Latest / History Dark / Murdering just hours after escaping Prison _ John Straffen_ Low IQ Child Killer

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Murdering just hours after escaping Prison _ John Straffen_ Low IQ Child Killer · History Dark

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Speaker 1: Straffon is the kind of person that would simply encounter
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Speaker 1: a child and for no reason at all snuff that
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Speaker 1: child's life out.
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Speaker 2: Straffon was like a baby in arms.
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Speaker 3: We're talking about somebody with an IQ of nine or
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Speaker 3: ten years of age.
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Speaker 4: There he was, 50-odd years in prison, basically waiting to die.
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Speaker 5: Britain's longest serving prisoner died in 2007. John Straffon had
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Speaker 5: been incarcerated for 55 years and three months. He was
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Speaker 5: the notorious child killer who escaped from Broadmoor. He is
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Speaker 5: remembered for one of the most controversial trials in English
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Speaker 5: criminal history. I'm Fred Dynage and I'm investigating some of
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Speaker 5: Britain's most infamous murderers. I want to know the true
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Speaker 5: stories behind their horrific crimes. I want to find out
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Speaker 5: what motivates someone to kill and to discover how they
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Speaker 5: think they'll get away with it. During the 1950s, John
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Speaker 5: Straffon was sent to Broadmoor for the brutal murder of
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Speaker 5: two young girls. Only six months later, the 22-year-old escaped
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Speaker 5: from the high security hospital and killed another child. Caught again,
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Speaker 5: Straffon would eventually become the longest-serving prisoner in British history.
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Speaker 5: What turned this man with an IQ of just 58
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Speaker 5: into a murderer? John Straffon was born in 1930 at
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Speaker 5: the Borden Army Camp in Hampshire, but spent his early
1:59
Speaker 5: years stationed with his family in India. In 1938, the
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Speaker 5: family returned to England and settled in Bath. Before long,
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Speaker 5: the young Straffon's behavior started to deteriorate. Straffen's case has
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Speaker 5: intrigued criminologists, historians and authors. Crime writer David Kidd Hewitt
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Speaker 5: has made an in-depth study of the child killer. When
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Speaker 5: he came back from India, one or two problems started,
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Speaker 5: didn't they?
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Speaker 2: What happened?
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Speaker 3: Yes, there were some problems of pilfering, petty things, playing
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Speaker 3: truant from school. He wasn't really interested in school. There
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Speaker 3: was also the episode where he stole a purse, and
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Speaker 3: that was reported to the police.
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Speaker 5: The juvenile court placed the eight-year-old Straffen on probation for
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Speaker 5: two years. He did not engage well with his probation officer,
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Speaker 5: who described him as a real problem child.
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Speaker 3: He was further assessed as to his mental capabilities, as
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Speaker 3: to whether he should have a special education rather than
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Speaker 3: just be having probation supervision.
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Speaker 1: And.
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Speaker 3: Under the legislation at that time, people were divided into
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Speaker 3: four groups under this mental deficiency legislation. Imbeciles, idiots, moral
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Speaker 3: defectives and feeble-minded.
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Speaker 5: Straffen was certified as a mental defective under the Mental
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Speaker 5: Deficiency Act. He struggled at school and had no understanding
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Speaker 5: of right or wrong. Encephalitis, an acute inflammation of the brain,
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Speaker 5: was later revealed as the cause for Straffen's stunted mental growth.
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Speaker 5: More often than not, it seems, a person's IQ can
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Speaker 5: have deadly consequences. Professor David Wilson, a leading criminologist, has
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Speaker 5: studied the impact of a killer's mental abilities.
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Speaker 1: Now, what we mean by mental defective at that time,
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Speaker 1: which was 1940, that just simply means he has an
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Speaker 1: arrested or incomplete development of the mind. In terms of
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Speaker 1: his IQ in 1940, He has an IQ of 58,
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Speaker 1: so we've got a 10-year-old boy with an IQ of 58,
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Speaker 1: which is well below average, and he has the reasoning
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Speaker 1: abilities of a six-year-old.
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Speaker 5: In the 1940s, IQ was used to measure a child's
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Speaker 5: learning ability. 17% of all children tested were classed as
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Speaker 5: having special educative needs. Straffen's IQ was well below the
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Speaker 5: average of 100%.
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Speaker 1: At these times, you have to remember, we're at war,
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Speaker 1: there's the growing role of the state in trying to
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Speaker 1: manage people labelled in the way that Strachan had been labelled.
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Speaker 1: And so they take Strachan into an institution, which is
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Speaker 1: known as the colony, where they're going to try and
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Speaker 1: work with him to improve his moral reasoning, to improve
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Speaker 1: his abilities to interrelate through learning how to read or write.
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Speaker 3: His school report from sort of 9 to 12 was
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Speaker 3: that he was He seemed to be quite amenable, not
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Speaker 3: somebody who was violent in any way or aggressive. The
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Speaker 3: negative part that was starting to feed through was that,
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Speaker 3: in fact, he liked his own company and he did
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Speaker 3: resent authority.
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Speaker 2: And being scolded.
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Speaker 3: He would actually, if he was told off that he'd
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Speaker 3: broken a rule, he would sulk and be very, very
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Speaker 3: down about this kind of interference in society.
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Speaker 2: What he wanted to do.
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Speaker 5: Straffen spent six years in residential schools known as colonies.
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Speaker 5: They specifically catered for delinquent juveniles and mental defectives. Focusing
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Speaker 5: on lessons in menial labor, the pupils were expected to
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Speaker 5: find work at 16 and eventually be rehabilitated back into society.
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Speaker 5: In 1946, Straffen was released.
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Speaker 3: When he got back to Bath, he did find himself
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Speaker 3: a job. as a machinist in a clothing factory. And
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Speaker 3: in fact, this look today could last, because I think
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Speaker 3: he was there around about ten months and doing quite well.
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Speaker 3: So there was some hope that maybe he was settling
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Speaker 3: down and he could work in some capacity.
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Speaker 5: In 1947, just one year after being released back into society,
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Speaker 5: the quiet lad began to change.
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Speaker 3: Stealing was one activity that he was starting to engage
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Speaker 3: in at 16 and 17. But there was also a
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Speaker 3: police report that he had technically, I suppose, assaulted a
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Speaker 3: young girl by putting his hand over her mouth and
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Speaker 3: had said to her, what would you do if I
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Speaker 3: killed you?
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Speaker 2: I've done it before.
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Speaker 1: I think if we were to encounter him at that
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Speaker 1: stage in his development, we'd realise pretty quickly that he
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Speaker 1: was not like us. He didn't see the consequences of
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Speaker 1: his behaviour. He couldn't make this moral leap. between what
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Speaker 1: he would do to what might happen and how thereafter
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Speaker 1: he was going to be judged. And I think we
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Speaker 1: would have picked that up pretty quickly.
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Speaker 5: Straffen's abusive behavior had him placed back in another rehabilitation colony.
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Speaker 5: Over three years later, in 1951, Straffen gained employment and
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Speaker 5: left the establishment.
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Speaker 3: The thing that he resented, that when he reached 21,
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Speaker 3: he was required to be tested again for mental abilities.
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Speaker 3: And that certification would last another five years. He wanted
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Speaker 3: to break that cord, that lead, that string, whatever, to
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Speaker 3: that connection with authority. And he was very, very upset
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Speaker 3: about the fact he had to go for testing.
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Speaker 5: On the 10th of July, 1951, Straffen was again examined
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Speaker 5: by Dr. Astley Weston and certified, again, a mental defective.
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Speaker 5: He was 21 and now an adult. That day triggered
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Speaker 5: a sequence of events that eventually led to Straffen's downfall
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Speaker 5: and to the deaths of three innocent young girls. He
8:16
Speaker 5: would read an article in a newspaper that would change
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Speaker 5: his life forever.
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Speaker 3: That very day, there was a little girl murdered as well,
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Speaker 3: which then made all the papers. Christine Butcher, aged seven,
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Speaker 3: was murdered, strangled, in fact. This was in Windsor, this
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Speaker 3: took place. And she was sexually assaulted. And it was
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Speaker 3: a horrific, horrific murder, which the press really went to
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Speaker 3: town on. Some people have assumed, this is retrospectively, that
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Speaker 3: perhaps Straffer knew about this, read about this, and was
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Speaker 3: intrigued by it.
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Speaker 1: What interests Straffen about the murder of that little girl
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Speaker 1: is that the police could not work out who the
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Speaker 1: culprit was. And I think that plants a seed in
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Speaker 1: Straffan's mind about how to get back at the police,
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Speaker 1: how to focus his resentment at the controls that are
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Speaker 1: being placed on him by the state, what he might
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Speaker 1: be able to do to rebel against that.
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Speaker 5: Cops and robbers, of course, have always been arch enemies.
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Speaker 5: But why did John Straffan hate the police so much?
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Speaker 5: Bobby Cummins, an ex-offender, runs a charity called Unlock, which
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Speaker 5: helps others stay on the straight and narrow. And he
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Speaker 5: understands more than most the difficult relationship which can exist
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Speaker 5: between the police and the criminal.
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Speaker 1: Why did John Straffan hate the police so much?
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Speaker 4: I think John hated... Every form of authority. He saw
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Speaker 4: it as oppressive. What you're dealing with, Fred, it's like
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Speaker 4: a child. A child in a man's body. So if
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Speaker 4: you didn't agree with him, you were the enemy. He'd
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Speaker 4: been let down by the system very badly. The system
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Speaker 4: didn't protect him. What the system did was.
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Speaker 2: done the brutalisation on him.
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Speaker 4: So when he'd see police officers, all those bad things
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Speaker 4: that happened in the past would have come to his
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Speaker 4: head and he would associate that uniform as an abuser.
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Speaker 5: The detectives had failed in their search for Christine Butcher's killer.
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Speaker 5: This sparked an idea for Straffan of how to cause
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Speaker 5: his enemy, the police, the maximum amount of trouble. On
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Speaker 5: the 15th of July, 1951, Straffan set out for his
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Speaker 5: regular Sunday afternoon trip to the cinema. En route, he
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Speaker 5: stumbled across six-year-old Brenda Goddard collecting flowers.
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Speaker 2: He was going to the cinema.
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Speaker 3: In Bath, the Bonache Cinema, to see a film called Shockproof.
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Speaker 3: And the route he took to the cinema happened to
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Speaker 3: pass an area where Brenda happened to be walking. At
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Speaker 3: that particular moment, Straffon is passing by and engages her
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Speaker 3: in conversation, as far as we can tell.
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Speaker 1: Straffon says to her, let me show you where you
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Speaker 1: can get better, nicer flowers to pick. And crucially, those
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Speaker 1: nicer flowers were some way away in another field, which
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Speaker 1: would involve Straffon having to lift Brenda Goddard over a wall.
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Speaker 5: As Straffon lifted the young girl, she fell and hit
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Speaker 5: her head on a stone, rendering her unconscious. He then
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Speaker 5: spontaneously strangled her, until she was dead. Straffen continued on
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Speaker 5: his journey to the cinema and spent the afternoon eating sweets,
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Speaker 5: watching a film, completely oblivious and detached from the brutal
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Speaker 5: murder he had just committed. He'd strangled Brenda Goddard and
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Speaker 5: left her body lying in this field. His only apparent motive,
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Speaker 5: simply to anger the police he hated so much. I'm
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Speaker 5: Fred Dynage, and I'm investigating the case of John Straffan,
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Speaker 5: a child killer who viewed his three gruesome murders as
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Speaker 5: an act of revenge against the police. On Sunday, July 15th, 1951,
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Speaker 5: Straffan had tricked six-year-old Brenda Goddard into following him, strangling
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Speaker 5: the child and leaving her body lying in a field.
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Speaker 1: Straffan has no concept of his behavior and the consequences
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Speaker 1: of his behavior. He has no sense of his personal responsibility.
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Speaker 1: So after he's murdered Brenda Goddard, he simply abandons the body,
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Speaker 1: no attempt to hide it, to conceal it. In fact,
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Speaker 1: he goes to the cinema. So he's not anxious. He's
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Speaker 1: not showing any anxiety about the fact he's committed a murder.
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Speaker 2: He simply goes to the cinema.
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Speaker 5: Brenda's guardian, Doris Pullen, quickly noticed her missing and a
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Speaker 5: search began. Five hours later, her body was found.
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Speaker 3: Brenda's foster mother was looking for her around about sort
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Speaker 3: of 2.20, 2.25, because she had wandered from the garden,
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Speaker 3: very frantically, sort of, where's she gone, where's she gone?
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Speaker 3: And Straffan did mention in his later statements to the
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Speaker 3: police that he.
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Speaker 2: Did see this woman. She looked at him. He said,
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Speaker 2: I took no notice.
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Speaker 3: And she did report to the police that, in fact,
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Speaker 3: she had seen a man in a blue suit.
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Speaker 5: Straffen didn't realise the significance of being seen by Mrs Pullen.
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Speaker 5: Why would the police be suspicious of a man seen
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Speaker 5: walking in the area?
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Speaker 1: We're dealing with somebody who has a very low IQ,
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Speaker 1: misunderstands the concept of there being an eyewitness. Because this
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Speaker 1: murder has taken behind a wall, Strafen, in his reasoning,
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Speaker 1: thinks that there has been no eyewitness because nobody has
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Speaker 1: seen him commit the murder.
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Speaker 5: Straffen believed he'd got away with murder. The police questioned
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Speaker 5: the local suspects, but still had no solid evidence as
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Speaker 5: to the killer. Investigative journalist Bob Woffinden's passion for justice
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Speaker 5: drew him to John Straffen's controversial case.
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Speaker 6: What happened after the Brenda Goddard murder, It was clearly
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Speaker 6: known that he'd been in the vicinity. And so they
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Speaker 6: came and questioned him twice about the murder. But they
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Speaker 6: had no evidence, so they didn't arrest him, but they
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Speaker 6: merely questioned him. He was working at that stage for
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Speaker 6: a market gardener. And in the wake of those interviews,
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Speaker 6: he was sacked. I think the market gardener felt he
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Speaker 6: didn't want that sort of person on his staff anyway,
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Speaker 6: even though he'd apparently not been arrested or charged. And
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Speaker 6: so the fact that he'd lost his job merely increased
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Speaker 6: Strachan's antipathy towards the police.
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Speaker 5: Sacked from his job, Straffon's hatred for the police increased.
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Speaker 5: In his eyes, it was time for more deadly vengeance.
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Speaker 5: On 8 August 1951, Straffon deliberately targeted nine-year-old Cicely Batston.
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Speaker 3: Again, of course, we only have Straffon's version of events
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Speaker 3: where he claims, again, going to the cinema, going to
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Speaker 3: the afternoon showing of a, of a Tarzan film. And
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Speaker 3: he says that this young girl, Cicely Batstone, came and
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Speaker 3: sat next to him. Well, we don't know, but I
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Speaker 3: should imagine he went and sat next to her in
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Speaker 3: the cinema, but they met in the cinema. She liked
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Speaker 3: talking about Tarzan films, and he really found her somebody
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Speaker 3: that he could chat to.
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Speaker 5: Nine-year-old Cicely Batstone sat and watched the film with the tall,
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Speaker 5: blond stranger, unaware of his intentions.
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Speaker 1: I think that's why it's really important to remember that
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Speaker 1: there would be different attitudes in the 1950s to what
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Speaker 1: childhood was, to the freedoms that we gave to children.
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Speaker 1: You know, when you and I were growing up and
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Speaker 1: it was the summer holidays, we'd be allowed, you know,
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Speaker 1: our parents effectively opened the front door and said, come
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Speaker 1: back when you're hungry. It was a time when people
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Speaker 1: looked out for each other, they'd leave their front doors open,
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Speaker 1: and childhood had many greater freedoms than childhood does now.
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Speaker 5: Straffon had gained Sisley's trust. He persuaded her to go
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Speaker 5: across town by bus to the Scala Cinema to watch
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Speaker 5: another film.
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Speaker 3: When they came out together, it was around about 8 o'clock,
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Speaker 3: still light, and we just don't know whether he took
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Speaker 3: her willingly or he threatened her. We have no idea,
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Speaker 3: but she went with him for a small walk through
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Speaker 3: a housing estate. He gets as far as this area
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Speaker 3: called the Tumps, which is sort of a gated area.
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Speaker 2: You go through to this field.
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Speaker 3: And he takes her into this field and is apparently
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Speaker 3: playing with her.
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Speaker 5: In the field, a courting couple passed so near they
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Speaker 5: could see Straffen playing with a laughing little girl. When
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Speaker 5: he spotted them, he stood and watched them until they
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Speaker 5: walked away. Straffen then strangled the nine-year-old, leaving her body
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Speaker 5: lying in the tubs.
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Speaker 1: She would have been trusting, she would have been innocent. Remember,
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Speaker 1: children are historically targets of murderers, and clearly in that sense,
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Speaker 1: the boundaries of childhood allow Straffon to behave in the
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Speaker 1: way that he wanted to behave.
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Speaker 5: In his statement to the police, Straffon described leaving her
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Speaker 5: asleep on the grass, lying on her side next to
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Speaker 5: the hedge. Once again, Straffon had detached himself from the crime.
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Speaker 5: He headed home, buying some fish and chips on the way.
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Speaker 3: Unbeknown to Straffon, a woman had passed by the Tumps
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Speaker 3: and noticed him going into the field with.
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Speaker 2: This young girl, and this woman thought for some reason
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Speaker 2: it didn't look right.
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Speaker 3: Once she got home, she told her husband what she'd seen.
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Speaker 3: Her husband happened to be a policeman, and he then
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Speaker 3: got a call, early morning call, to go and look
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Speaker 3: for this little girl. So putting two and two together,
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Speaker 3: they went to the field, and that's where they found
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Speaker 3: Cicely under the hedge.
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Speaker 5: Straffen was arrested. In custody, he made muddled and childish statements,
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Speaker 5: saying he'd left the little girl asleep, or he'd left
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Speaker 5: her dead, but he hadn't killed her.
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Speaker 1: I don't think that Straffan has a concept of guilt.
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Speaker 1: I think he's so educationally challenged that he has no
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Speaker 1: concept of right or wrong. He doesn't have the moral
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Speaker 1: development that would allow one to say he was conscious
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Speaker 1: of guilt or indeed of innocence. He has no way
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Speaker 1: of marrying up his behavior to the consequences of his behavior.
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Speaker 5: The police charged Straffen for the murder of Cicely Batstone.
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Speaker 5: But unbeknown to them, he would then go on to
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Speaker 5: confess to another killing, the murder of Brenda Goddard.
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Speaker 6: As far as I'm aware, the police never realised themselves
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Speaker 6: that the two were connected. It was Straffen, in fact,
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Speaker 6: who told them, I did the other girl as well.
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Speaker 6: And it seems that at the police station, he apprehended
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Speaker 6: any passing officer and was prepared to confess to them,
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Speaker 6: to both these two murders.
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Speaker 3: There was no direct evidence to link him to Brenda
19:41
Speaker 3: at that time. It was only through the Sicily murder
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Speaker 3: and his own admission to the police that he had killed.
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Speaker 2: The other little girl.
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Speaker 3: And this is what makes me believe that perhaps he
19:56
Speaker 3: was getting into the feeling of strangling because he was
19:59
Speaker 3: so interested in explaining to the police officer how he
20:02
Speaker 3: murdered Brenda to the extent that he offered to demonstrate
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Speaker 3: how he stood behind.
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Speaker 2: and strangled her from behind and how he did it.
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Speaker 3: And the police allowed him to demonstrate on one of
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Speaker 3: the offices to show... And he went through the whole
20:17
Speaker 3: procedure about.
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Speaker 3: She didn't scream, which seemed to be a puzzle to him,
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Speaker 3: that she went limp. All of the descriptions, almost as
20:26
Speaker 3: though it was some kind of experiment.
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Speaker 5: Straffon had no concept of the seriousness of the crimes
20:33
Speaker 5: he'd committed. He laughed it off, saying,'' She' s dead, but
20:38
Speaker 5: you can't prove I did it.
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Speaker 1: When it comes to trial, he is of diminished responsibility,
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Speaker 1: and therefore there are very different types of punishment for
20:49
Speaker 1: someone in Straffen's case, because he has diminished responsibility, from, say,
20:54
Speaker 1: a double murderer who would be able to accept responsibility
20:59
Speaker 1: for his actions.
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Speaker 5: On 17 October 1951, at Taunton Assizes, John Straffen was
21:08
Speaker 5: charged with the murder of Sisley Batstone. He was found
21:12
Speaker 5: unfit to plead, with the judge telling the jury, in
21:17
Speaker 5: this country we do not try people who are insane.
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Speaker 5: So insane as not to understand what is going on.
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Speaker 5: You might as well try a baby in arms. Strafen
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Speaker 5: was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, but it didn't end there.
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Speaker 5: I'm Fred Dynage and I'm retracing the shocking case of
21:41
Speaker 5: John Straffan, child killer and Britain's longest-serving prisoner. At the
21:47
Speaker 5: age of 21, Straffan had brutally strangled six-year-old Brenda Goddard
21:53
Speaker 5: and nine-year-old Cicely Batstone. His mental deficiencies had saved him
21:58
Speaker 5: from a high-security prison. but he was now faced with
22:02
Speaker 5: the infamous Broadmoor Hospital until His Majesty's pleasure be known.
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Speaker 2: What you've got to remember is Broadmoor is a hospital.
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Speaker 2: It's classed as a hospital and not as a prison.
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Speaker 4: And so it's more about trying to understand why people
22:17
Speaker 4: do things, putting what therapy or what drugs are needed
22:20
Speaker 4: to control people.
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Speaker 5: How would Straffon have been perceived in Broadmoor?
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Speaker 2: What would they have thought about him?
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Speaker 4: It's really hard because here you're talking about a man
22:29
Speaker 4: who's committed heinous crimes. He's murdered two young girls. There
22:33
Speaker 4: was no sexual thing, so he's not classed as a deviant.
22:37
Speaker 4: He's classed as a very dangerous person to young girls.
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Speaker 4: So they would be trying to work out his, if
22:44
Speaker 4: you like, his psychopathy, really. Why does he target these people?
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Speaker 4: What can we learn from it? He would have been
22:51
Speaker 4: a client, a patient, but also a sort of psychological
22:55
Speaker 4: guinea pig. What makes you tick, mate, so we don't
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Speaker 4: have that happen again?
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Speaker 5: With an IQ of 58, Straffon was recognized as being
23:04
Speaker 5: among the lowest 1% of the population for intelligence. But
23:09
Speaker 5: what does having a low IQ mean? And how does
23:12
Speaker 5: it affect you? Could it have influenced Straffon's decision-making process
23:17
Speaker 5: in the crimes he committed? Professor David Wilson has invited
23:21
Speaker 5: me to find out about the relevance of IQ.
23:25
Speaker 1: Fred, as you know, one of the features of the
23:27
Speaker 1: Straffan story is IQ. We've got with us Professor Andrew
23:32
Speaker 1: Silk of the University of East London to answer some
23:35
Speaker 1: questions about IQ. Andrew, what is IQ?
23:39
Speaker 7: IQ is a measure of intelligence, or at least that's
23:43
Speaker 7: what it's supposed to be.
23:44
Speaker 5: What does it tell you, though, about a person?
23:46
Speaker 7: It tells you something about a person's verbal skills and
23:49
Speaker 7: something about their spatial skills. So it is... Limited, it
23:54
Speaker 7: doesn't tell you everything about them. Someone can score very
23:57
Speaker 7: high in IQ but still struggle day to day. Or
24:00
Speaker 7: someone could score very low in an IQ but actually
24:03
Speaker 7: be very successful. We know that part of your.
24:06
Speaker 2: IQ comes from inheritance. It's genetics.
24:08
Speaker 7: It's built in. But a big chunk is down to environment.
24:11
Speaker 7: It's down to your family. It's down to your upbringing.
24:14
Speaker 7: It's down to the type of school that you went to.
24:16
Speaker 1: There was some indication that strafen suffered from encephalitis, inflammation
24:21
Speaker 1: of the brain.
24:22
Speaker 2: How would that affect the test? Absolutely.
24:24
Speaker 7: Encephalitis is associated with lower IQs in about 20% of cases.
24:29
Speaker 7: And it's basically because of the damage done to the
24:31
Speaker 7: brain as a result of the infection.
24:33
Speaker 1: So Andrew, can you give us some basic facts and figures?
24:36
Speaker 2: What's a normal IQ? What's high?
24:38
Speaker 1: What's low?
24:39
Speaker 2: Okay. The average IQ is 100.
24:41
Speaker 7: Plus or minus about 15 of 100 is still in
24:44
Speaker 7: the normal range. That's considered an average score. So anything
24:48
Speaker 7: between about 85 to 115 has you in the normal category.
24:53
Speaker 1: Well, in fact, Straffan's IQ was measured at 58. In
24:56
Speaker 1: terms of the legal process, would that allow him to
24:59
Speaker 1: be regarded as Mentally fit to plead?
25:02
Speaker 7: Now, there's interesting problems there because the legal process does
25:06
Speaker 7: not have a set IQ. So they would look at
25:09
Speaker 7: the IQ, but they would also look at how the
25:11
Speaker 7: person is functioning. Currently in the UK prison system, it's
25:15
Speaker 7: estimated that about 7% of prisoners have an IQ below 70.
25:19
Speaker 2: It would be interesting, would it not, to find out
25:21
Speaker 2: how you and I.
25:22
Speaker 5: Got on in an IQ test.
25:24
Speaker 2: We should. Are you game?
25:26
Speaker 6: I am.
25:27
Speaker 5: May the better man win. Famous IQ results include Stephen
25:32
Speaker 5: Hawking and Albert Einstein at 160, Moore's murderer Ian Brady
25:39
Speaker 5: at 170, artist Andy Warhol, 86, and Charles Manson, 109.
25:45
Speaker 1: Andrew, I think it's the moment of truth. Might also
25:49
Speaker 1: be a career-ending moment for me. What are the test results?
25:55
Speaker 7: OK, remember, the average score is 100. So anything above
25:59
Speaker 7: 100 is above average. Test results. Fred, you scored 143.
26:08
Speaker 7: I'm joking.
26:13
Speaker 6: Oh, no!
26:13
Speaker 2: What?
26:14
Speaker 7: Are you winding me up?
26:15
Speaker 1: No.
26:15
Speaker 7: Genuine score.
26:16
Speaker 6: Oh, gosh, I fear. Very high level.
26:18
Speaker 7: Anything above 130 counts as superior or on some scales
26:22
Speaker 7: would count as genius level.
26:23
Speaker 2: Oh, dear, Fred, what do you feel?
26:25
Speaker 6: I can't believe it.
26:27
Speaker 5: What did he get?
26:27
Speaker 2: Oh, no!
26:28
Speaker 6: He got 155. Wow!
26:32
Speaker 5: Almost a genius.
26:33
Speaker 7: Well, in some scales, it would be a genius. In
26:35
Speaker 7: some scales, both scores are genius level. They're in the
26:38
Speaker 7: top 2.5% of the population.
26:42
Speaker 1: What's the relationship between IQ and crime?
26:45
Speaker 7: Once upon a time, researchers told that if you had
26:48
Speaker 7: a low IQ, that meant you were more likely to
26:50
Speaker 7: become involved in crime. And the reasons for that.
26:53
Speaker 2: Were, for example.
26:56
Speaker 7: you didn't have legitimate ways of making money, you were
27:00
Speaker 7: more likely to drop out of school, and you were also, frankly,
27:05
Speaker 7: more likely to be caught.
27:07
Speaker 5: So would IQ be used to solve crime?
27:10
Speaker 7: You could use IQ to a degree. So, for example,
27:13
Speaker 7: if we're dealing with serial killers, some serial killers have
27:16
Speaker 7: very high IQs. Harold Shipman, good example, 140, very, very
27:22
Speaker 7: smart man. But some have very.
27:24
Speaker 2: Low.
27:25
Speaker 7: IQs, Fred West had an IQ of 74. So you're
27:28
Speaker 7: dealing with a very, very different type of an offender.
27:31
Speaker 7: And obviously the police, when it comes to crime scene examination,
27:35
Speaker 7: there will be indications of whether you're dealing with someone
27:38
Speaker 7: who's intelligent, has planned ahead, has prepared, is trying to
27:42
Speaker 7: cover up forensic evidence, as opposed to a crime scene
27:45
Speaker 7: which is very sloppy. It looks spontaneous. It doesn't look
27:48
Speaker 7: like it was premeditated. And that would suggest then that
27:51
Speaker 7: you're dealing with an offender with a lower IQ. You're
27:53
Speaker 7: not looking at someone who's very, very smart.
27:57
Speaker 5: And for Straffen, his low IQ could be seen in
28:00
Speaker 5: his actions, in the spontaneous murders of two young girls,
28:04
Speaker 5: the lack of damage control after the killings and his
28:08
Speaker 5: confession to the police. However, his mental deficiencies had kept
28:13
Speaker 5: him out of prison forever. and instead he was committed
28:16
Speaker 5: to a high-security hospital for treatment. By April 1952, Straffen
28:22
Speaker 5: had been an inmate at Broadmoor for six months. He
28:26
Speaker 5: was sent to assist another patient cleaning some outbuildings known
28:31
Speaker 5: as the Surgery. It was then that Straffen saw his chance.
28:37
Speaker 2: He escaped by planning a route out.
28:40
Speaker 3: He had taken from wherever locker or room they keep
28:43
Speaker 3: civilian clothes, his civilian clothes, put them on under his
28:47
Speaker 3: Broadmoor work clothes, gone to a particular part of Broadmoor
28:52
Speaker 3: where he was designated to clean and made an excuse
28:55
Speaker 3: to go out and shake his duster. And I believe
28:58
Speaker 3: another patient came out and said, have you finished dusting yet?
29:00
Speaker 3: And he said, no, I'll be with you in a minute.
29:02
Speaker 3: As soon as that other patient had gone in, he
29:05
Speaker 3: was up on a small shed on the roof about
29:08
Speaker 3: eight foot off the ground, got him onto the 15-foot
29:11
Speaker 3: wall over the top, brought more clothes off and away
29:14
Speaker 3: across the fields.
29:16
Speaker 5: Once over the wall and changed, Straffon headed west through Crowthorne.
29:21
Speaker 5: He had no plan and no money. Only 11 men
29:24
Speaker 5: had escaped from Broadmoor Hospital since 1900. In 1952, Straffon
29:30
Speaker 5: had become the 12th.
29:32
Speaker 1: We've got to remember the kind of period of time
29:35
Speaker 1: we're talking about. There was no siren that could be sounded.
29:40
Speaker 1: There was no way of contacting the local police station
29:44
Speaker 1: and alerting the police that there had been an escapee
29:48
Speaker 1: from Broadmoor.
29:49
Speaker 5: Straffon had walked more than seven miles, making several stops
29:53
Speaker 5: along the way before reaching Farley Hill. This escapee from
29:58
Speaker 5: Broadmoor appeared to be taking a leisurely stroll.
30:02
Speaker 6: On the run would be an inappropriate term. He seemed
30:05
Speaker 6: to just stroll... along in the sunshine, calling in us
30:08
Speaker 6: a couple of houses en route for cups of tea.
30:11
Speaker 6: And in fact, the first house he went into, he
30:14
Speaker 6: had an extraordinary conversation with the woman who said, what's
30:18
Speaker 6: it like living near Broadmoor? Do people escape from Broadmoor?
30:21
Speaker 6: And in other words, really opening himself up to her.
30:26
Speaker 5: When Straffon reached the village store in Farley Hill, he
30:29
Speaker 5: was noticed by Mr. Simms and his stepdaughter, five-year-old Linda Bowyer.
30:35
Speaker 5: Linda was riding her bicycle up and down the road.
30:39
Speaker 5: No one suspected anything, as the news of the escaped
30:42
Speaker 5: convict had not yet reached the village.
30:46
Speaker 3: By about quarter to six, ten to six, Straffon had
30:49
Speaker 3: appeared at another house asking for a glass of water.
30:53
Speaker 2: In fact, he asked.
30:54
Speaker 3: This lady who happened to be the nanny, and she
30:57
Speaker 3: went to the owner of the house who invited Straffon
31:00
Speaker 3: in for a pot of tea and biscuits. He was
31:02
Speaker 3: asking questions about, again, escaping from Broadmoor, the police, six
31:07
Speaker 3: o'clock news, is there any kind of information? But in
31:10
Speaker 3: a very sort of roundabout way, I'm not sure it
31:13
Speaker 3: would have made sense to the person.
31:16
Speaker 5: Straffon wanted to travel to Wokingham. and asked directions to
31:20
Speaker 5: the nearest bus stop. Local resident, Mrs Miles, offered the
31:24
Speaker 5: blonde stranger a lift. As the car approached the bus stop,
31:29
Speaker 5: Straffen spotted men in uniform.
31:32
Speaker 1: Straffen recognizes that there are two members of staff from
31:36
Speaker 1: Broadmoor at the bus stop, and so he makes away
31:41
Speaker 1: from the bus stop into one of the villages. But
31:44
Speaker 1: the woman who gives him the lift alerts the two
31:48
Speaker 1: members of staff, and this is how the police gradually
31:51
Speaker 1: close in on Straffen, who is only out of Broadmoor
31:55
Speaker 1: for some four and a half hours.
32:00
Speaker 5: That evening, the parents of five-year-old Linda Bowyer, who'd been
32:04
Speaker 5: cycling up and down the road, reported her missing. With
32:08
Speaker 5: the knowledge of Straffon's escape, the police started the search immediately.
32:15
Speaker 3: Well, at that point in time, nobody knew that there
32:18
Speaker 3: was any problem with Linda Bowyer.
32:20
Speaker 2: She was out cycling.
32:21
Speaker 3: There's no report at all of a missing child until
32:24
Speaker 3: around about 11 o'clock that night.
32:27
Speaker 2: Quite a late.
32:28
Speaker 3: Report to the police that, in fact, she hadn't returned home.
32:31
Speaker 3: And she was discovered early the next morning in a
32:37
Speaker 3: small cot under a tree.
32:39
Speaker 5: Linda Bowyer had been strangled. Her body was found near
32:44
Speaker 5: a large oak tree just 30 yards from her abandoned bicycle.
32:49
Speaker 5: As in the murders of Brenda and Cicely, there was
32:52
Speaker 5: no sign of a struggle, no attempt to conceal the body.
32:57
Speaker 5: Straffen had been a free man for just four hours
33:00
Speaker 5: and five minutes. Had he exacted revenge for his incarceration,
33:04
Speaker 5: or was this just a terrible coincidence? I'm Fred Dynage,
33:14
Speaker 5: and I'm investigating the series of events that made John
33:18
Speaker 5: Straffon Britain's longest-serving prisoner. In October 1951, Straffon had been
33:27
Speaker 5: sent to Broadmoor for the murders of Brenda Goddard and
33:30
Speaker 5: Cicely Batstone. But just six months after, he'd escaped. only
33:36
Speaker 5: to be recaptured four hours later. Five-year-old Linda Bowyer had
33:41
Speaker 5: been strangled just seven miles from Broadmoor Hospital, and the
33:45
Speaker 5: police knew exactly who to question. John Straffan was the
33:50
Speaker 5: prime suspect.
33:52
Speaker 1: We have a very similar set of circumstances in terms
33:56
Speaker 1: of Linda Bowyer's death as we had for the other
33:59
Speaker 1: two murders, so there is some way of connecting Straffan
34:03
Speaker 1: up to Linda Bowyer. Now, crucially, she's five years old.
34:07
Speaker 1: So a younger girl, but still within the age group
34:10
Speaker 1: that Straffon concentrates on. And crucially, the MO is the same.
34:15
Speaker 2: She's strangled.
34:17
Speaker 1: There's no evidence of sexual assault, either pre- or post-mortem.
34:21
Speaker 1: There's no attempt to hide the body. She is simply abandoned.
34:27
Speaker 5: At eight o'clock the next morning, the police visited Broadmoor
34:31
Speaker 5: to interview Straffon. The murder of Linda Bowyer had been
34:35
Speaker 5: kept quiet from the other patients and the police hoped
34:38
Speaker 5: to entice the information out of the recent escapee.
34:43
Speaker 3: His reply was memorable because he actually said, I didn't
34:46
Speaker 3: kill the little girl. So they pointed out that they
34:49
Speaker 3: actually hadn't mentioned anything about a little girl, let alone
34:54
Speaker 3: killing a little girl.
34:55
Speaker 2: There's no mention of this. And this.
35:00
Speaker 3: evoked the response, I know what you policemen are like.
35:04
Speaker 3: He just anticipated that they'd come to ask him. He
35:07
Speaker 3: tried to sort of bluff his way through, I think.
35:09
Speaker 3: It was clearly something that he had already now started,
35:15
Speaker 3: which was going to lead to quite an interesting situation,
35:18
Speaker 3: because the next question, of course, was to say, well, actually,
35:21
Speaker 3: there was a little girl missing, but we didn't say
35:23
Speaker 3: she'd been killed.
35:25
Speaker 2: And then the most memorable part was when he said,
35:27
Speaker 2: I didn't kill the little girl on the bicycle.
35:30
Speaker 5: Straffen had unknowingly admitted his guilt to the police, giving
35:35
Speaker 5: them the crucial evidence they needed to charge him. On
35:40
Speaker 5: 21 July 1952, John Straffen was charged with the murder
35:45
Speaker 5: of Linda Bowyer at the courthouse here in Winchester. During
35:49
Speaker 5: the trial, Straffen was detained at Brixton Prison. Broadmoor was
35:54
Speaker 5: no longer considered a secure option for the escapee.
35:59
Speaker 1: Our attitudes towards crime and punishment changed after the Second
36:04
Speaker 1: World War. They became much harsher. The ease with which
36:08
Speaker 1: Straffon escapes from Broadmoor and the fact that he killed
36:13
Speaker 1: again meant that there was a controversy about what the
36:17
Speaker 1: regime at Broadmoor was like internally. And to this day...
36:22
Speaker 1: The fact that the siren sounds at Broadmoor on a
36:26
Speaker 1: Monday stems directly from Straffen's escape.
36:31
Speaker 5: Straffen pleaded not guilty to the murder of the five-year-old girl,
36:35
Speaker 5: but his offence was considered to be too awful to
36:38
Speaker 5: be defended with a plea of insanity. He was deemed
36:42
Speaker 5: by the court to be a sane man.
36:45
Speaker 6: There were two main strands of the prosecution case. The
36:47
Speaker 6: first one was this supposed admissions to the police. where
36:51
Speaker 6: he said, I didn't kill the little girl on the bicycle.
36:54
Speaker 6: The second fact is what we now call similar fact evidence.
36:58
Speaker 6: The prosecution sought to introduce the two previous murders on
37:03
Speaker 6: the grounds that they weren't the same as this third murder. Now,
37:08
Speaker 6: the law has been changed now, but in 1950, you
37:11
Speaker 6: weren't allowed to refer to previous convictions. So how was
37:14
Speaker 6: it that the prosecution managed, on this solitary occasion... to
37:18
Speaker 6: bring in the previous cases, and of course the answer
37:20
Speaker 6: is they weren't convictions at all, because the matter hadn't
37:24
Speaker 6: actually gone to trial, he'd just been found unfit to
37:27
Speaker 6: stand trial, and so therefore they weren't technically convictions, and
37:31
Speaker 6: therefore the prosecution were able to bring them in.
37:35
Speaker 5: Straffon's mental ability evoked debate throughout the trial, but it
37:39
Speaker 5: wasn't the only controversy. The newspapers had picked up the case,
37:44
Speaker 5: and it became the biggest crime story since the war.
37:48
Speaker 1: It's often said, if it bleeds, it leads. And there
37:50
Speaker 1: was a photograph in one of the papers of the
37:53
Speaker 1: mother of Cicely Batston, the mother of Brenda Goddard, and
37:57
Speaker 1: the mother of Linda Bowyer. Now, that has quite an
38:01
Speaker 1: emotional impact on the reading public, but it's significant because
38:06
Speaker 1: it also has quite a legal impact. it immediately creates
38:10
Speaker 1: an impression that Straffen was guilty of the first two murders,
38:15
Speaker 1: he therefore must be guilty of this third murder. And
38:19
Speaker 1: that makes finding a jury in his trial very difficult
38:24
Speaker 1: indeed to the extent that the first jury that's identified
38:28
Speaker 1: has to actually be allowed to relinquish their duties and
38:33
Speaker 1: a second jury has to be signed in instead.
38:37
Speaker 6: And when it came to the summing up, What did
38:39
Speaker 6: the judge say? The judge said to the jury, you
38:43
Speaker 6: should bear in mind that when something unusual has happened
38:48
Speaker 6: and witnesses give times which may not always be accurate.
38:51
Speaker 6: So we have here the astonishing situation where the judge
38:55
Speaker 6: is inviting the jury to convict the defendant, not on
38:58
Speaker 6: the basis of the evidence that they've heard, but in
39:01
Speaker 6: spite of the evidence they've just heard.
39:03
Speaker 5: The trial took two days, with the jury making their
39:07
Speaker 5: decision in just 29 minutes. John Straffon was found guilty
39:13
Speaker 5: and sentenced to hang.
39:17
Speaker 1: Here's a man that's been identified as having diminished responsibility
39:21
Speaker 1: of being a mental defective under the terms of the
39:24
Speaker 1: Mental Health Act. So if he's mentally insane in one
39:28
Speaker 1: set of murders... how can he suddenly be sane for
39:32
Speaker 1: this new murder of Linda Bowyer? So the court has
39:36
Speaker 1: some problems in terms of how to manage that. But ultimately,
39:41
Speaker 1: he is found guilty. And he's sentenced to hang. That
39:46
Speaker 1: causes a further uproar because, of course, then the public say, well,
39:49
Speaker 1: wait a minute, you can't hang this man because he's
39:53
Speaker 1: mentally insane.
39:55
Speaker 5: Empathy for the mentally challenged Straffon grew. Newspapers held opinion
40:01
Speaker 5: polls asking the public, should.
40:03
Speaker 2: He be hanged?
40:05
Speaker 5: On 29th August 1952, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, the then
40:10
Speaker 5: Home Secretary, reprieved Straffon. His sentence was converted to life
40:15
Speaker 5: in prison. Broadmoor was not an option. But there were
40:20
Speaker 5: still doubts over Straffon's conviction and discrepancies in the evidence.
40:27
Speaker 5: In 1997, Straffon submitted an appeal to the Criminal Cases
40:31
Speaker 5: Review Commission. He'd never admitted to the murder of Linda
40:35
Speaker 5: Bowyer and was still adamant of his innocence. Strachan had
40:39
Speaker 5: now spent 45 years in prison and was now aged 67.
40:43
Speaker 6: For those of us who think that the explanation of
40:47
Speaker 6: the third murder may have lain not with Strachan, but
40:52
Speaker 6: in the domestic circumstances of the child concerned, it was
40:55
Speaker 6: quite interesting that she was reported missing at half past
40:58
Speaker 6: 10 at night. and you've had an escaped child murderer
41:02
Speaker 6: from Broadmoor, and this girl has apparently gone missing at
41:06
Speaker 6: about six o'clock. So why on earth are they waiting
41:09
Speaker 6: four and a half hours to report her missing in
41:11
Speaker 6: those circumstances?
41:13
Speaker 5: The discrepancies were heard, and the case went to the
41:16
Speaker 5: Court of Appeals in 2002, but was denied. 72-year-old Straffon
41:23
Speaker 5: remained in prison.
41:26
Speaker 2: In the prison system, there is a sort of hierarchy,
41:29
Speaker 2: isn't it? And child killers are very low down.
41:32
Speaker 5: On the list.
41:33
Speaker 2: What about stranglers?
41:35
Speaker 4: It's not so much as stranglers or whether you've done
41:37
Speaker 4: it with an axe. The thing is children. Sex offenders are,
41:43
Speaker 4: in that world, the lowest of the low. You can't
41:46
Speaker 4: get no lower than that. With Straffan, he wasn't a molesterer. Really,
41:51
Speaker 4: if it had been anyone, they would have took him out.
41:53
Speaker 4: But because he was... A child himself in a man's body,
41:58
Speaker 4: you know. And it was quite a big debate, you know,
42:00
Speaker 4: should we take him down or not? And someone said
42:03
Speaker 4: a very potent thing. They said, he's got the mental
42:07
Speaker 4: age of a child, a ten-year-old. If we'd done him,
42:10
Speaker 4: we're no different to what he's done, because we'd be
42:13
Speaker 4: doing a child.
42:14
Speaker 5: You saw Strappen in prison.
42:18
Speaker 2: What was he like?
42:20
Speaker 4: Well, it was a sad, pathetic little figure. you would
42:24
Speaker 4: see this wandering little man. And also, as I say, childlike,
42:29
Speaker 4: you know, behaviour. He'd be doing his little bit of
42:31
Speaker 4: sweeping up or whatever he's doing. In prison, you get
42:33
Speaker 4: three types of people. You get the sad, the mad
42:36
Speaker 4: and the bad, OK? The bad, we deal with him.
42:41
Speaker 4: The sad, well, that's what they are, they're sad people,
42:44
Speaker 4: and you can think, the nightmare you're living with, we
42:47
Speaker 4: can't add to that. And then you get the insane ones,
42:51
Speaker 4: the mad. He was definitely one of the sad.
42:55
Speaker 5: John Straffan admitted responsibility for the deaths of Brenda Goddard
43:00
Speaker 5: and Cicely Batstone, but always maintained he did not kill
43:04
Speaker 5: Linda Bowyer. Straffan spent the rest of his days in prison.
43:10
Speaker 5: He died at the age of 77 in Franklin Prison
43:14
Speaker 5: in Durham on the 19th of November, 2007.
43:17
Speaker 3: For the whole of the 55 years he's been in prison,
43:22
Speaker 3: he maintained he did not kill Linda Bowyer. And that's
43:24
Speaker 3: quite a strong... mental discipline. And for me, that's the
43:29
Speaker 3: strongest bit of evidence, although it's not evidence, to actually
43:32
Speaker 3: always be indignant about that murder. It would just seem
43:36
Speaker 3: odd if he did, in fact, do it. Why would
43:40
Speaker 3: he constantly maintain he didn't do it?
43:43
Speaker 1: It's people like Straffen that make parents like you and
43:46
Speaker 1: me think very carefully about how we control what happens
43:51
Speaker 1: to our children during that period of existence called childhood.
43:56
Speaker 1: So whilst I accept that we're dealing with a man
44:00
Speaker 1: who had challenged educational needs, this for me is somebody
44:06
Speaker 1: who had to be locked up for the rest of
44:09
Speaker 1: his natural life because there was no indication whatsoever that
44:13
Speaker 1: that kind of lack of moral reasoning that he had
44:17
Speaker 1: had ever been improved. And I've no doubt that if
44:21
Speaker 1: he had been released, he would have killed again.
44:24
Speaker 5: No-one can deny that Straffon was a child killer who
44:28
Speaker 5: murdered his victims for nothing more than petty revenge. But
44:33
Speaker 5: whether he should have served his sentence in prison or
44:36
Speaker 5: a high-security hospital is a question that will always remain unanswered.