A man connected to a group involved in the infamous “suitcase murder” of a teenager has gone missing after evading child sex charges by claiming he had dementia.
Raymond Varley, now 78, was previously convicted in 1975 for sexually abusing boys alongside a doctor who is a key suspect in the murder of Bernard Oliver. Bernard, aged 17, disappeared in 1967 after leaving his Muswell Hill home in London to meet friends.
Bernard’s body was found ten days later, dismembered into eight pieces and packed into two suitcases in Tattingstone, Suffolk. He had been raped and strangled in a case known as the Tattingstone Suitcase Murder.
In 2004, documents revealed suspicions that John Byles, a former ship’s surgeon, was involved in Bernard’s murder along with another doctor named Martin Reddington. Byles fled to Australia in 1974 as part of the “Holy Trinity” pedophile ring, which included Varley and Reverend John Fairburn Poole.
Varley and Byles abused numerous boys at Poole’s Holy Trinity Church in Huddersfield from 1971 to 1974, distributing illicit images of the children to fellow pedophiles in Denmark. Varley later relocated to Thailand but was brought back to face child sex charges in India.
However, Varley managed to avoid prosecution in 2014 at the age of 67 by persuading a judge that he was suffering from dementia. His whereabouts remain unknown, with no record of his death in the UK.
Authorities are uncertain if Varley is under surveillance currently. Byles, aged 38, was found dead in a hotel in Australia in 1975, suspected to have died from a drug overdose while being sought for extradition by UK authorities.
Meanwhile, Reddington was charged in 1977 in Australia for an indecent assault, having had a surgery in Muswell Hill near where Bernard was last seen alive.
Bernard’s disappearance and subsequent murder traumatized his family, with his brother Tony still haunted by the tragedy. Tony described the deep bond he shared with Bernard and the lasting impact of losing him, emphasizing Bernard’s gentle nature.
The case resurfaced when a witness, Robert Thurston, recalled a chilling encounter near Ipswich docks around the time of Bernard’s death. Thurston vividly remembered seeing a mysterious figure wearing surgeon’s gloves near two abandoned suitcases, adding to the mystery surrounding the murder.
Varley, hailing from Halifax, West Yorkshire, managed to avoid extradition in 2014 due to claims of dementia. He was implicated in an international child abuse ring targeting over 150 children in a Goan orphanage during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The investigation into the Tattingstone Suitcase Murder remains open, with Suffolk Police periodically reviewing the case for any new leads.