Arthur Hutchinson (murderer)

Arthur Hutchinson (born 19 February 1941) is a British convicted triple murderer.^[1]

Born in Hartlepool, County Durham he attained notoriety in 1984 when he was convicted of three murders committed in Dore, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, on 23 October 1983.

Crimes

Hutchinson murdered Basil Laitner, 59, his 55-year-old wife Avril, and their 28-year-old son Richard. He raped their 18-year-old daughter Nicola at knife-point before fleeing. Just hours earlier, the family had hosted the wedding reception of their other daughter Suzanne at the house. It is believed that Hutchinson was planning to commit an armed robbery.^[2]

Hutchinson was also wanted for a rape at the time, and had already spent more than five years in prison for the attempted murder of his brother-in-law. His identity was established by the description given by Nicola Laitner, and by scientific evidence in the form of a palm-print left on a champagne glass.^[3] After spending weeks on the run, wearing disguises and moving from place to place in Barnsley, Nottinghamshire, Manchester, York, and Scarborough, he was finally captured on a farm in Hartlepool.^[2]

He was found guilty of all three murders and the rape on 14 September 1984, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommended minimum term of 18 years, which could have seen him released from prison by 2002 and the age of 61 in the event of the Parole Board deciding that he no longer posed a risk.

However, the then Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, placed Hutchinson on the list of prisoners whose life sentences should mean life, meaning that he would probably never be released.

Appeals against sentence

Hutchinson later appealed against the Home Secretary's ruling. His case was heard on 16 May 2008 at the High Court, nearly six years after the final say on minimum terms for life sentence prisoners was transferred from the Home Secretary to the High Court. His solicitors argued that a whole life tariff was a breach of his human rights.

However, his appeal was rejected and the High Court agreed with the Home Secretary's ruling that life must mean life for Hutchinson.^[4]

Hutchinson lodged a second appeal against his sentence shortly afterwards, his case returning to the High Court on 6 October 2008, but this too was rejected.^[5]

On 13 July 2013, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the whole life tariff was a breach of human rights.^[6]However, on 3 February 2015, Hutchinson lost an appeal in the European Court of Human Rights against his sentence, with the court's judges ruling that whole life tariffs were appropriate in certain cases. ^[7]

References