A fresh inquest is set to be held into the death of a teenage boy whose body was discovered near Meriden more than 40 years ago, following a successful legal challenge by his family.
The High Court has overturned the open verdict recorded after the death of 15-year-old Mark Billington, whose body was found hanging from a tree in woodland on the edge of Meriden in November 1984.
Mark, who lived in south Yardley, Birmingham, had been missing for nine weeks after leaving home on his bicycle to fly a kite.
At the time, his death was treated as a suspected suicide and an open verdict was later returned by a coroner. However, members of Mark’s family have spent decades challenging that conclusion, arguing there were significant unanswered questions surrounding his death.
In a ruling by Lady Justice Whipple and Mr Justice Hilliard, the High Court quashed the original verdict, paving the way for a new inquest to examine the circumstances of Mark’s death.
Mark’s sister, Cheryl Jeyes, described the decision as a significant milestone in the family’s long search for answers.
She said the ruling did not resolve all the questions surrounding her brother’s death but represented an important step towards ensuring all available evidence could be properly examined.
Mrs Jeyes said the decision was bittersweet because their mother, Winifred, who died before the court hearing, had spent years campaigning for a fresh investigation.
She said a photograph of her mother was taken into court so she could be present “in spirit” for the hearing.
Their father, Roy Billington, now aged 85, was unable to attend because of frailty, but the family said he shared their gratitude for the court’s decision.
Mark had developmental delays and weakness affecting one side of his body. His family have long questioned whether he would have been physically capable of travelling the seven miles from his home to the location where his body was found, or of tying the complex knot involved.
The case was re-examined by police in 2001 and became a murder investigation the following year. However, no-one has ever been charged in connection with Mark’s death.
The renewed investigation followed the conviction of Brian Field, a farm labourer from Solihull who admitted murdering 14-year-old Roy Tutill in Surrey in 1968. Detectives reviewed a number of unsolved cases at the time to establish whether there were any links.
Police stressed during the investigation that Field had not been interviewed in relation to Mark’s death. Instead, detectives focused on a group of teenagers reportedly seen in a park behind Mark’s home on the day he disappeared.
Field died in prison in 2024 at the age of 87.
West Midlands Police has previously said that because Mark’s death was originally investigated as a suicide before being referred to the coroner, procedures in place at the time meant some material that might now be considered evidence was not retained.
A date for the new inquest has not yet been announced.
The family thanked Birmingham Senior Coroner Louise Hunt, the Attorney General and the High Court for their support and careful consideration throughout the legal process. They also paid tribute to those who had worked behind the scenes over many years to help bring the case back before the courts.
