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occasions he retreated under his bed and would lie there, curled in the foetal position, for hours.
    At 15 he had a nervous breakdown, after which he became a ferocious bully. He was moved to a state school but they were unable to cope with him. By his later teens he was before the courts for possessing a weapon, for burglary and for attacking other teenagers. In hindsight, it is clear that he was a fledgling psychopath. In the early 1970s he was sent to borstal where he continued to lie, steal and bully other inmates, becoming increasingly sadistic and frightening.
    Sexual assaults
    In 1976, he attacked a younger man at knifepoint and sexually molested him. Convicted of indecent assault, he was sent to prison for four years. The police were privately convinced that he’d sexually assaulted other young men but that the victims had been too afraid or ashamed to report the molestation or rape. (Most sexual offenders are only convicted for one out of every five assaults.)
    In jail, Victor Miller was segregated from the mainstream population and served his time with other sex offenders. Like most sadists, he was an exemplary prisoner and earned parole after two and a half years. Sadists, who have suffered repeatedly in their chaotic childhood homes, often do well in a structured environment such as prison where the authorities are watching them and giving guidance. But, left to their own devices in the outside world, their rage builds, their cruel fantasies take over and they look for a victim to hurt and dominate.
    A few weeks after Victor Miller’s release, he attacked a 16-year-old boy but evaded justice by moving to Wolverhampton, where he attacked two youths at knifepoint, stabbing one of them. This time he was sentenced to seven years.
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    Victor Miller
    A sort of love
    Victor now met a paedophile called Trevor Norman Peacher and for the next few years they were prison lovers. (Trevor Peacher had brutally attacked a paper boy and imprisoned him in his flat for several hours.)
    When their sentences ended, they bought a small flat together in Wolverhampton but their love affair was frequently argumentative, particularly as Trevor liked to drink and Victor detested alcohol.
    Abduction
    Victor continued to fantasise about torturing boys. By now he was working as a van driver, a job which gave him time to dream and an opportunity to trawl for prey.
    Early one morning in 1985, he grabbed a boy who was delivering Sunday papers in a village on the outskirts of Wolverhampton and bundled the teenager into his white van at knifepoint. He drove to the isolated hamlet of Catstree near Bridgnorth and indecently assaulted him. The boy promised he wouldn’t tell anyone what had happened, and Miller let him go. The child kept quiet for some time but eventually told his mother, who decided to honour his pleas that they not involve the police. (She would inform the authorities later in Miller’s offending career.)
    A torture victim escapes
    The week leading up to 15 January 1988 was a particularly stressful one for Victor Miller as he had a violent argument with his lover Trevor. As a result, both men took the week off work and Trevor remained in a drunken stupor in the flat, being vaguely aware of Victor coming back occasionally for a change of clothes.
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    SADISTIC KILLERS
    At teatime on Friday the fifteenth, Victor Miller drove to Hereford in search of a suitable victim. Soon he saw 18-year-old Richard Holden cycling home. A small, slender teenager, he looked younger than his actual years and probably resembled the 14-year-olds that Victor most desired. (It’s likely that Victor himself was sadistically assaulted when he was this age – after all, he had a nervous breakdown at 15. And killers often seek to destroy a younger version of themselves.)
    Miller stopped the teenager and asked for directions, then drove around in a