November 20, 2007: England's Longest-Serving Prisoner Dies

The longest serving inmate in the UK prison system has died, a total of 55 years after he murdered three young girls. John Straffen was aged 77 when he died, reportedly of natural causes, in HMP Frankland, County Durham.

In 1951 he murdered Brenda Goddard, aged 6. Some days later he murdered Cicely Batstone, who was 9 years old. In October 1951 he was charged with the murders of the two girls but considered unfit to plead and was detained in Broadmoor. The judge at his trial had announced to the jury that:

"In this country we do not try people who are insane. You might as well try a baby in arms. If the man cannot understand through insanity what is going on and is unable to tell his counsel what his defence is, we do not try him."

Straffen was declared insane and was sent to Broadmoor. He escaped in April 29, 1952 and though only free for four hours, he murdered 5 year old Linda Bowyer during that short period. All three victims were strangled. Medical opinion concluded that on this occasion he was fit to plead.

Straffen was sentenced to death. The then Home Secretary, Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe subsequently commuted the sentence to life imprisonment. Straffen was considered to be, in the language of the time, “feeble minded” and there was some public feeling that he could not be held responsible for his actions. However, he did not return to Broadmoor but served the rest of his sentence in various prisons. He reportedly had a mental age of approximately ten years.