The Murder of Jessie Wright

Jessie Wright was a 16-year-old girl living in Islington, London. Her family remember her as a beautiful, bubbly girl with a zest for life. She planned to complete her GCSEs and begin a hair and beauty course. Jessie was recovering from a serious illness and brain surgery, her final operation was due to be five months after she was tragically killed.

March 2010, Jessie ate a late dinner with her Nan and then left her Nan’s flat to walk home, this was the last time her family saw her. Jessie’s partially naked body was found in a secluded spot the next day, she had been thrown into a well and landed sprawled on the ground below.

Suspicion quickly fell to a local man called Zakk Sackett. It emerged that Sackett was obsessed with Jessie and claimed to have been in love with her, Jessie’s friend recalled him swearing and making lude suggestions such as ‘I will have you in my bed,’ to Jessie, who attempted to ignore him and walked away. Jessie’s uncle testified that he had warned Sackett to stay away from Jessie after he had previously tried to drag her into some bushes in a park. Sackett initially lied that Jessie’s boyfriend had come round and threatened both of them, Jessie’s boyfriend had never met him and had not been in the area on the night of the murder. He then claimed to have been at home for most of the night and not to have seen Jessie. Sackett’s lies continued and in court, he told the jury that he had had sex with Jessie three times including on the night she died but denied raping her. He claimed she had died of natural causes when they had been having consensual sex and that he had been unable to resuscitate her. This was dismissed by the court who were able to prove Jessie had died from compression of the neck consistent with both manual strangulation and a ligature. Just minutes after the murder, Sackett had sold Jessie’s mobile phone for £15. Local residents had also expressed their fears of Sackett including emails to social services stating that he 'was going to end up killing someone.’

Sackett was convicted of murder and rape, he was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 25 years.