Girl, 18, beaten to death by boyfriend just wanted 'to be loved’, says foster mother

Guilty: Scott Clifford, 34, battered his girlfriend Natasha Hill, 18, to death
Metropolitan Police
Samantha Lock13 August 2019
WEST END FINAL

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The foster mother of a teenage girl murdered by her “controlling and coercive” older boyfriend today said all she wanted “was to be loved”, as her killer was jailed for life.

Scott Clifford, 34, battered 18-year-old Natasha Hill to death, inflicting 53 separate injuries.

In a twisted web of lies, Clifford — also known as Scott Bridgeham — claimed Ms Hill inflicted the injuries on herself and had fallen down stairs in Thamesmead after a day drinking.

But last week Clifford was found guilty at Southwark crown court of murder, as well as two earlier counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one of common assault.

Ms Hill was the third of Caroline Shearer’s children to die in tragic circumstances. In 2012, her natural son Jay Whiston was stabbed to death at a party in Colchester aged 17 and three years later, Jay’s foster brother Alex Wagner killed himself aged 21.

Mrs Shearer, who has fostered 40 children with her husband Mick, said Ms Hill’s killer “deserves everything he gets”, ahead of his sentencing.

“Natasha was a wonderful, caring child. All she wanted was to be loved,” she told the Standard.

Police were called to a house in Sewell Road on April 15 last year to reports of a seriously injured woman. Ms Hill was pronounced dead at the scene.

Clifford, who denied all the charges, will serve a minimum of 18 years.

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