22 January 2024 , 18:28
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The mum of missing sailor Simon Parkes has vowed to never give up the search for her son after police failed to find his body.
Royal Navy Rating Simon Parkes, from Bristol, was last seen drinking at a pub in Gibraltar after the ship the 18-year-old was serving on, HMS Illustrious, docked in the British overseas territory in December 1986.
He was thought to have been murdered by Allan Grimson - dubbed the Frankenstein Killer for his hulking 6ft 2in frame and large forehead - who was jailed for life for the murder of two young men and was serving on board the aircraft carrier at the same time as the teenager.
But sadly a dig by Hampshire police in Gibraltar failed to find any evidence last week.
But Simon’s mum Margaret Parkes told The Mirror: “It’s obviously disappointing but it was to be expected, you always have to hold a little bit back just in case, but this changes nothing.
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Simon's parents Margaret and David Parkes (Rowan Griffiths / Daily Mirror)“We will never give up searching for Simon, never. We are also glad it has shone a spotlight on the crimes of Grimson before his parole hearing next month, people need to remember what a dangerous man he is.”
Evil Grimson was jailed in 2001 at Winchester Crown Court for the murders of naval rating Nicholas Wright, 18, from Leicestershire, and barman Sion Jenkins from Newbury, Berkshire.
The killer has long been suspected of murdering Parkes but it is also feared he could be connected to 20 other unsolved killings stretching from the UK to New Zealand.
Over the years police have investigated visiting the ports he visited around the world where he had been ashore while teaching on former naval flagship Illustrious and the Type 42 destroyer HMS Edinburgh.
Grimson is also said to have had a Manchester United season ticket which he is suspected to have used as a cover to travel the country seeking victims.
One former colleague said: “He never actually went to games. It was a cover for something else.
“He would make sandwiches and take a flask and then go and seek out young homeless boys in different cities.”
He was once dubbed the ‘Royal Navy’s Dennis Nilsen’ after the serial killer who slaughtered at least 12 young men and boys. Grimson murdered Nicholas Wright, 18, on December 12, 1997, and Sion Jenkins, 20, exactly 12 months later.
The gay firefighting instructor lured each victim back to his Portsmouth flat, where he battered them both to death with a baseball bat after they rejected his sexual advances. He then buried them in roadside graves.
While he had denied his murders had a sexual element, he told police that killing was ‘better than sex’ and admitted to scouring the ranks of trainees and cadets so he could dominate and kill the best looking ones.
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Allan Grimson was nicknamed the Frankenstein Killer, due to his 6ft 2in frame and large forehead (PA Archive/PA Images)
Grimson was convicted of murdering Sion Jenkins (PA Archive/PA Images)He has always denied being involved in the disappearance of Mr Parkes.
Detective Chief Inspector Adam Edwards, who is overseeing the investigation, said: “Disappointingly following this second excavation at Town Range Car Park and Trafalgar Cemetery we have not identified anything that helps to move the investigation into Simon’s disappearance forward.
“We have kept Mr and Mrs Parkes informed of our progress and I’d like to thank them again for their support. We know this remains a difficult time for them and we hope our ongoing work will one day bring them the answers they so desperately want.”