In the 1980s, William Lambert operated a predatory youth club called "The Shed" near St Dunstan's churchyard in Cheam. Recent reports indicate the site was a grooming ground and may hold the remains of missing teenager Lee Boxell.
The names carved into St Dunstan's churchyard wall
The crumbling white stone wall outside St Dunstan's churchyard in Cheam serves as a grim ledger of William Lambert's activities. According to the report, hundreds of children's names were hand-carved into the stone by youngsters who attended the club during the 1980s. At the very top of the wall, the surname Lambert is etched in the largest lettering, marking the territory of a man later known as the "Warlock Paedophile."
For the victims, these inscriptions are not mere graffiti but evidence of a calculated operation. the report describes how Lambert used the ramshackle wooden building known as "The Shed" to entice vulnerable children into a space where he exercised absolute control.
Lambert's 'Warlock' persona and the grooming at The Shed
William Lambert utilized a calculated persona as a "warlock" with mystical powers to manipulate young girls. He claimed he could transfer these supernatural abilities through sexual acts , a tactic he used to brainwash a schoolgirl who feared she was pregnant into believing he could magically resolve the pregnancy if they slept together.
The grooming tactics used at The Shed—including the provision of alcohol and cigarettes—reflect a broader pattern of predatory behavior where perpetrators provide forbidden freedoms to build trust and dependency. A witness named Alys, who visited the club at age 13, recalls how the thrill of "alcopops" and smoking made some youngsters overlook Lambert's inappropriate comments and groping.. This environment of manufactured rebellion was designed to isolate children from their parents and create a wedge between the victims themselves, ensuring no trust existed among the peers.
The 1988 disappearance of Lee Boxell and the blood-soaked mattress
The 1988 disappearance of 15-year-old Lee Boxell from Sutton has taken on new urgency as investigators link him to the site.. Lee Boxell was a prominent missing person in the late 1980s,with his face appearing on milk cartons and his case featured in BBC Crimewatch specials and appeals by footballer John Fashanu.
Alys, now 53, provides a harrowing account of the clubhouse, recalling the smell of rotting flesh and the sight of a mattress leaning against the wall with a huge blood stain. As the report says, detectives and the parents of Lee Boxell, Peter and Christine, suspect the teenager may have been murdered by William Lambert after stumbling upon the abuse of a young girl.
A Metropolitan Police cold case review 37 years later
The Metropolitan Police have recently launched a cold case review into the disappearance of Lee Boxell, with detectives now believing his body is buried among the ivy-covered gravestones of the Cheam churchyard. This investigation comes decades after William Lambert had already established a criminal record, having received a custodial sentence in 1968 for impersonating a police officer and exposing himself to girls under 14.
Despite the current police effort, several critical questions remain. It is still unverified whether other children who attended The Shed also became victims of murder, or if Lee Boxell was the sole fatality at the site. Furthermore, the report focuses primarily on the testimony of Alys and the Boxell family; it remains unclear if the Metropolitan Police have identified other survivors from the hundreds of names carved into the wall who can provide corroborating evidence of Lambert's crimes at the churchyard.
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