4 years ago
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Lancashire Police
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Price previously could not be named due to reporting restrictions
The 17-year-old boy convicted of murdering teaching assistant Lindsay Birbeck has been named as Rocky Marciano Price.
The 47-year-old mother-of-two's body was found in a shallow grave in Accrington Cemetery two weeks after she went missing while walking in 2019.
Price, who previously could not be named due to reporting restrictions, was found guilty of her murder at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday.
He will be sentenced on Friday.
Trial judge Mrs Justice Yip ruled the public interest in knowing Price's identity outweighed concerns over his welfare.
"This was a dreadful crime which understandably generated strong public interest," she said.
"The public will naturally want to know who this person was as they come to terms with something that rocked the local community."
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Price had admitted moving Mrs Birbeck's body in a wheelie bin, but had claimed he buried her for a stranger who had promised him money.
His parents, Creddy, 47, and Martina, 39, took him to a local police station after a CCTV clip used by police in an appeal showed a young male pulling the wheelie bin on Burnley Road.
His conviction came a year to the day that Mrs Birbeck went missing.
The trial heard Price had no previous convictions or cautions and had lived all his life with his parents and at their home off Whinney Hill Road, near the cemetery, where several members of his family had been lain to rest.
It was revealed he was an exceptionally quiet teenager with learning difficulties who attended a local specialist school after he was diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
'Unusual and unfortunate'
It can also now be reported that Price faced two trials, as an initial case was halted in March.
It was stopped after an unconnected police investigation into false imprisonment found mobile phone footage of a man claiming he was involved in Mrs Birbeck's murder and the disposal of her body.
Price's defence team successfully argued that the jury should be discharged on the basis he could not receive a fair trial and they needed time to explore the footage.
At the time, Mrs Justice Yip said it was "unusual and unfortunate that the evidence has emerged during the trial", adding that if the case had continued, the matter "would have been pursued to the Court of Appeal on grounds of possible fresh evidence".
An investigation by more than 20 police officers later concluded that the information in the footage was false, allowing a second trial to proceed.
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