Jewel case bail.
Stephanie Wickenden, 22, of 119 St Johns Road, Tunbridge Wells, who is pleading not guilty to dishonestly assisting in the removal and disposal of stolen jewellery between January 22 and February 9, was remanded on bail at the town’s court on Monday, to May 9.
Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser, 14th April 1979.
Woman helped theft boys.
A married woman of 22, who went with two 16-year-old youths after they had stolen a suitcase containing jewellery and cash worth a total of £1200 was convicted at Tunbridge Wells Court on Wednesday of assisting in the removal and disposal of the property. She was Mrs Stephanie Teresa Wickenden of 119 St Johns Road Tunbridge Wells, who pleaded not guilty to the charge. She was placed on probation for two years and ordered to pay £32 costs. Mr Brendan Kenny, prosecuting, said Mrs Wickenden and the youths stayed at hotels, selling the jewellery to pay for their keep. She was very much a part of what was going on. Mr Archibald Packham, of 24 Meadow Road, Rusthall, said he missed a suitcase, which contained jewellery as well as £400 worth of premium bonds, a cheque book and £200 cash.
Some time later Mrs Wickenden came to his home and returned some of the property. Mrs Packham said that on February 9, Mrs Wickenden came to the house with a man and said they would get the rest of the property back by that weekend. No further items were returned. Mrs Wickenden said she was sorry for what she had done.
Det-con David Turner said that when he interviewed Mrs Wickenden on February 16 she said she had wanted to run away with one of the youths because they were going to get married. She told him: “I thought something was a bit fishy, but I wasn’t sure. I then realised they had taken this case and all this jewellery.” They sold some of the jewellery in shops and got about £60. She had helped sell some of it.
Kent and Sussex Courier, 18th May 1979.
The funeral of Cassandra (Cassie) Wickenden, the three-year-old girl who tragically died in a fire at her parents’ home in Birmingham last week, took place in Tonbridge Cemetery on Monday. Mr and Mrs Wickenden were downstairs on Sunday evening last week watching a cinefilm of their wedding, which took place at Tonbridge Parish Church in 1975, when they heard a bang above, which was later thought to have been an electrical fault. They found smoke coming from upstairs and Mr Wickenden rushed up to the room where Cassie was in bed. Mrs Wickenden ran outside and Mr Wickenden, who had fought his way through the smoke, picked Cassie up and dropped her from the window into her mother’s arms below. Mrs Wickenden said: “I tried to revive her. I gave her the kiss of life, but it was no good. She had opened her eyes once, smiled, and that was all. She was taken to hospital and a team of doctors fought to revive her, but they could do nothing.”
It is thought the fire started in an adjoining bedroom, the little girl being overcome by the smoke from polystyrene tiles that had caught alight. […] After their wedding at Tonbridge on September 4, 1975, the couple went to live at 119 St John’s Road, Tunbridge Wells, moving to Birmingham seven months ago. Cassie was born at Pembury Hospital on December 10, 1976.
Kent and Sussex Courier, 28th March 1980.
Wonder child dies in ‘haunted’ house.
A toddler’s supernatural powers may have started a fire which killed her, her father told an inquest yesterday. Mr Raymond Wickenden said he believed his daughter Cassandra, aged three, could move things by just looking at them and had a very strong power of extra-sensory perception.
He told a Birmingham inquest that he and other people had seen a mystery man appear at their “haunted” home and that his daughter, nicknamed Cassie, had played with him. A local vicar had exorcised the house in Malvern Road, Birmingham, but Cassie had “called the man back” said Mr Wickenden.
Birmingham coroner Dr Richard Whittington recorded an open verdict on Cassie, who died of asphyxia. He said that the most likely explanation was a cigarette left burning in the bedroom next to her room. But Cassie’s mother, Mrs Stephanie Wickendon, sobbed from the back of the court: “No. Nobody had been up there all day. Why won’t you believe us? It didn’t start like that.”
Mr Wickenden told the coroner that he and his wife thought that Cassie may have caused the fire through her ESP. But the coroner said there was no evidence that this had anything to do with it.
Cassie died despite a brave rescue bid by her father, who battled through the smoke-filled bedroom and threw her out of the window into her mother’s arms.
Last night the couple said they went to discuss the case with a medium after the inquest. Mrs Wickenden said: “The coroner’s verdict has put a cloud over our heads, and we want to see if we can get the case re-opened.” Describing her daughter’s behaviour, Mrs Wickenden said: “If she didn’t get attention, things would start happening. Once when I smacked her on the legs for being naughty, all of a sudden a dining room chair flew straight across the room.”
Her husband added: “Once I took some sweets off her, and put them where she could not reach them, even by standing on a chair. When I returned she was eating them.”
Newcastle Journal, 27th November 1980.
Death fire couple in ESP probe to solve mystery.
By Phil Banner.
A heart-broken couple are now consulting a spiritualist medium to find out if their daughter’s claimed psychic powers really caused her death in a mystery fire. Raymond Widkendean, a 32-year-old panel beater, and his wife Stephanie, have hit out at Birmingham’s Coroner for suggesting that the blaze at their former home was started by a lighted cigarette. The Widkendens, who protested they are not satisfied with the outcome of yesterday’s inquiry into the death of three-year-old Cassandra, have claimed she had extra sensory perception – and a ghost for a playmate.
However, when asked they could not name the Baptist minister they said had exorcised their Victorian terraced house where the fire broke out last Mothering Sunday. And neither could they recall who the psychiatrist was whom Mr Wickenden said was treating his daughter because she had ESP.
Recording an open verdict, the City Coroner, Dr Richard Whittington, said he could not accept evidence of ESP and thought it more likely that a cigarette end was to blame because the couple and their lodger were heavy smokers.
Mr Wickenden, who has now moved with his wife to a modern council flat at Avery Tower in Skipton Road, Ladywood, said: “Why should we make things up. We have no reason to.”
Birmingham Mail, 27th November 1980.
‘Exorcist’ girl in death riddle.
By William Daniels
A child who died in a blazing bedroom had supernatural powers, her father said yesterday. The three-year-old girl was able to move objects merely by looking at them, he added. He suggested that this was how the fire could have started. The claim was made at an inquest in Birmingham on Cassandra Wickenden, who lived with her parents in Malvern Road, Handsworth.
Her father, Ray, told the coroner that the phantom of a man had been seen in the house, apparently attracted by Cassandra’s presence. A vicar carried out an exorcism ceremony, said Mr Wickenden. But Cassandra later called the phantom back so that she could play with him. Describing Cassandra’s strange powers, Mr Wickenden said that ornaments she was forbidden to touch would fall to the floor as she gazed at them.
After the fire started, Mr Wickenden fought his way through dense smoke to Cassandra’s room. He dropped her out of a window to his wife. But she was dead. Coroner Dr Richard Whittington, recording an open verdict, would not accept Mr Wickenden’s theory about Cassandra. Although the cause of the fire was unknown, the most likely cause was a cigarette left burning in the room next to the child’s, he said.
Cassandra’s mother Stephanie protested: “Nobody had been up there all day. Why won’t you believe us?” After the inquest Mr and Mrs Wickenden talked with a medium. They said they first noticed strange happenings when Cassandra was one year old. “If she didn’t get attention things would start moving,” said Mrs Wickenden. “Once when I smacked her for being naughty a dining chair just flew across the room. On another occasion I told her off there was a banging on the ceiling and the house vibrated.”
Daily Mirror, 27th November 1980.
Little Cassie’s killer – ‘Friday man’ the ghost.
Exclusive by John Lisners.
A ghost killed our baby… That is the fantastic claim made by the parents of three-year-old Cassandra Wickenden in an exclusive interview. They say the ghost whom they called the Friday Man, did not want to lose Cassie as a playmate. Cassie died in a fire at her parents’ home in Birmingham last March. An inquest into her death last week was told that the toddler possessed strange psychic powers. But the coroner dismissed the supernatural as the cause of the fire and recorded an open verdict.
Yesterday, Cassie’s parents Stephanie, 23, and Raymond, 31, told of the strange events before her death. They also spoke of their own life-style, which used to include Hell’s Angels, sex orgies and wife-swapping sessions.
Stephanie Wickenden claimed that Cassie foretold her own death eight weeks before the fatal fire. It happened at her great-grandmother’s funeral in Hildenborough, Kent, when the couple went back to the grave to take photographs. Stephanie said: “Adjoining grandmother’s grave a fresh one was being dug. Cassie jumped into it and sat there, her face drawn and intense. Now we realise she was showing us what the future held. Within eight weeks we would be standing over her grave watching her tiny body lowered into it.”
The Wickendens claim they realised that their daughter was psychic soon after her birth in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. From the age of one, they say, sheh was able to move objects just by staring at them – particularly when she was angry. Stephanie said;” This power developed as she grew older and she would use it to express her feelings. She was not a child who could be chastised because that strange power she possessed would come back at you, usually via a flower pot or other ceramic object which would smash unexpectedly. Apart from making objects move around, she had the uncanny knack of knowing what you were going to do or say in advance. She read our thoughts all the time.”
Stephanie said the ghostly Friday Man appeared soon after they moved from Kent to a privately-rented house in Malvern Road, Handsworth, Birmingham. They called him the Friday Man because that was the day he was most active. She described the man as a tall, thin man about 70 years of age who wore baggy trousers and a sleeveless cardigan which was always left unbuttoned. Cassie played regularly with the ghost for 18 month up to her death, said Stephanie. She called him ‘My Man’ and would tell her parents, ‘My man will get you back’ if they chastised or rebuked her. Afterwards the ceiling would vibrate and furniture would move about upstairs.
Stephanie said: “We were quite used to her little games with the Friday Man, but strangers would get frightened. On a number of occasions we heard her talking to him and heard him reply. He sounded gentle – just like someone talking to a young child. I saw him several times and even our lodger David saw him, although he was terrified and barricaded his door until we arrived home.”
“Cassie was really involved with the Friday man. She would tell us how he pulled faces to make her laugh and would stroke her hair to put her to sleep.”
In the week before she died, Cassie spoke nearly every day about going away with ‘her man.’ On the day before the little girl’s death, the Wickendens arranged to buy a new house. Part of the reason for the move was to get away from the Friday man. Stephanie said: “We are convinced that the ghost heard us discussing our imminent departure with the estate agent. For the following day came the fire and Cassie’s death. We were downstairs in a room directly below hers watching holiday films and a movie of our wedding on a borrowed projector. Only about 15 minutes before she died, Cassie came downstairs and asked if she could watch the movies. We told her to go back to sleep because she had just started school that week. The lodger took her back upstairs. When we finally became aware of the fire, Ray raced up to her room. Cassie was huddled up in bed at peace with the world. A fire had apparently been smouldering in our bedroom for a few hours and to this day there is no explanation for it. Ray broke the upstairs window and threw her out to me down below. Cassie opened her eyes and smiled at me and said ‘Mummy.’ She looked up at her father and smiled at him. I tried to give her the kiss of life, but she did not respond. She died in my arms.”
Stephanie said she was now visiting a medium to contact Cassie and find out what happened. “We are convinced that the Friday Man lit the fire which killed Cassie,” she said. “He wanted to stop her from leaving his haunt.”
She added: “There is no way I will ever believe that either Ray or I was being punished for our earlier lives, although it may seem that way to some.” Stephanie’s early teens were nothing if not lurid. She says she lost her virginity at ten, and two years later was a Hells Angels groupie indulging in sex orgies, drugs and violence. Her nickname with the Hell’s Angels was Vicious Bastard because of her prowess with the knife. She said she ‘settled down’ after marrying Ray. But her husband was anything but settled in his sex life. He said: “We moved up to Birmingham to get away from the wife-swapping and swinging scene in Kent. It was getting much too heavy for me. I found it too much.” He added: “When we moved up here we decided to forget about all that activity and try to lead straight, normal lives. Up to now we have. All we hope now is the mystery surrounding poor little Cassie will be solved – and that our next baby will be a healthy one.”
The Wickendens claim that they called in a local minister to exorcise the ghost. But the Rev Stanley Woods said that although he went to the house and prayed there, he did not perform an exorcism. He said: “Although I am a sensitive person I got no indication of anything evil there at all.”
The People, 30th November 1980.