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.
Early life
John Thomas Straffen was born on 27 February 1930 at Bordon Camp in Hampshire. He was the third of six children born to John and Elizabeth (née Morgan) Straffen, with one older brother and sister, and three younger sisters. At the time of Straffen's birth, his father served in the British Army, and his mother was a homemaker. When Straffen was two years old, his father was deployed overseas and the family spent six years in British India.
Straffen's early childhood was unremarkable. His mother would later recollect her son displayed no signs of mental limitation or behavioural problems until after he was stricken with encephalitis at age six during his father's tour of military duty in British India. Following his recovery, Straffen began to exhibit traits of antisocial behaviour. The family returned to the United Kingdom in March 1938, settling in a suburb of Bath, Somerset. Shortly thereafter, Straffen's father was discharged from the Army. He was referred to a child guidance clinic for this behaviour in October 1938. Eight months later, Straffen first appeared before a juvenile court for stealing a purse from a young girl; he was sentenced to two years' probation. Straffen's assigned probation officer discovered that he did not understand the general difference between right and wrong, or the meaning of probation.
In June 1940, the local council referred Straffen to St Joseph's School, a residential school for mentally defective children in Sambourne, Warwickshire, with instruction he remain housed within structured facilities of this nature until age sixteen. The same year, Straffen underwent an intellectual assessment, which revealed his IQ to be 58 and his mental age to be six years.
Straffen would remain at St Joseph's until 1942, when he transferred to Besford Court School in Defford, Worcestershire. Here, he was observed by staff to be something of a solitary individual and markedly resentful of having been placed in a structured environment by authorities. A second intellectual assessment conducted in the mid-1940s revised Straffen's IQ to 64; his mental age was also revised to nine years, six months. He would remain at this facility until March 1946. The police were unable to locate the assailant and would only link Straffen to this offence much later. Six weeks after committing the sexual assault, Straffen is known to have strangled five chickens belonging to the father of a teenage girl with whom he had recently argued.
HM Prison Horfield
In the autumn of 1947 Straffen was arrested for burglary; he willingly confessed to the offence in addition to having committed thirteen other burglaries, many of which police had not linked to the same offender. He was remanded in custody and, on 10 October, was committed to HM Prison Horfield in Bristol under the Mental Deficiency Act 1913, with his committal paperwork stating Straffen was "not of violent or dangerous propensities." Straffen would remain at this facility for twenty months, during which he underwent a psychiatric examination by the medical superintendent, who officially classified Straffen as being intellectually disabled.
Unsupervised home leave
In early 1951, Straffen was examined at a Bristol hospital, where an electroencephalograph reading revealed he had suffered "wide and severe damage to the cerebral cortex"—possibly originating from his being stricken with encephalitis at the age of six.
Rehabilitation into society
News of Straffen independently obtaining employment greatly impressed Hortham officials, and he was allowed to keep his horticultural job.
By law, under the Mental Deficiency Act, Straffen underwent a further psychological assessment by Hortham medical staff shortly after his twenty-first birthday; these officials recommended he remain classified as mentally deficient for a further five years. His family disputed the outcome of this assessment and appealed the decision. Shortly thereafter, 10 July 1951, the Medical Officer of Health for Bath re-examined Straffen and found an improvement in his mental age to ten years; he recommended that Straffen's certificate of mental deficiency be renewed only for six months with a view to discharge at the end.
Two days prior to this re-assessment, a seven-year-old girl named Christine Vivian Butcher had been murdered in Windsor, Berkshire. The child had been raped, then strangled to death with the belt from her own raincoat. Her murder was never solved. Although Straffen is not considered a suspect in this case, according to author Letitia Fairfield, the intense police and public outrage generated by the case may have led Straffen—with his lifelong "intense resentment" and "smouldering hatred" of police—to believe the act of strangling young girls would cause maximum frustration and outrage to the authorities.
Murders
Brenda Goddard
On the afternoon of 15 July 1951, Straffen visited the local cinema unaccompanied, as he typically did on a Sunday. His route took him past 1 Camden Crescent in Bath, where 5-year-old Brenda Constance Goddard lived with her foster parents. Although the child was not allowed to venture out of her garden when playing while unsupervised, on this day, she evidently crossed the road to a meadow close to her home to gather buttercups and daisies.
According to Straffen's later statement to the police, he initially observed Brenda as she gathered flowers in this meadow and the child "looked up and smiled" at him before he asked her, "What are you doing?" After learning Brenda's name, Straffen stated: "I know a place where there are even more flowers; they're in that wood. Shall I show you?" Brenda eagerly agreed.
At the entrance to a nearby copse, Brenda allowed Straffen to lift her over a fence. Almost immediately thereafter, Straffen manually strangled the child although as he was both confused and frustrated that Brenda did not attempt to scream prior to lapsing into unconsciousness, he then repeatedly struck her head against a large stone. Straffen did not make any attempt to hide the body and simply continued to the cinema to watch the film Shockproof, after which he returned home.
Brenda's foster mother reported her missing at 3:15 p.m.; her body was discovered by a police officer at 7:10 p.m. No effort had been made to conceal her body, and numerous clipped white convolvulus flowers were found at the crime scene. The child had not been sexually assaulted, and investigators were unable to determine the actual motive for the crime.
After eliminating Brenda's biological and foster family as suspects, police began questioning all locals with criminal records. He admitted to having worn a navy blue suit on the date of the child's death and that he may have been the individual in such attire seen by Brenda's foster mother walking past her home shortly before she had noticed Brenda missing from her front garden, but he denied any involvement in the murder. Although Straffen blamed the police for his dismissal, his employer would later state he had already been planning to "lay [Straffen] off" within days of his interview with the police due to Straffen's recent lack of commitment to his work duties and his bizarre habit of hoarding flowers and vegetables in locations he apparently believed they would not be found.
In a later interview given to a prison psychiatrist, Straffen confirmed that although he was not charged with Brenda's murder, he had known he remained under suspicion following his interview and resolved to continue to antagonise the police, with his dismissal likely furthering this desire. Straffen encountered 9-year-old Cicely Dorothy Batstone at the Forum Cinema in Bath as the two watched Tarzan and the Jungle Queen. He offered the child a sweet and the two engaged in conversation, with Cicely informing Straffen her mother had allowed her to travel to the cinema alone as it was "children's day"—although she was unsure of the exact meaning of this term. In response, Straffen replied that the term likely meant children could do as they pleased for the entire day.
Upon the film's conclusion, Straffen offered to accompany Cicely to another local cinema to watch the Western She Wore a Yellow Ribbon with the added promise of paying her admission fee. Cicely agreed, and the two travelled via bus across town. Shortly after alighting the bus, the two were observed walking along Bloomfield Road in the direction of the meadow at approximately 8 p.m. by a woman named Violet Cowley. Cowley—the wife of a policeman—would later state the sight of the two had made her feel "uneasy".
Missing person report
Cicely's parents had been socialising with friends on the afternoon of 8 August upon the understanding her 16-year-old sister, Gladys, would be at the family home at a prearranged time to supervise her sister when she returned from the cinema; however, when Cicely failed to return home, Gladys initially assumed she was with their parents. As such, the child was not reported missing until shortly before 11 p.m. A large-scale manhunt was immediately implemented to locate the child. Upon learning of Cicely's disappearance early the following morning and the manhunt to locate the child, Cowley directed police to the location she had seen the two. Cicely's body was discovered beneath a hedge at 8:30 a.m.
Eyewitness statements
In addition to Violet Cowley, numerous other eyewitnesses had observed Straffen in Cicely's company prior to her murder.
Arrest
Police drove to Straffen's home to question him in relation to Cicely's murder on the morning of 9 August. According to investigators, when informed of the purpose of their visit, Straffen replied: "Is it about the girl I was at the pictures with last night?" He was then driven to the Old Police Station to face formal questioning.
Confession
Straffen readily admitted to investigators he had been in Cicely's company on the afternoon of her murder; however, he initially denied any culpability in her death—insisting the child had been asleep in The Tumps when he last saw her. Shortly thereafter, he revised this statement to admit he knew Cicely was deceased, stating: "She is dead, but you can't prove I did it because no-one saw me". He also willingly confessed to the murder of Brenda Goddard, stating: "The other girl, I did her the same". When questioned as to why he had killed the children, Straffen stated he had committed both murders to give the police "something to really do" as opposed to continually pursuing him for relatively trivial offences. He was formally charged with the murder of Cicely Batstone the following day.
Formal charges
Straffen formally appeared at the Guildhall in Bath on 24 August 1951, charged with both child murders; he pleaded not guilty to the charges on this date and was remanded in custody until 30 August. On 31 August, after a two-day hearing at Bath Magistrates' Court, a formal date was set for Straffen to stand trial for the murder of Cicely Batstone.
First murder trial
Straffen stood trial at Taunton Assize Court on 17 October 1951. He was tried before Mr Justice Oliver.
The only witness to testify at this eight-minute hearing was the medical superintendent at HM Prison Horfield, Peter Parkes, who testified to having reviewed Straffen on numerous occasions between 1947 and 1951 and that his current level of mental deficiency remained "very much the same" as it had in 1947. Parkes also testified as to Straffen's inability to appreciate or understand the circumstances and procedures of the legal process. As such, the jury formally ruled that Straffen was insane and unfit to plead. He was ordered to be detained at His Majesty's pleasure at Broadmoor Hospital (then known as Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane) in Crowthorne, Berkshire.
thumb|right|225px|[[Broadmoor Hospital. Straffen was able to escape from this facility due to security lapses on 29 April 1952.]]
Committal to Broadmoor
Constructed in the 19th century, Broadmoor Hospital had originally been termed a criminal lunatic asylum; however, the Criminal Justice Act 1948 transferred all responsibility for the institution to the Ministry of Health, and those committed to the facility had been reclassified from "inmates" to "patients" by the time of Straffen's committal. As such, all patients within the facility were subjected to a more humane regime. Shortly after arriving at this 40-acre institution, Straffen was assigned work as a cleaner.
Escape
At 2:25 p.m. on 29 April 1952, Straffen—wearing his own civilian clothing beneath his assigned work uniform—managed to surmount Broadmoor's wall by climbing onto the slate roof of a lean-to shed with the assistance of large disinfectant drums placed against the wall of the institution during an assigned work detail to clean a dilapidated outbuilding. He was briefly unsupervised at the time of climbing onto the slate roof after the sole guard assigned to supervise his work detail left him unattended as he oversaw the cleaning work of other inmates. Straffen then scaled the remaining eighteen inches to the top of the perimeter wall and lowered himself to the ground. His escape was quickly noticed, and local police notified. A manhunt to re-apprehend Straffen was immediately implemented.
upright=0.73|right|thumb|Linda Bowyer
Murder of Linda Bowyer
Upon escaping from Broadmoor, Straffen is known to have discarded his work uniform and travelled approximately over the course of two hours on foot before arriving in the village of Farley Hill where, according to eyewitnesses, he began loitering without apparent purpose.
At approximately 5:30p.m., a resident glanced from a cottage window to observe Straffen sitting on a bench watching five-year-old Linda Bowyer randomly riding her new bicycle around the village. Shortly thereafter, Linda Bowyer was lured to a nearby field and manually strangled to death before Straffen walked to a nearby household to ask the occupant, a Mrs Loyalty Kenyon, for a glass of water and directions to Wokingham.
As the motorist approached the bus stop, Straffen observed several men standing close to the bus stop, causing him to nervously remark: "Is that the police? What are they doing?"
Body discovery
Linda's mother first noticed her daughter's disappearance at 7:30p.m. when the child failed to return home or respond to her subsequent calling her name aloud from her garden gate. With the assistance of soldiers stationed at Arborfield military camp, police immediately implemented a manhunt to locate the child, and Linda's fully clothed, strangled body was found beneath an oak tree within a bluebell copse by Sergeant Percy Axford at 5:25 the following morning. An autopsy revealed the child had been deceased for between twelve and fifteen hours, and that she had not been sexually assaulted.
Investigators immediately travelled to Broadmoor to question Straffen as to whether he had committed any further crimes while he had escaped from the institution. When awoken and politely asked by Chief Inspector Frederick Francis whether he had committed "any mischief" the previous day, before elaborating: "I know you coppers! I know I killed [Goddard and Batstone], but I did not kill the little girl on the bicycle."
News of Straffen's escape and the fact he had committed a third child murder prior to his recapture sparked intense public outrage, with security within the facility subject to particular scrutiny.