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Kill Total: |
3 |
Kill place: |
Bath, Somerset
Broasdmoor |
|
Kill date: |
August 1951
August 1951
April 1952 |
Victim(s): |
Brenda Goddard
Cicely Batstone
Linda Bowyer |
|
Date of Birth: |
1930 |
Marital Status: |
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|
AKA: |
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Occupation: |
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John Straffen was born
in 1930. As he progressed through school life he became a
thief and a truant. At age 10 he was sent to a school for
backward children, and in 1947 he assaulted a child and
was committed to a mental institution.
He was released in February 1951 and had, by August,
strangled two small girls, Brenda Goddard and Cicely
Batstone, both aged only 5. in the town of Bath. He did it,
he claimed, to annoy the police. In October he appeared
before a Taunton court, he was found unfit to plead and
was sent to Broadmoor secure unit.
In April 1952 he escaped from Broadmoor, and although he
was caught later the same day, it was not before he had
strangled Linda Bowyer. The body of the young girl was
found the next day in a field close to Broadmoor. Straffen
implicated himself by telling officers ‘I did not kill the
little girl on the bicycle.’ This was before they had
asked him about the murder.
Straffen appeared at Winchester Crown Court in July 1952
and pleaded not guilty. His ability to plead was accepted
and he was found guilty and sentenced to death. An appeal
against sentence was lodged , and a reprieve was granted.
He was returned to Broadmoor to see out his days.
He had the claim of being the longest serving prisoner in
the UK having been in continuous custody since 23rd April
1952 until eventually dying behind bars in Broadmoor on
19th November, 2007, at the age of 77.
