Imposed By Home Secretaries
Successive Home Secretaries are known to have imposed whole life tariffs for the following convicted murderers (note, this list is incomplete):
| Name | Nickname | Year | Died | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Straffen | 1952 | 2007 | Britain's longest serving prisoner who was convicted of murdering two pre-teen girls in 1951. The following year, he escaped for a four-hour period and murdered another girl during this short spell at large, although he long proclaimed his innocence, and has had his case examined by justice campaigners who also believe his conviction is unsafe. Straffen was reprieved from a death sentence owing to learning difficulties, and spent 55 continuous years in custody. Straffen died, having never been released, in Frankland prison in November 2007. He had served 56 years. From 2002 until his death, he was the oldest prisoner known to be serving a whole life tariff, following the death of Archibald Hall. | |
| Ian Brady | Moors murderer | 1966 | One of the Moors Murderers, who was convicted in May 1966 of murdering three children. With accomplice Myra Hindley, he buried the children in shallow graves on Saddleworth Moor. Two decades later, they admitted abducting and killing two more children, and Brady and Hindley were taken back to the Moor to try to find the graves, but only one of which was found. Since 1985 he has been held in a mental hospital and has been on long-term hunger strike, which has led to his being force-fed through a tube. He also has had a book published on serial killing. The body of one of his victims, a 12-year-old boy, remains undiscovered on the Moor, despite Brady's and Hindley's own heavily guarded efforts to locate the remains themselves. In 2006, Brady wrote to the missing child's mother to claim he remembered enough to be taken to within 20 yards of the grave but was not permitted to do so. | |
| Myra Hindley | Moors murderer | 1966 | 2002 | The other of the Moors Murderers, Ian Brady's girlfriend and accomplice who was involved in all five murders with Brady, with two murder convictions and one as an accessory, as well as later admitting the murder of two more children later, only one of whom was subsequently found on the Moor. Hindley was given a 25-year minimum term by the trial judge, which was endorsed in 1982 by the Lord Chief Justice. Reports suggested that Hindley was rehabilitating in prison and had found religion and rejected Brady and her past, but nevertheless a strong sense of public feeling - plus the admission of the two further murders, one of which has yet to result in the discovery of a body - helped prompt her tariff to be increased to 30 years in 1988 and, finally, to a whole life tariff two years later. Hindley subsequently made three appeals against the whole life tariff and launched a further bid for freedom in 1996 when she had served 30 years, but all her efforts were rejected and she died in jail at the age of 60 in November 2002, less than two weeks before a law lords' ruling would probably have secured her freedom. Her case prompted more debate than that of any other prisoner of notoriety, with some high-profile backing from the House of Lords, but vitriol from the Press and the public, as well as the families of her victims. Her death left only Rosemary West as a confirmed female prisoner serving a whole life tariff. |
| Donald Neilson | Black Panther | 1976 | 2011 | The Black Panther, so-called for his penchant for wearing a black balaclava, shot dead three postmasters during robberies in various areas of the country, then abducted a 17-year-old heiress from her Shropshire home. He attempted to ransom the heiress, but her body was found two months later in a drain in Staffordshire. In 2008, Neilson lost an appeal to have his tariff reduced to 30 years. He remained in prison until his death three years later, having served 35 years |
| Trevor Hardy | 1976 | 2012 | Trevor Joseph Hardy murdered three girls between December 1974 and March 1976. Janet Lesley Stewart, 15, was murdered on New Year's Eve 1974 and buried in a shallow grave in Newton Heath, North Manchester. She had been stabbed. Wanda Skala, 17, was murdered in July 1975 on Lightbowne Road, Moston. She was hit over the head with a paving stone and sexually assaulted. Sharon Mosoph, 17, was murdered in March 1976, and dumped in the Rochdale Canal at Failsworth, Oldham. She had been strangled and mutilated after walking by when Hardy was attempting to burgle a shopping centre at night. He was suspected of committing other murders. At the height of the hunt for the serial killer, 23,000 people were stopped and searched. The case is not widely known and only one independent publication exists which covers the case. Trevor Hardy was arrested for the murders of Wanda Skala and Sharon Mosoph during 1976 and in August 1976. He confessed to the murders and to that of Janet Lesley Stewart - who until then had been a missing person. Despite the alibis provided by his girlfriend Sheilagh Farrow, Hardy was found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life imprisonment. He remained in prison until his death some 36 years later. | |
| Robert Maudsley | Hannibal the Cannibal | 1977 | Robert John Maudsley (born June 1953) is a serial killer who killed four people. He committed three of these murders in prison after receiving a life sentence for a single murder in the mid 1970s. He was alleged to have eaten part of the brain of one of three men he killed in prison, which earned him the nickname "Hannibal the Cannibal" among the British press. | |
| Archibald Hall | Killer Butler or Monster Butler | 1978 | 2002 | The Killer Butler or Monster Butler, so named as he committed his murders while working in service to members of the British aristocracy as a butler. Hall, also known as Roy Fontaine, was a Glaswegian thief and confidence trickster with numerous convictions and prison sentences by the time he committed his first murder, of an ex-cellmate, whom he shot and buried after an argument over some jewellery stolen from Hall's employer. Hall moved to London and began serving an elderly ex-MP and his wife, and with accomplice Michael Kitto, he killed and buried them both after late-night plans to rob them were disturbed. They then killed a female acquaintance and dumped her body in a barn after she refused to destroy a fur coat which was potentially incriminating evidence, and lastly Hall murdered his half-brother, a convicted child molester who was asking too many questions, before beginning a journey to Scotland with the intention of again burying the body. Having stopped at a hotel for the night when the weather became too hazardous for driving, Hall and Kitto were caught when the hotelier, concerned that two suspicious-looking guests might not pay their bill, called the police. They found the body in Hall's car boot, and Hall later showed them the three gruesome burial sites. After trials in London and Edinburgh, Hall received four life sentences and Kitto three, with one judge recommending that Hall should never be freed. This recommendation was upheld when the list of confirmed whole life tariff prisoners was published, and Hall was the oldest prisoner on the list. He publicly requested the right to die in 1995, and did so of a stroke in 2002, while still in prison. He was 78. Three years earlier, he had published his autobiography. |
| John Childs | 1980 | Hitman John Childs murdered and burned six people in 1980. | ||
| Dennis Nilsen | Muswell Hill Murderer | 1983 | - | An ex-policeman who dismembered and murdered 13 men at his home in North London, storing the body parts inside and around the flat, and was arrested after workmen investigating a blocked and odorous drain found human flesh. Nilsen's trial judge originally recommended a 25-year minimum sentence, but successive Home Secretaries decided that he should never be released from prison. The November 2002 law lords' ruling meant that Nilsen could have been released from prison as early as 2008, however this has not transpired and he remains imprisoned as the 30th anniversary of his conviction approaches. Nilsen has also been denied the right to publish his autobiography and some music and poetry from prison. |
| Arthur Hutchinson | 1984 | - | A fugitive who gatecrashed a wedding reception at a house in Sheffield shortly after the bride and groom had left and stabbed to death the bride's father, mother and brother, before raping her sister at knifepoint. Police quickly labelled him as the killer after identifying a handprint on a champagne bottle and a bitemark in a piece of cheese. He was already on the run from answering a charge of violent rape and had previous convictions for offences of violence, indecent assault and dishonesty. Now a pensioner, his trial judge recommended an 18-year tariff which expired in 2002 but he remains in prison, having been listed by the Home Secretary as a whole-life prisoner. Hutchinson appealed this twice through the High Court, but the court upheld the decision of the Home Secretary on both occasions, meaning he is likely to die in prison. | |
| Jeremy Bamber | 1986 | - | Shot dead his adoptive parents, sister and six-year-old twin nephews at the family farmhouse in Essex in order to claim a six-figure inheritance while also laying evidence to suggest his sister, a schizophrenic, had committed the murders before killing herself. His trial judge said in sentencing him that he found the idea of ever seeing Bamber free again "difficult to foresee", and advised that he should serve at least 25 years behind bars before release could even be considered. Bamber has nonetheless spent his sentence continuously protesting his innocence, asking for support on a website he runs from prison and seeking new evidence to launch fresh appeals. Support for his case is increasing, including backing from his MP. He is the only whole life tariff prisoner who has not accepted guilt or culpability and was also the youngest such prisoner when the original list was published. Despite the law lords' ruling in November 2002, Bamber has been told by the Home Secretary that he will never be released. | |
| Anthony Entwistle | 1987 | - | He murdered 16-year-old Michelle Calvy at Blackburn in 1987, within weeks of his release from a seven-year prison sentence imposed for sexually assaulting two women. He was found guilty of Michelle's murder at Preston Crown Court in 1988, sentenced to life imprisonment and is still behind bars after some 25 years. | |
| Victor Miller | 1988 | - | A predator who abducted, sexually assaulted and battered to death a 14-year-old boy from Hagley in Worcestershire in January 1988. He confessed after being arrested for an unrelated crime and led detectives to the body. Police later revealed they believed Miller was responsible for almost 30 unsolved sexual assaults. In court, he confessed openly to the killing and asked for the maximum sentence available. Although he was set a tariff of 25 years which was reactivated after the November 2002 law lords' ruling, meaning he could be considered for release in 2013, Miller has asked the Home Office not to consider him for release at any point in the future, and therefore actively wishes to die in prison. Miller's trial judge had also expressed doubt as to whether it would be safe for him ever to be released. | |
| John Duffy | Railway Killer | 1988 | - | The Railway Killer, who attacked numerous women in the south of England, raping all of them and murdering three, before revolutionary psychological profiling helped police to catch him, although they got no nearer the accomplice they knew Duffy worked with. He was given a 30-year tariff for two murders and seven rapes which, after the law lords' ruling, was reactivated, meaning that he could be considered for release in 2018. After 12 years in prison, Duffy went on a conscience-clearing exercise, admitting to a third killing of which he had been originally acquitted, and implicating schoolfriend David Mulcahy as his accomplice. He also revealed his part in countless other rapes, for which he received a further 12 years. After Duffy gave evidence against him, Mulcahy was given life sentences for three murders and seven rapes in 2001 but was not subjected to a whole life tariff because of the timing of his case in relation with the review. |
| Anthony Arkwright | 1989 | - | Hacked and battered to death three people including his grandfather in Yorkshire, aged 21, on a two-day killing spree in August 1988. He was convicted of all three murders and sentenced to life imprisonment the following year. He was also suspected of a fourth murder committed around the same time but never charged. | |
| Victor Castigador | 1990 | - | A Filipino illegal immigrant who led a gang of robbers on a grudge attack at a London amusement arcade where he himself worked. Four members of staff were tied up, locked in a cage within the vault before being doused in white spirit and set alight. Two died, two suffered serious burns. Castigador received an initial 25-year tariff from his trial judge which was duly extended to a whole life tariff, but the November 2002 law lords' ruling means that he could still be released from prison as early as 2015 (by which time he will be 61 years old) if the parole board decides he is no longer a danger to the public. One of his teenage accomplices was sentenced to life with a recommended minimum of 20 years; a subsequent appeal against this recommendation at the High Court was rejected. | |
| Colin Ireland | Gay Slayer | 1993 | 2012 | The Gay Slayer, who set about achieving a New Year's resolution to become a serial killer by targeting patrons of a public house frequented by gay men. Ireland pretended to be homosexual in order to be taken to each of his victims' homes, where he took advantage of their desire for S&M activity to truss, torture and murder them, often then robbing them to cover his travelling expenses as he was unemployed. He was able to continue as police found initial difficulty in linking the killings to one perpetrator, and was caught when, having visited police to explain away his sighting on closed-circuit television with his final victim, his fingerprint was subsequently matched to one found at the man's flat. He confessed to the other murders while in custody and pleaded guilty to all charges in court. His original recommended tariff was never publicised. Ireland remained in prison until he died on 21 February 2012 at the age of 57. |
| Colin Hatch | 1994 | 2011 | A paedophile who was convicted of sexual assault on boys in 1991 and 1992 but jailed for only three years after it was decided he was not dangerous enough to be held involuntarily in a Secure Hospital, against the advice of the psychiatrist. He was paroled early and committed the sexually motivated murder of seven-year-old Sean Williams in summer 1993, for which he received a whole life tariff; Lowry J said it was "not possible to envisage" a time when Hatch could be released safely, so "life should mean life". He was remained imprisoned until his death in February 2011; he was found dead in his cell and it was reported that he had been murdered by another prisoner. | |
| Robert Black | 1994 | - | A pædophile who abducted, raped and killed three schoolgirls in the 1980s before dumping all three at roadsides hundreds of miles from their homes. He was already serving a life sentence for an attempted abduction when he was convicted of three murders (and one further abduction of a girl who survived) in 1994, and the trial judge recommended a minimum term of 35 years - which would make him ineligible for release until 2029 and the age of 82. He was later given a whole life tariff by the home secretary, although the November 2002 law lords' ruling means that he could still receive early release. Black has been long suspected of involvement in the disappearances of numerous other children in the 1970s and 1980s but questioning of him has proved inconclusive; no bodies have ever been found in these cases and the files remain open. | |
| Rosemary West | 1995 | - | Convicted for the murder of ten women and girls at her home in Gloucester, including one of her daughters and a stepdaughter. Her husband, Frederick West, committed suicide in jail before standing trial for a total of 12 murders (two of which occurred just before the couple met in 1968). Hindley's death left West as the only confirmed female prisoner on the whole life tariff register. | |
| Peter Moore | 1996 | - | Moore murdered four men in apparently sexually motivated attacks in Wales. He confessed to police but claimed at trial it was in fact a fictional lover, "Jason", who had killed them. Following his conviction the judge said he would urge the Home Secretary to impose the whole life tariff; it was revealed in 2011 that he remained subject to this after the press reported he was one of three prisoners challenging the legality of the order before the European Court of Human Rights. | |
| Anthony Sawoniuk | 1999 | 2005 | Belorussian Nazi collaborator who was convicted of murder committed outside the UK against non-UK citizens, during the Holocaust, based on the principle of universal jurisdiction. He is the only person sentenced to a whole life tariff under the War Crimes Act and was the oldest prisoner with such a tariff when he died aged 84 in Norwich L wing, for elderly men serving life or other long sentences, in 2005. | |
| Harold Shipman | Dr Death | 2000 | 2004 | Former GP who was convicted of killing 15 of his patients, all female, at his surgery in Hyde, Greater Manchester, in the 1990s, giving them lethal doses of morphine. Suspicion was raised when the daughter of his last victim found that Shipman had crudely forged her mother's will. Shipman was sentenced to life imprisonment, with the trial judge recommending that he should never be released, and two years later the Home Secretary agreed. An official inquiry in July 2002 concluded that there was enough evidence to decide that Shipman had killed 215 of his patients, making him Britain's most prolific serial killer. Some reports claimed that he may have committed around 460 murders. Shipman, who never confessed to the murders, hanged himself in his prison cell on 13 January 2004, the day before what would have been his 58th birthday, and the full extent of his crimes will probably be never known as a consequence. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Prisoners With Whole-life Tariffs
Famous quotes containing the words imposed and/or home:
“The chief internal enemies of any state are those public officials who betray the trust imposed upon them by the people.”
—Dalton Trumbo (1905–1976)
“The fact that women in the home have shut themselves away from the thought and life of the world has done much to retard progress. We fill the world with the children of 20th century A.D. fathers and 20th century B.C. mothers.”
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935)