Tia Rigg was born on the 4th January 1998 in Cheetham Mill, Manchester, England, which is a small borough around a mile and a half from the city centre. In 2010, Tia was 12 years old and lived in a house with her mother, Lynne and her grandparents.

Tia didn't have an easy start to life, before she was even born, she was placed on the child protection register due to her mother's drug addiction and history of violent behaviour. Child services had been in and out of her life and they even made a prediction the year she had been born that stated Tia was likely going to suffer from neglect. Later on, this was altered to likely to suffer from physical abuse.

Despite her turbulent home life, Tia adored her grandparents, who loved her just as much as she did them. She was a cheery little girl who loved to play with her siblings. She was a big fan of Manchester United Football Club, just like her uncle 37 year old, John Maden.

John was an unemployed father of one, who had a ten year old little girl. He was divorced and hadn't achieved much with his life. He spent most of his days online, nobody knew exactly what he was doing online but noted that he would spend the majority of his day on the computer. Had they known what he was doing on the computer, he would have never been allowed near any child again.

On the 3rd April 2010, John asked his niece, Tia to babysit her cousin for him. They were close to the same age but it's something she often did. That day, Machester United were playing against Chelsea and Tia had planned to watch the game but knew that she'd be able to watch it at her uncle John's house when she got there. John had called Lynne, Tia's mother at around 2:17pm to enquire if Tia was available and by 3pm, she had arrived at his home in Cheetham Hill, a short walk away from her own.

Tia mistakenly thought that this Saturday was going to be a fun, relaxed day with her cousin. She had been to her uncle John's house several times and although she loved and trusted him, he didn't see Tia in the same way.

Unbeknownst to anyone, John Maden had carefully planned out what was going to happen that fateful day. John was not the man that he showed on the surface, deep down, he hid his true self. John had developed an obsession, a very vile interest in images and reading materials that related to paedophilia, rape and torture. He looked at many articles and videos of various killing methods and created multiple folders on his desktop to store his findings, with some of the titles of his folders including "snuff movies and brutal rape". Little did anyone know, he was a very dangerous individual that posed a deadly threat to those around him, including his young unsuspecting niece.

Just 45 minutes after Tia had first arrived at her uncle's home, police received a phone call, John Maden wanted to report a murder. Police arrived at John's home within 2 minutes, but once there, they could find no evidence of a murder. Police found John 'chillingly calm' and smoking a cigarette. He brought police into the house and led them to an upstairs bedroom, where they found the lifeless body of 12 year old Tia Rigg. It was too late, nothing could be done to save the little girl.

Tia had been found on the floor of the bedroom. She was naked except for her socks and there was a ligature mark around her neck. The ligature was found to be a guitar string. Tia had also been stabbed in the stomach and severely sexually assaulted. There were 2 knives, a broomstick and an adult toy beside her on the floor, each contained Tia's blood. Tia's hands were tied behind her back with a shoelace.

A post mortem examination carried out on Tia's body revealed she had been stabbed in the abdomen and suffered severe internal injuries. Some of the internal injuries had been inflicted on her whilst she was still alive. The official cause of death was ligature strangulation. She had been tortured and brutalised before her death.

When john was asked why he had killed Tia, his niece, a little girl who thought the world of him, he just replied, "because I felt like it".

John was instantly arrested and taken into police custody and charged with Tia's murder.

In court, the prosecution painted a picture of the last hours of Tia's life. They believe that Tia was drugged almost as soon as she had arrived at John's home because the drug, Olanzapine was found in her system. Olanzapine has a sedative effect and depending on how much was administered, and also with Tia being a tiny 12 year old girl, the drugs would have made her lethargic, drowsy and even more vulnerable than she already was.

John had even looked up how to drug someone in a way that would prevent them from going into clinical shock or being knocked unconscious, because he wanted to prolong their agony, he wanted Tia to know exactly what was going on, because he got a kick out of that.

John Maden was tried at Manchester Crown Court on 4 October 2010. He plead guilty and the judge said during sentencing:

"It is inescapable that Tia Rigg died because you decided to realise your fantasies about torturing and killing a young child. The fact that you chose your 12-year-old niece, who had put her trust in you, makes what you did all the more unspeakable, as was the fact that all of this was planned by you and you lured her into your home by pretending you wanted her to babysit for you".

The terror, the unimaginable pain you inflicted on her, the indignities you subjected her … while still alive.

This was a horrific crime in which a young girl who had everything to live for and placed her trust in you was inveigled into your lair. It was planned, it was premeditated and her agony must have been prolonged. This is one of those exceptional cases in which the only just punishment requires you to be imprisoned for the rest of your life."

John was sentenced to life in prison with the recommendation that he never be released.

Hundreds of mourners gathered to pay their respects at Tia's funeral. The theme was Pink; Tia's favourite colour, in honour of her "bubbly personality". Tia's mother, Lynne Rigg, sobbed as the pink coffin was brought into church.

It had arrived at St James' Church in Cheetham Hill by a horse-drawn carriage, the coffin enclosed in glass, pulled by two horses wearing plumes of pink feathers. Twelve pink balloons were released at her graveside to mark each year of her life.