EMMA King answered the door and let the two police officers into her home – they were holding a laptop and told her: “We’re really sorry.”
More than 15 years earlier, she’d found her older sister Julie’s body after being brutally murdered by her estranged husband – who then called her to gloat. But now he’s free and what cops showed Emma on the computer brought all the trauma back.
On November 15 2005, evil Richard Butcher had cruelly rung Emma minutes after savagely killing her sister and calmly told her “your sister needs you” – before handing himself in to police.
Emma raced to the scene, a short drive from her own home, and there, in the kitchen, 25-year-old Julie’s body lay – strangled and throat slit.
Fast forward to late 2020 and with Butcher due for early release, having served less than 15 years for his awful crime, Emma, from Swindon, fought hard for an exclusion zone to be set up, preventing the family from running into him.
It would mean as part of Butcher’s licencing conditions, he would be prohibited from entering the area or face being hauled back to prison.
As part of that process, in order for Emma to know what he currently looks like, she was shown a new photo of the killer, taken recently in prison.
She said: “I never expected the justice system to hand me a photograph of the man who murdered my sister smiling.”
Emma described how, in the weeks before Butcher’s release, officers came out to the house and, before opening up a laptop containing the picture, warned her it could be triggering.
“I think they even used the word smirking… they were very apologetic,” she explained.
Mum Emma, now 44, had to make a snap decision, did she look at the grinning face of her sister’s killer or refuse and risk not getting any visual at all?
“I had no choice, really, I had to accept it,” she said.
“I knew he’d be out before we could get another photograph. He’d been stamped for release.
“My biggest fear was not knowing what he looked like – and always looking over my shoulder.”
Lorry driver Butcher had savagely murdered Julie at their home in Chiseldon, near Swindon.
Julie had dumped her husband the week before, and had moved in with her sister in nearby Rodbourne.
On the day of her death, she’d done the school run and then gone the short distance to the council property she had shared with Butcher to pick up a few belongings.
On seeing his estranged wife, he saw red and carried out a brutal attack in the kitchen.
A post mortem examination later revealed Julie died from compression of the neck.
Emma recalls the killer calling her out of the blue around 11.30am, and even told her he was about to hand himself in – but didn’t reveal then Julie was dead.
She told The Sun: “He pretty much phoned me up and said my sister needed me and I went there and I found her dead.
I never expected the justice system to hand me a photograph of the man who murdered my sister smiling.
Emma King
“He said ‘your sister needs you, you best go and be with her.’
“Then he said ‘I’m going to hand myself in’.”
She added: “He was always cryptic in his messages, but I didn’t know what I was running into – I thought maybe she was hurt but I didn’t know I’d find her dead.”
Emma called the police and jumped in the car. A few minutes later her and husband Lee had arrived at the scene and found a single police officer already there knocking on the door.
There was no answer but Julie’s car was there on the driveway, so the officer smashed a window, and the three of them, and a friend of Lee’s, all climbed through into the house.
Emma opened the living room door and walked through to the kitchen.
“I can’t describe what it felt like,” she said on discovering Julie’s body.
Just a month earlier, Julie had proudly been a bridesmaid at Emma’s wedding.
Butcher had a history of violence, having been previously jailed for seven years for stabbing his first wife nine times with a screwdriver.
But on finally leaving him for good, young mum Julie was looking forward to a new life.
Holding back tears, Emma said: “We did so much together, going back to our childhood, the good thing about Julie was she was so kind and caring.
“She had a heart of gold, she’d help anyone. It was an absolute honour and privilege to call her my sister.”
Butcher was charged with murder two days after Julie’s death and was remanded in custody.
Despite handing himself into Gable Cross Police Station, he would deny his crime for months.
Then, on July 3 2006, with Julie’s heartbroken family watching from the public gallery at Bristol Crown Court, he finally admitted to murder and was given a life sentence.
Julie had been laid to rest on December 22 2005 at Whitworth Road Cemetery, the same graveyard as her late mum Sheila.
Emma and Julie’s dad, Kevin Major, who has also subsequently died, said at the time: “I loved Julie with all my heart… I miss her every day.”
‘Too scared to go out’
The family would suffer heartbreak all over again when Butcher came up for parole in 2020 – and was released on licence that October after less than 15 years.
Emma, fearful of Butcher returning to the community, fought for an exclusion zone extension, which at first stood at just 200 metres from her home.
“We’ve lived in Swindon all our lives and we were born here and me or my family or sister’s friends didn’t want him in our area,” Emma explained.
“We didn’t want to be in the house, too scared to go out.
“We just wanted an area we felt safe in and was big enough to live in… Otherwise I probably would’ve had to leave my home town.”
The exclusion zone was eventually extended to 3.6 miles – and as part of that she was forced to see the photo of Butcher grinning.
The laptop was quickly closed, Emma couldn’t keep a copy of the photo and didn’t want to, but it was seared into her brain.
“The last thing you get is him smirking,” she said.
Emma had no idea if Butcher knew why a photo was being taken, but it re-opened old wounds.
“It’s a bit about fear and control, controlling the situation,” she said.
Emma is now campaigning for Julie’s Law, which would better prevent families unnecessarily suffering the same way she did in 2020.
In an online petition, she calls for: “Clear national rules on how offender photographs are taken and disclosed to victims or their next of kin.”
She added: “The Victim Contact Scheme exists to keep victims informed about an offender’s sentence, parole and potential release.
“However, current national guidance focuses on sharing information and does not clearly regulate how offender photographs are taken, stored, or if and how they may ever be shown to victims or their families.”
Emma went on to tell The Sun: “Even a phone call from the police before they came out to give me a chance to think about it and process it.
“It’s not really trauma informed.”
She explained: “I don’t think people are aware of how traumatising it can be and challenging as well.”
Emma added: “It’s something I really need to get to the bottom of, and I’ve been trying for years.
“There’s nothing in place and there’s nothing anyone can do.
“There are many points that it could have been stopped, but there were no guidelines.
“What legal system should be giving out smiling photos anyway? It’s the last thing anyone wants to see.
“I just thought, we’ve been through so much already as a family and I thought it doesn’t shock me anymore.”
Emma went on to say: “The whole thing… he’s coming out of prison, he’s done awful things in his past, he’s killed my sister, I had to fight to stay in Swindon by fighting to get an exclusion map.
“Then at the end of everything, my last contact with the police was a photo of him smiling.
“In my eyes and my heart, it’s not justifiable.”
Since Julie’s death, Emma and her family have also set up the Swindon Sisters Alliance – supporting those who’ve suffered domestic violence.
The Sun has approached Wiltshire Police, the CPS and the Ministry of Justice for comment.
