Anthony John Hardy (31 May 1951 – 25 November 2020) was an English serial killer who was known as the Camden Ripper for beheading and dismembering some of his victims. In November 2003, he was sentenced to three life terms for three murders, but police believe he may have been responsible for up to six more.

Early life

Born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, He was also treated in psychiatric hospitals across London for depression, drug-induced psychosis and alcohol abuse. In 2012, he was struck off the medical register by the General Medical Council, meaning that he can no longer practise medicine in the United Kingdom.

Hardy pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage and claimed he had no knowledge of how White came to be in his flat due to his drinking problem. Whilst in custody Hardy was transferred to a psychiatric hospital, under section 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983, remaining there until November 2002.

Arrest and trial

On 30 December 2002, a homeless person scavenging in school bins found the dismembered body parts of two women, wrapped in black plastic bin-liners. The victims were identified as Bridgette MacClennan, 34, and Elizabeth Valad, 29. The investigation led to Hardy, who was arrested a week later. He had gone on the run but was spotted by an off-duty policeman when he went to University College Hospital to collect his prescription for insulin. During a search of the grounds of the hospital, Hardy was found hiding behind bins. A fight took place as he resisted arrest, during the course of which a police officer was knocked unconscious and another officer was stabbed through the hand and had his eye dislocated from its socket. Despite suffering these injuries, the wounded police officer held Hardy until backup arrived and he was arrested at the scene. A subsequent search of his flat found evidence, including old blood stains, indicating the two women had been killed and dismembered there. Both had died over the Christmas holidays.

Under arrest, Hardy replied "no comment" to every question put to him by police. He was charged with the murders of both MacClennan and Valad, and of White, the woman whose death had originally been put down to natural causes. At his trial in November 2003 Hardy, despite his initial lack of cooperation with the police, abruptly changed his plea to guilty to all three counts of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Because of Hardy's history of psychiatric problems and violent behaviour, an independent enquiry was announced into his care. A November 2003 article written for the Evening Standard by Hugh Dougherty and Finian Davern suggested that Hardy was a pornography-obsessed necrophile who derived sexual gratification from posing and photographing his victims' nude corpses, and a BBC News article from the same month suggested that this photography was his primary motivation for the murders.

Hardy was diagnosed with a personality disorder.

Death

Hardy died of pneumonia at HM Prison Frankland, County Durham, on 25 November 2020, aged 69. One of the murders Hardy was originally linked to, that of Paula Fields whose body was dumped in the Regents Canal in 2001, was solved in 2011 when John Sweeney was convicted of her murder.

Murder of Zoe Parker

thumb|Zoe Parker

Another murder that was linked to Hardy was that of Zoe Parker, who had last been seen in Hounslow in December 2000 before her dismembered torso was found in the river. Possible links between Hardy and the Parker case were noted in the press as soon as he was apprehended in January 2003, with detectives saying that "he is a suspect for the unsolved murders of any women whose bodies have been cut up and dumped". The lower half of Parker's body was never found. The torso was found next to Chelsea Harbour on the Thames. She was 24 years old and was also known as Cathy Dennis. She was said to have often started up conversations with strangers. One was wearing a white casual jacket, dark trousers and white trainers.

In 2021, police investigated if Fred the Head, an unidentified decedent found in Burton upon Trent in 1971, may have been a victim of Hardy, a theory originating in a Facebook group dedicated to identifying the body.

Hardy was the subject of an episode of Evil Up Close on the Crime and Investigation Network, focusing on the 2010 decision to keep Hardy in prison for the rest of his life. The film was directed by Robert Murray and written and produced by Will Hanrahan.

Hardy was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary, The Hunt for the Camden Ripper, broadcast in 2004. It was narrated by Juliet Stevenson and directed by Olly Lambert.

The 30 December discovery and resulting investigation that led to Hardy's arrest is the subject of "The Camden Ripper" episode of the podcast Scotland Yard Confidential.

See also

  • List of serial killers in the United Kingdom
  • Murdered sex workers in the United Kingdom
  • Alun Kyte (Midlands Ripper)
  • David Smith, London prostitute killer

References