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Mark Hobson
(born 2 September 1969, in Wakefield, Yorkshire) is a British
spree killer who killed his girlfriend and her twin sister in 2004
before killing an elderly couple who lived nearby. He later
admitted four charges of murder and was sentenced to life
imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be
released. He is serving his term in Wakefield Prison and is
unlikely ever to be released. This was one of the first times such
a recommendation had been made for someone who had admitted their
crime at the first opportunity.
Murders
Hobson, who was 34 at the time of the murders,
was a former binman from Selby, North Yorkshire. He killed his
girlfriend Claire Sanderson, 27, and her twin sister Diane at a
flat in the nearby village of Camblesforth. The twins' mutilated
bodies were discovered by Diane's boyfriend on 18 July 2004. He
subsequently murdered an elderly couple, James and Joan Britton,
at their home in the village of Strensall, a few miles north of
York.
Arrest and trial
Hobson was arrested at a petrol station on 25
July 2004, in the village of Shipton-by-Beningbrough, near York,
following a nationwide manhunt. At his subsequent trial in April
2005, Hobson admitted all four murders. He was sentenced to life
imprisonment on 27 May 2005.
The court was also told that Hobson had stabbed
a love rival five times in the chest in a daylight attack in front
of shoppers in Selby in 2002, leaving him with a punctured lung.
Hobson had admitted grievous bodily harm and avoided a prison
sentence, instead receiving a community punishment. This lenient
sentence came under much criticism in the light of Hobson's later
offending.
Appeal
Hobson lodged an appeal to a lower minimum
sentence set, claiming that he should have been given a more
lenient sentence because he had admitted all four murders at the
earliest opportunity. He also backed up his case with the
suggestion that no other murderer who admitted their crimes at
the first opportunity had ever been recommended for lifelong
imprisonment. This was not true, as a similar recommendation had
been imposed on child killers Timothy Morss and Brett Tyler in
1996 even though they had admitted their crimes at the earliest
opportunity.
The appeal was turned down by the Appeal Court
after Lord Phillips agreed with the trial judge's recommendation,
saying that his opinion that Hobson should never be released was
inevitable, regardless of a guilty plea, as the murders had been
so horrific.
Imprisonment
Shortly before this court case, Hobson was
placed into solitary confinement for three months after attacking
Ian Huntley (a former school caretaker convicted of murdering two
female pupils at a Cambridgeshire school), and scalding him with a
bucket of boiling water. A prison service spokesman said that, due
to the nature of high-security prisoners, "it's impossible to
prevent incidents of this nature occasionally happening."
In January 2006, letters were released from
Wakefield Prison where Hobson blamed alcohol for his killing spree.
It had been revealed at Hobson's trial that he was an alcoholic
who regularly drank as many as 20 pints a day. He was addicted to
heroin and also used other drugs.
In February 2007, some 15 months after Hobson's
failed appeal, the European Court of Justice began a review of
lifelong imprisonment to determine whether such sentences amounted
to a violation of human rights. If the court outlaws lifelong
imprisonment, Hobson and all other prisoners serving such
sentences would have their cases called back to court for a new
minimum term to be set.
Wikipedia.org
Mark Hobson,
born 1969, is a British murderer who killed his ex-girlfriend
and her twin sister in 2004 before killing an elderly couple who
lived nearby.
He later
admitted four charges of murder and was sentenced to life
imprisonment (a whole life tariff) with a recommendation that he
should never be released. He is serving his term in Wakefield
Prison and is unlikely ever to be released.
Hobson, who
was 34 at the time of the murders, was a former binman from
Selby, North Yorkshire. He killed his girlfriend Claire
Sanderson, 27, and her twin sister Diane at a flat in the nearby
village of Camblesforth. The twins' mutilated bodies were
discovered by Diane's boyfriend on 18 July, 2004. He
subsequently murdered an elderly couple, James and Joan Britton,
at their home in the village of Strensall, a few miles north of
York.
He was caught
at a petrol station on 25 July, 2004, in the village of
Shipton-by-Beningbrough, near York, following a nationwide
manhunt. At his subsequent trial, Hobson pleaded guilty to all
four murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a
reccommendation that he should never be released - the first
time such a reccommendation had been made for someone who had
admitted their crime.
The court was
also told that Hobson had stabbed a love rival five times in the
chest in a daylight attack in front of shoppers in Selby in
2002, leaving him with a punctured lung. Hobson had admitted
grievous bodily harm and was spared a jail term, receiving a
community punishment. This lenient sentence came under much
criticism in the light of Hobson's later offending.
Hobson lodged
an appeal to have his whole life sentence reduced, claiming that
he should have been given a more lenient sentence because he had
admitted all four murders at the earliest opportunity.
But the appeal
was turned down by the Appeal Court. Judge Lord Philips stated
that a whole life order was inevitable, regardless of a guilty
plea. He said: "No-one knowing the facts of the case could be in
any doubt as to why the judge had given no effect to the guilty
plea."
Shortly before this court
case, Hobson was placed into Solitary Confinement for three
months after attacking Ian Huntley (a former school caretaker
convicted of murdering two female pupils at a Cambridgeshire
school), and scalding him with a bucket of boiling water. A
prison service spokesman said that due to the nature of high-security
prisoners, "it's impossible to prevent incidents of this nature
occasionally happening",
In January
2006, letters were released from Wakefield Prison where Hobson
blames alcohol for his killing spree.
It had been revealed at Hobson's trial that he was an alcoholic
who regularly drank as many as 20 pints a day. He also had a
drug problem, and was addicted to heroin and cocaine.
In February 2007, some 15 months after Hobson's failed appeal,
the European Court of Justice began a review of lifelong
imprisonment to determine whether such sentences amounted to a
violation of human rights. If the court outlaws lifelong
imprisonment, then Hobson and all other prisoners serving such
sentences would have their cases called back to court for a new
minimum term to be set.
Murderer must spend life in
jailBBC News Friday, 27 May, 2005
A former binman who murdered twin sisters and an elderly
couple in North Yorkshire last summer will never be released
from prison, a judge has said.
Mark Hobson, 35, had earlier admitted the
murders of his girlfriend Claire Sanderson, 27, and her sister
Diane at his flat in Camblesforth.
He also admitted killing James and Joan
Britton at their home near York.
At Leeds Crown Court, Mr Justice Grigson said:
"The enormity of what you have done is beyond words."
Sentencing Hobson to life in prison with a
whole-life tariff, he said: "The damage you've done is
incalculable.
"You not only destroyed the lives of your
victims, but you devastated the lives of those who loved them."
As the sentence was read out, the twins'
mother, Jacqueline Sanderson, stood up in the public gallery and
shouted: "Rot in hell".
After the trial, Mrs Sanderson and her
husband George issued a statement in which they ask: "How could
anyone be such an animal?"
They continue: "Claire and Diane did not
deserve to die such horrid deaths, both ending up naked, with a
plastic bag over Diane's head and Claire inside a black bag."
Speaking outside the court, Det Supt Javad
Ali, who led the hunt for Hobson, said: "No-one who has heard
the detail of these horrific crimes can be surprised at the
severity of today's sentence.
"I believe it is totally right and fitting
that Mark Hobson is never released from prison.
"For me, today brings about a conclusion to
the most horrendous case I have had to deal with in my 22 years'
police service.
"But for the families and loved ones the
victims have left behind, today does not bring about closure.
"My thoughts are with them and I can only
hope they gain some comfort from the sentence."
The sisters' bodies were found on 18 July
last year in the flat in Camblesforth.
The bodies of Mr Britton, an 80-year-old
former Spitfire pilot, and his 82-year-old wife, were found dead
by neighbours on the same day, 25 miles away in the village of
Strensall.
The judge said Hobson had an abusive
relationship with Claire Sanderson.
"And when you tired of her, you transferred
your attention to her sister, Diane," he told the court on
Friday.
"As Claire stood in your way, you murdered
her. In my opinion, that was a premeditated act.
"You also determined to lure Diane to your
home and kill her there and then to use her for your own sexual
gratification before killing her and on 10 July you did just
that.
"You battered Claire with a hammer in as
brutal and callous a way as is possible to imagine before
placing a plastic bag over her head and, having killed her, you
wrapped her body in a bin bag.
"On 17 July you succeeded in luring Diane to
your home. It is plain at your hands she suffered not only
terror and pain but sexual harm before she died."
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