciano Price, 17, named after the famous boxer, killed Lindsay Birbeck by strangling her before dumping her body in a wheelie bin.
The 47-year-old's body was found wrapped in plastic bags at the back of a cemetery in August 24 last year.
Mrs Justice Yip lifted the restriction on naming Price today saying: "This was a dreadful crime which understandably generated strong public interest.
"The public will naturally want to know who this person was as they come to terms with something that rocked the local community."
A jury at Preston Crown Court yesterday convicted him of murder after deliberating for more than four hours.
The teenager had previously pleaded guilty to assisting in the disposal of her body but said he was not involved in her death.
He had claimed he was offered money by an unidentified man to get rid of the body.
Mrs Birbeck left her home in Burnley Road, Accrington, for a late afternoon walk to a nearby wooded area known as the Coppice.
She had invited her teenage daughter Sarah and Sarah's boyfriend for tea at 6pm, and when she did not return her family raised the alarm.
Price, who was 16 at the time, had been on the prowl in the woods for lone females and is thought to have killed Mrs Birbeck shortly after she entered the Coppice.
His parents took him to a police station several days after Mrs Birbeck was found, when police released a CCTV clip of a young male pulling a blue wheelie bin behind him on Burnley Road.
Family members of Price as well as some of his teachers and members of his gym recognised him in the footage.
He admitted dragging the bin from the Coppice on August 17, with Mrs Birbeck inside, across Burnley Road to the cemetery.
He will be sentenced on Friday.
