Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast · Ben Gibson

Suzanne Capper - Tortured to Death

·1 hr 11 min·4 clips

Lured back with false promise of her crush, she walked into a trap—multiple attackers waiting to pounce.

This episode details the 1992 torture and murder of 16-year-old Suzanne Capper in Manchester, England. Hosts Ben and Nicole of Wicked and Grim provide a content warning and recommend a comfort drink due to the story's heavy nature. Suzanne was a vulnerable teenager from an unstable home life who sought belonging with an older crowd. She became entangled with a chaotic household at 97 Langworthy Road, led by the dominant Jean Powell. The group included Bernadette McNeely, Glenn Powell, Anthony Dudson, Clifford Pook, and Jeffrey Lay, who were involved in drugs and petty crime. Suzanne was initially welcomed but was gradually mistreated, blamed for a stolen pink coat and a pubic lice infestation. As punishment for the lice, she was forced to shave her pubic hair in front of the group. On December 7, 1992, Jean and Bernadette lured Suzanne back to the house with a false story about a boy waiting for her. Upon arrival, she was attacked, had her head and eyebrows shaved, and was beaten with belts and wooden objects, likely breaking her arm. She was then locked in a closet overnight. The next day, she was moved to an empty house, tied spread-eagle to an upturned bed frame, and gagged with dirty socks. Over nearly a week, she was injected with amphetamines, burned with cigarettes, and subjected to loud music featuring Chucky's voice from *Child's Play* on repeat. She was scrubbed with a stiff brush in disinfectant, which peeled her skin. Clifford Pook used pliers to extract two of her teeth, which he kept, after the group discussed preventing dental identification. A witness, 18-year-old David Hill, saw her tied up and begging for help but was too frightened to intervene. Her captors, worried her family would report her missing, decided to kill her. On December 14, they placed the barely conscious Suzanne in the trunk of a stolen white Fiat Panda. They drove to the isolated area of Worthern Low, pulled her from the car, and dragged her down an embankment. The hosts express disbelief at the prolonged, premeditated cruelty and the witnesses who failed to act. The tone is conversational and empathetic, with the hosts frequently reacting to the horrifying details in real time. The style is deeply descriptive and educational, meticulously chronicling the timeline of abuse. Listeners who appreciate detailed, psychological explorations of true crime cases and the dynamics of group cruelty will be gripped by this episode. Those sensitive to prolonged descriptions of torture against a teenager should avoid it.

As heard by us

A plainspoken, devastating account of how teenage cruelty turned far worse.

The episode follows Suzanne Capper's story as a bleak slide from teenage exclusion into imprisonment, cruelty, and torture. Wicked and Grim keeps the emphasis on human damage, and the timeline, along with the hosts' reactions, carries the case without blunting the violence.

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Why you'd press play

Press play for a blunt, heartbreaking account of a teenage ordeal that turns vicious fast.

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