Stuart Campbell, now 64, and serving a life sentence for the murder of his 15-year-old niece Danielle Jones, was recently denied parole.
Dubbed “Killer Uncle”, the now 64-year-old Stuart Campbell abducted and murdered his 15-year-old niece Danielle Jones, and never revealed the whereabouts of her body.
Schoolgirl Jones went missing in 2001 and a search for her was immediately launched by the police. More than 1,500 locations have been searched for Danielle.
Campbell was sentenced to life for the murder of his niece.
The High Court refused his parole until he serves a minimum of 20 years as he was deemed too dangerous to be released.
Here’s everything we know about the killer, his crimes, and where he is today.
Who is Stuart Campbell?
Stuart Campbell (born between 1958 and 1959) is a former bodybuilder whose career was cut short after he became a notorious killer who abducted and murdered his niece.
He was married to his victim’s dad’s sister, Debbie.
Campbell and his wife Debbie got married in August 1998 when she was 15 years old.
He lived in Tilbury, Essex
Campbell met Debbie when she was 15 and the pair lived together for 13 years before marrying in August 1998.
Danielle, then 12, was one of their bridesmaids.
Campbell and his spouse became parents as they had two children together.
He has a brother named Alix Shakey who is also 64 years old and currently lives in Barbados.
What did Stuart Campbell do to his niece, Danielle Jones?
In June 2001, Danielle Jones left to catch a bus to school in Tilbury, Essex.
Tragically, her family never saw the teenager again.
Danielle’s mother, Linda, later received a phone call at 2.30 pm on 21 June to say she hadn’t turned up to her lessons.
Recalling that time in her life, Linda said: ”It was so out of character for Danielle. She’d never dream of bunking off.”
After a couple of hours, Linda called the police, while her husband Tony went to his sister and Campbell’s house to see if they’d heard anything from Danielle.
However, he couldn’t get an answer.
That night, and for the next week, family and friends of the teen trawled the East Tilbury area in search of Danielle.
They also waited at the train station in case she turned up.
Everyone was out looking, except for her uncle.
Campbell’s lack of interest aroused suspicion among the family and the investigating officers who decided to run a background check on him.
While his alibi said he was at a DIY shop half an hour away at the time Danielle disappeared, police discovered a previous conviction of abducting a 14-year-old girl a year earlier.
He had just received a suspended prison sentence, telling his wife that he had been cleared, and he managed to keep it hidden from the family.
The incident wasn’t a one-off – he had posed as a glamour photographer to lure young girls to his house, where he’d then take inappropriate pictures of them.
Campbell had also been jailed for four years aged 18 for robbing a teenage girl.
Five days following Danielle’s disappearance, Campbell was arrested, leaving Linda ”absolutely shocked”.
However, he was later released on bail due to a lack of evidence.
Police then began building a strong case against him.
As they built their case against Campbell, officers discovered handwritten notes to his ‘Princess’ found in Danielle’s pencil case, a sex bag of lingerie, handcuffs, and – crucially – a pair of blood-stained white, hold-ups that contained traces of Danielle’s DNA.
Phone records also disproved Campbell’s alibi and in August 2001, he was arrested for the kidnap and murder of Danielle Jones.
”I never thought I’d be in a situation where I had to tell my sons their sister was dead and their uncle was responsible,” says Linda.
He denied any involvement in his niece’s disappearance, but the prosecution produced evidence that he had developed an ‘irresistible sexual attraction’ for her.
He regularly picked her up from the school bus stop in his van, sent her ‘an inordinate amount of text messages’, and kept a diary chronicling his contact with her.
Campbell’s brother Alix has written a book about his brother’s crimes and spoke of his ‘profound scorn’ for Campbell.
He said in an interview in the Sunday Times Magazine last year he is ‘furious’ with his brother for not telling Danielle’s parents where her body is, and hopes his book will encourage Campbell to do the right thing.
Has Danielle Jones’ body been found?
Killer Campbell has never revealed where he hid the schoolgirl’s body after murdering his niece in 2001.
More than 1,500 locations have been searched for Danielle.
He has also refused to disclose any information.
As a result, the case was one of the first to be assessed under Helen’s Law which legally requires the Parole Board to consider whether a prisoner has admitted guilt or expressed remorse.
This makes it harder for killers like Campbell to be released if they refuse to give up details on where they hid the victim’s body and give full disclosure of their crimes.
Helen’s Law is named after Helen McCourt, a 22-year-old insurance clerk who was murdered in 1988. Her killer, Ian Simms, has never revealed the location of her body. In his trial for Danielle Jones’ murder, it was revealed that Campbell faked texts from the teenager to himself to make it seem like she was still alive.
On the 20th anniversary of the schoolgirl’s death, Danielle’s family appealed to Campbell to reveal where he hid her body.
Her mother Linda said she hoped Campbell would ‘do the right thing and allow us to lay our darling daughter to rest’.
Where is Stuart Campbell now?
Killer uncle, Stuart Campbell is currently in jail.
After previously being convicted and hiding his crimes from his family, Stuart was arrested and received a hefty sentence over the tragic death of Danielle Jones.
Campbell was convicted in 2002 by a majority verdict and jailed for life for killing the teenager.
At the time he was told he would serve at least 20 years.
In 2019, Danielle’s mother, Linda Jones said she did not want him to be released if he still hadn’t revealed where her body was, citing Helen’s Law.
In January 2023, after serving 20 years Campbell became eligible for parole.
However, this was refused release by the Parole Board and he is still serving a life sentence in prison.