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Lesley Whittle (born 1957 , died 1975) was a 17-year-old girl who became the youngest and most famous victim of the British serial killer known as the Black Panther, later established to be Donald Neilson.
In January 1975 , Whittle was kidnapped from the bedroom of her home in Shropshire, England, in order to acquire a £50,000 ransom from her family. The kidnapper had read that Whittle had been left a considerable sum of money by her late father George, who ran a successful coach company.
A series of police bungles and other circumstances meant that Whittle's brother Ronald was unable to deliver the ransom money to the place and time demanded by the kidnapper, who pushed Whittle off the ledge where he had tethered her in a secluded Staffordshire park, strangling her.
Recriminations followed but Neilson was ultimately caught and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1976 for the murder of Whittle and four other people. The trial judge recommended that Neilson should never be released unless he lived to a great age or endured infirmity. More than 30 years on, he is still behind bars as one of the country's longest-serving prisoners.
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