Chloe Hoson was a 5-year-old girl living in Sydney, Australia. She was described as a happy, playful girl who loved animals.

In 2003, Chloe’s mother told her to play outside while she cleaned the family caravan. While outside, Chloe saw the man who lived in the neighbouring caravan, 22-year-old Timothy Kosowicz. Kosowicz lured Chloe into his caravan telling her that she could play with his new kitten. Kosowicz claimed that while inside Chloe knocked over a pot of cannabis and that he ‘lost the plot’ and choked her before suffocating her with shopping bags and abusing her body. He then put Chloe’s remains in a sports bag which he dumped at a nearby creek.

Kosowicz was not convicted of the crime due to being found mentally ill, he spent 15 years on a psychiatric unit before being released.

Remember kids, mosquito lives are more important than human lives.

Happy Earth Day!

Abduction and Murder: The Case of Little Sophie Hook

Just after 7am on 30th July 1995, 55 year old Gerry Davies set off from home to begin his usual dog walk down North Shore Beach in Llandudno, Wales. However, what was normally a peaceful morning routine would turn out to be a day he would never forget.

While walking along the beach, he spotted what appeared to be a discarded mannequin nearby. However, when the strange behaviour of his dogs led him to inspect more closely, he discovered the “marble white” body of a little girl. Gerry was quickly able to determine that she was deceased, at which point he used his t-shirt to cover up her unclothed body before running to the nearest phone box to alert the police.

The body was identified as that of 7 year old Sophie Hook, who was snatched from her uncle’s garden just hours before, in the early hours of 30th July. At the time, she was having a sleepover in a tent with her cousins.

Wearing her Winnie the Pooh nightie and pink floral socks, Sophie was wrapped up and sleeping soundly when her uncle carried out one final check on the children at 12:40am. Two hours later, one of the cousins woke and saw the time to be 2:30am, noting that Sophie was still sleeping. However, when they woke again at 7:15am, Sophie was gone. Realising that she was nowhere to be found, the family reached out to police at around 8:20am - at which point, her body had already been found.

Police were quick to arrest a 30-year-old local man named Howard Hughes. Standing out at a height of 6 ft 8 inches, Hughes had already drawn attention to himself for other more sinister reasons.
Hours prior to Sophie’s disappearance, Hughes was seen by several witnesses lingering on a path which overlooked her location. One woman actually found him hiding in the bushes, and he told her he was looking for money he had dropped. The path was so close to the property that he would have been able to eavesdrop in on the children’s conversations, and was therefore aware they would be sleeping in the garden that night.

Hughes already had a long history of offences, including accusations of assaulting girls aged between 3 and 9 years old, and a search of his home following Sophie’s death turned up a collection of indecent images of children. He was subsequently charged with her abduction, rape and murder.

An autopsy report documented that Sophie had sustained injuries with such force that her upper right arm and ankle had been broken, and she was covered in bruises consistent with being gripped and punched. She had also suffered internal bleeding and had been violently sexually assaulted. Her injuries were likened to those received in a high-impact car collision, and sickeningly, most were sustained while she was still alive. Dr Donald Waite - the pathologist conducting the autopsy - further explained that Sophie had endured so much pain that she had bitten down hard on both sides of her tongue and the inside of her lip, leaving wounds. Eventually, she was strangled to death in an ordeal which lasted up to 3 minutes, and was then dumped into the sea.

On 24th June 1996, Hughes’ trial began. In the absence of any forensic evidence tying him to the crime, the jury heard the testimony of three witnesses - one being Hughes’ own father. Gerald Hughes addressed the court and spoke of how his son had confided to him that he had murdered Sophie, although Howard went on to deny this confession. Another man named Jonathan Carroll told the jury he had seen Hughes lugging a sack on the night of Sophie’s murder, and he had caught glimpses of a nude body. Carroll also admitted that he himself was burglarising a property at the time he saw Hughes, therefore willingly implicating himself in a different crime in order to do the right thing. Third witness Michael Guidi - already convicted of child sex offences - recalled having a conversation with Hughes a few years prior about the defendant’s fantasy to “rape a girl of 4 or 5”.

In July 1996, Howard Hughes was convicted of all charges and rightfully sentenced to life imprisonment. On 24th November 2002, it was announced that he would have to

serve a minimum imprisonment of 50 years before consideration for parole. This ruling means that Hughes will only be eligible for release in 2045, at the age of 80.