Convicted killer admits murdering Bolton teen in Australia

James Duggan received a life sentence in 2004 for the murder of 19-year-old would-be nurse Rebecca Ryle, orginally from Bolton, whom he strangled while walking her home after a chance meeting in a pub in Perth.

He left her body in a field and denied murdering the teenager, who had emigrated to Australia with her family just six months earlier to start a new life.

Ms Ryle, a former Turton High School pupil, was murdered around half a year after she and her family had emigrated to Australia from Harwood.

She met Duggan while on a night out with friends.

Following his conviction, Duggan was ordered to serve a minimum of 11 and a half years but was not in fact released until March last year.

He was deported and came back to Liverpool, which he had left as a 11-year-old boy. 

James Duggan was brought before Liverpool Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

The family of his victim expressed anger that he had been released and her brother Andy said while they were glad he would never set foot in Australia again he found it “horrific that that the British public is subjected to him, and that he can start afresh. 

“I hope that by writing this, at least some people are made aware that this monster will be around.”

He added: “He doesn't deserve the opportunity to start again. He stole a life.”

 The murder was made the subject of a book by Martin McKenzie-Murray entitled, “A murder without motive.”

 The Australian Parole Board refused to free Duggan in November 2019 for reasons including his lack of acknowledgement of wrongdoing and apparent lack of remorse.

The sentencing judge described the crime as “bizarre.”

Duggan was back before another judge this week on Monday, this time in Liverpool after admitting breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

The city’s crown court heard that in August last year magistrates imposed a Sexual Risk Order on the instructions of the Home Secretary because of the murder conviction, which it was suspected had a sexual motive.

He breached the order by forming an intimate relationship with a woman and was jailed for 26 weeks in February for both the breach and assaulting her by punching her in the stomach, said Shannon Stewart, prosecuting.

Duggan, now 38, whom it was suggested had also threatened her  with a hammer, was recalled after sending her a text message and was eventually released on July 11 this year. 

Under the terms of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order he had to register his address with police within three days. He was back in court today as he failed to do so.

Ken Heckle, defending, said that Duggan had been directed to live at an address in Stockbridge Village by the probation service on his release which he did, “but he forgot to advice the police and he was arrested there.”

He said it had not been “sinister” but had been borne out of “stupidly” as he had been told the terms of the SHPO but said he thought he had seven days to register his new address.

Mr Heckle claimed that Duggan is now drug free, capable of rehabilitation and intends to live with his supportive grandmother on School Lane, Rainhill in Merseyside.

The judge, Recorder David Knifton, KC, said that a probation report concluded Duggan posed a “high risk of re-offending and a very high risk of causing serious harm to a partner.”

He said: “You have a history of drug and alcohol misuse and also have a diagnosis of bipolar, depression and anxiety.”

Recorder Knifton said the defendant had “deliberately” failed to comply with the requirement of the SHPO and he did not accept it had been an inadvertent mistake.

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But he added: “There are signs of recognition of your offending and the need for you to comply with orders of the court. 

“You acknowledge the seriousness of this offence and also accept responsibility for your previous offending including acknowledging you had committed murder in Australia when on previous occasions claimed to have been wrongly convicted.”

Recorder Knifton gave Duggan a sentence of nine months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered him to carry out 180 hours unpaid work with 30 days of rehabilitation activities.

He also imposed a six-month alcohol abstinence requirement, a 12 month drug rehabilitation order and attendance on a probation relationships programme.