AS the 25th anniversary of the brutal murder of Shirley Leach approaches, TOM GEORGE looks back on the crime that sent shockwaves through Bury — and saw a killer at large for more than a decade

This Sunday marks 25 years since Bury pensioner Shirley Leach was viciously murdered in the toilets at Bury Interchange while waiting to catch her bus home after visiting her daughter in hospital.

The naked body of the mother-of-two, who lived with her son, Gary, in Holme Avenue, Brandlesholme, was discovered in a partially closed toilet cubicle in the early hours of January 7, 1994.

She had been strangled and mutilated.

The previous evening, Mrs Leach, aged 66, had visited her daughter, Beryl, at Fairfield General Hospital.

She left the Rochdale Old Road hospital with her 19-year-old grandson, Darren, at 8.20pm and the pair stopped at a nearby pub for one drink before making their way to the bus stop.

At 9pm, they caught the 469 bus into Bury town centre, with Darren getting off at Bell Lane and waving his grandmother goodbye.

Mrs Leach arrived at the interchange at around 9.15pm, and while waiting for her connection home, she visited the toilets — a fateful decision that cost her life.

The widow’s body was discovered in a dirty cubicle by a couple returning from a night out at 4.15am.

The bus station was cordoned off for most of the day as police and forensic officers undertook a painstaking investigation at the murder scene.

Detectives launched an extensive hunt for the murder suspect, described as a “stooped” man, aged 30-50, 5ft 5in tall and wearing a jacket, sports coat or suit and dark trousers.

The man had been spotted about 9.45pm on the Thursday near the toilets and again, 15 minutes later.

But despite extensive investigations, including the blood testing of more than 500 men, a Crimewatch reconstruction, and DNA samples from suspects as far away as Australia and Germany, Mrs Leach’s killer remained at large.

Meanwhile, shock felt by the killing reverberated around the town and forced many women to seriously reconsider their own safety, especially at night.

With detectives concerned by “the lack of any real motive” behind the killing, a warning was issued to women using the bus station to keep to well-lit areas and avoid being on their own.

Sales of personal attack alarms also soared in the wake of the murder and for some time the interchange became a virtual “no go” area in the evenings.

In January, 1995, detectives mounted a secret two-night surveillance operation at the interchange in the hope that Mrs Leach’s killer would make a macabre first anniversary return to the murder scene. He did not.

The intensive inquiries continued, but police were still unable to find Mrs Leach’s killer, and the crime went unsolved for more than 12 years before police made a key breakthrough in March, 2006.

A month earlier, Ian O’Callaghan, a convicted sex offender, had been stopped for drink-driving in the Moston area of North Manchester.

His DNA was routinely tested and, when uploaded to the national database, was found to match that of the DNA found at the scene of Mrs Leach’s murder.

He was subsequently arrested and charged with her murder.

To his neighbours in Wragby Close, Brandlesholme, O’Callaghan was just an ordinary father of one going about his daily business.

Little did they realise the dreadful secret he had harboured for more than a decade.

At the time of the murder, O’Callaghan was living 15 minutes away in New Cateaton Street with his then-girlfriend, and had been working as a road cone manufacturer in Bury.

Despite his best efforts to live a normal life, O’Callaghan’s past had eventually caught up with him.

And in November, 2006, the former Territorial Army soldier was ordered to serve a minimum term of 28 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of Mrs Leach’s murder.

During the trial at Manchester Crown Court, the prosecution alleged that O’Callaghan, who worked as a First bus driver based in Bury from 2000 to 2003, had been in the interchange for some time before Mrs Leach arrived on the night of her murder.

Interviews with witnesses revealed that a man had approached another woman at the interchange that evening, asking her what date it was.

He made her feel uncomfortable and she decided to get a taxi home instead of waiting for a bus while the man was watching her.

While she may have had a lucky escape, Mrs Leach did not.

After sexually assaulting and strangling Mrs Leach, O’Callaghan then returned to the scene more than 30 minutes later to cut off her right breast with a sharp weapon, thought to have been glass from a broken bottle.

But in the process, he cut himself and left a vital clue ­— a streak of blood on the cubicle door, which was enough to provide police with a DNA profile of the murderer.

At the time, the brutal nature of the killing, coupled with the fact it happened in such a well-used public place, shook the town to its core.

For years afterwards, the interchange toilets were rarely used ­— a morbid reminder of one of the most horrifying episodes in the town’s history.