John Straffen

John Thomas Straffen (27 February 1930 – 19 November 2007) was an English serial killer who committed the murder of three prepubescent girls between the ages of five and nine in the counties of Somerset and Berkshire, England, between 1951 and 1952. All three of Straffen's victims were murdered by strangulation. His first two victims were murdered in Bath, Somerset, in the summer of 1951. Arrested shortly after the murder of his second victim, Straffen denied any sexual or sadistic motive for the murders, which he insisted he had committed to simply "annoy" the police, whom he blamed for most of his problems. Tried before Mr Justice Oliver at Taunton Assizes in October 1951, Straffen was found unfit to plead on the grounds of diminished responsibility and committed to indefinite detention within Broadmoor Hospital. He briefly escaped from this facility in April 1952 and murdered a third child in the village of Farley Hill, Berkshire, in the four hours he remained at liberty prior to his recapture. Straffen was brought to trial for this third murder at Winchester Assizes in July 1952; he was ultimately convicted and sentenced to death, although his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment by the Home Secretary following his personal recommendation to the Queen that Straffen be reprieved. He remained incarcerated until his death within HM Prison Frankland in November 2007. At the time of Straffen's death, he was the longest-serving prisoner in British history, having served over 55 years' imprisonment.