Lesley Molseed murderer: Ronald Castree article removed from Google under ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling

Ronald Castree

A 2007 Mail Online article regarding the sentencing of killer Ronald Castree has been removed from Google search results under the controversial ‘right to be forgotten’ ruling.

The article about the paedophile, who was jailed for the murder of school girl Lesley Molseed from Turf Hill, Rochdale, will now not show up in Google search results following a ruling by the European Court.

The story about Castree’s conviction in November 2007 is the latest to be removed following an EU ruling in May which gives individuals the right to ask for ‘inadequate’ and ‘irrelevant’ results about them cleared from the web.

Google say they are unable to comment on individual cases but have stated that they do “disagree with the ruling but respect the courts authority”.

Commenting on the Mail Online, Mail Online Publisher Martin Clarke described the decision by the search engine as “the equivalent of going into libraries and burning books you don't like.”

It is currently unclear who asked for the article to be removed.

Castree abducted 11-year-old Lesley from a street near her home on Turf Hill Road on 5 October 1975 as she went to the shop to buy bread for her mum.

He drove her to Rishworth Moor where he sexually assaulted her before stabbing her numerous times in a ‘frenzied’ attack.

The murder led to one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in British legal history when Rochdale man Stefan Kiszko confessed to the crime following two days of police questioning. He later complained that the confession had been bullied out of him but he was convicted of murder and jailed for life.

He went on to serve 16 years in prison before being cleared in 1992 after it emerged that sperm samples taken from Lesley’s clothes could not have been his as he was infertile.

He died the year after his release.

The case was then re-opened and in 2000, forensic scientists used new techniques to produce a DNA profile of Lesley’s killer. In 2006, Castree, who had previously given a sample after being arrested for another matter, was a one in a billion match. 

He was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison in 2007. He attempted to appeal his conviction in 2008 but it was rejected.