John Straffen, Britain's Longest-Serving Prisoner, Dies in Frankland Prison After 55 Years in Custody
Straffen killed a five-year-old girl in 1952 during a few hours on the run from Broadmoor. He had been held there over the deaths of two other girls.
Published
John Straffen spent 55 years behind bars, longer than any other prisoner in British legal history. On November 19, 2007, he died aged 77 in the healthcare unit at Frankland prison in County Durham, following an illness.
Straffen, from Bath, had been sent to Broadmoor after being deemed unfit to stand trial in 1951 over the deaths of Cicely Batstone, 9, and Brenda Goddard. In 1952 he escaped, and within hours he killed Linda Bowyer, 5. He was tried for her murder and sentenced to death, but the then home secretary, David Maxwell Fyfe, reduced the sentence to life imprisonment on the grounds that Straffen was a "feeble-minded person." After his escape, a siren system was installed to alert people living near Broadmoor when an inmate got out.
Straffen was never sent back to Broadmoor and served his sentence in maximum-security prisons. In 2001, solicitors acting for him called for his case to be reopened, saying he should not have stood trial because he had a mental age of nine and a half. Successive home secretaries blocked his release.
The Guardian reported that Straffen was sent to Broadmoor after being found guilty of killing two girls, while Reuters reported that he had been deemed unfit to stand trial for their deaths.
Sources
- Britain's longest-serving prisoner dies, The Sydney Morning Herald (Reuters)
- Longest-serving UK prisoner dies, aged 77, The Guardian