R v Coonan (Peter William)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 16 July 2010 |
| Neutral Citation | [2010] EWHC 1741 (QB) |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
| Docket Number | Case No: MTS/1057/2004 |
| Date | 16 July 2010 |
[2010] EWHC 1741 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Before: The Honourable Mr Justice Mitting
Case No: MTS/1057/2004
Approved Judgment
I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic.
The Hon. Mr Justice Mitting:
The Secretary of State for Justice has referred the case of Peter Coonan, formerly Sutcliffe, to the Court under paragraph 6 of Schedule 22 to the Criminal Justice Act 2003 for the making by the Court of an order under subsection ( 2) or (4) of s269 in relation to the mandatory life sentences imposed upon him by Boreham J on 22 May 1981. Peter Coonan/Sutcliffe is the Respondent to this application and I will refer to him as such in this judgment.
The facts of the case are notorious. What follows is the briefest summary necessary to explain the order which I propose to make.
Between July 1975 and January 1981 the Respondent killed thirteen women and attempted to kill eight more. On 2 January 1981 he was arrested in the company of a woman whom he did not harm. He pleaded guilty to seven offences of attempted murder and has unequivocally admitted one more such offence. He was convicted after a trial of thirteen offences of murder. I will take all of these offences into account. I will not take into account a further alleged offence of attempted murder, said to have been committed on 2 March 1979 against Anne Marie Rooney, because he does not unequivocally admit the commission of this offence.
The offences:
i) On 5 July 1975 in Keighley, the Respondent attacked Anna Rogulskyj in the street, causing two depressed fractures of her skull. I do not know for certain what weapon or weapons were used, but it was the Respondent's habit to take with him a ball pein hammer and sharpened screwdriver with which to carry out the attacks. Her injuries are consistent with the use of a hammer.
ii) On 15 August 1975 in Halifax, he attacked Olive Smelt in an alleyway, causing two depressed fractures of her skull and two lacerations across her back. She was found face down with her skirt pulled up.
iii) On 27 August 1975, he attacked Caroline Tracey Browne, a 14 year old, in a lane outside the small town of Silsden, striking her repeatedly on the head with a blunt instrument.
iv) On 30 October 1975, in Leeds, he murdered Wilma McCann, fracturing her skull and stabbing her fifteen times to the throat and trunk. Nine stab wounds were grouped around the umbilicus. When found on an embankment, her jacket and blouse had been torn open and her bra pushed up, exposing her breasts.
v) On 20 January 1976, in Leeds, he murdered Emily Jackson, causing two depressed fractures to her skull and fifty two stab wounds, inflicted by a screw driver, to her chest, abdomen and back. Her coat and dress were pulled above her waist. There was a boot imprint on her thigh.
vi) On 9 May 1976, in Leeds, he attacked Marcella Claxton, striking her several blows from behind causing eight lacerations to her scalp.
vii) On 6 February 1977, in Leeds, he murdered Irene Richardson, causing three severe lacerations to her skull with two underlying fractures and gaping wounds at the front of her neck and abdomen, exposing her intestines. Her boots and trousers and one pair of knickers had been removed.
viii) On 23 April 1977 in Bradford, he murdered Patricia Atkinson in her flat, causing severe lacerations and fractures to her skull and small puncture wounds to her lower abdomen, extending in to her genitalia. Her jumper was pulled upwards and bra unfastened. Her panties, jeans and tights were lowered.
ix) On 26 June 1977, in Leeds, he murdered Jayne Michelle McDonald, aged sixteen. She sustained depressed fractures of the skull and repeated stab wounds through the same two openings in her upper abdomen and back. In the pathologist's opinion, she did not die before she was stabbed. Her sun top was pushed up and left breast exposed.
x) On 10 July 1977, in Bradford, he attacked Maureen Elizabeth Long, causing a large depressed fracture of her skull and numerous stab wounds to the trunk, one of which penetrated her liver and fractured ribs. When she was found about six and a half hours after the attack, her dress was pulled down from her shoulders and up from her waist.
xi) On 1 October 1977 in Manchester, he murdered Jean Bernadette Jordan, causing eleven head wounds and fractures to the skull, striking nineteen blows to her upper body and shoulders and additional wounds to her chest and abdomen, probably inflicted after death. She was found nine days after the attack in an allotment. An attempt had been made to sever her head. She was partly disembowelled. The Respondent said that he had returned to where he had left her body, to retrieve a five pound note.
xii) On 14 December 1977, in Leeds, he attacked Marilyn Moore, hitting her several times from behind to the head, causing seven or eight lacerated wounds and a depressed fracture of the skull.
xiii) On 21 January 1978, in Bradford, he murdered Yvonne Anne Pearson, causing extensive fractures of her skull, lacerations to the top and back of her head and temples and two fractured ribs, believed by the pathologist, to have been caused by kicking. She was not found for over two months. Her upper clothing had been pulled upwards exposing her breasts and her pants rolled downwards. Her mouth was blocked with stuffing from a nearby settee.
xiv) On 31 January 1978, in Huddersfield, he murdered Helen Maria Rytka, causing multiple fractures to her skull, lacerations to her forehead and three stab wounds to the centre of her chest. She was almost naked when found three days later. The Respondent admitted having sexual intercourse with her while she was alive.
xv) On 16 May 1978 in Manchester he murdered Vera Evelyn Millward, hitting her over the head three times with a hammer and stabbing and cutting her abdomen repeatedly. An eight inch wounds exposed her intestines. Her dress and slip had been pulled up to expose her abdomen.
Up until this time, all but one of the attacks were upon women who were, or who were claimed by the Respondent to be, prostitutes, encountered in red light districts. The exception was Caroline Tracey Browne. There was then a gap of ten and a half months until the next series of attacks, none of which involved prostitutes or women initially said by the Respondent to have been believed by him to have been prostitutes.
xvi) On 4 April 1979, in Halifax, he murdered Josephine Whitaker, causing a fracture right across her skull, twenty one stab wounds to the front and back of her trunk, three stab wounds to her vagina through the same wound and six stab wounds to the leg. The weapon used was a sharpened phillips screwdriver. Her outer clothing had been displaced and her knickers torn from around her right thigh.
xvii) On 2 September 1979, in Bradford, he murdered Barbara Janine Leach, a student, fracturing her skull and stabbing her three times to the lower chest and four times around the umbilicus. Again, a sharpened screwdriver was used to stab the victim repeatedly through the same wounds. Her blouse and bra had been displaced upwards and the belt and zip of her jeans undone to expose her lower abdomen.
xviii) On 20 August 1980, in Farsley, he murdered Marguerite Walls, a civil servant, by strangling her. She had multiple lacerations, bruises and abrasions, probably caused during a struggle. There was bruising to the abdominal muscles and three scratches to the external walls of the vagina. She sustained three fractured ribs when the Respondent knelt on her abdomen. She was completely naked, except for stocking tights.
xix) On 24 September 1980 in Leeds, he attacked Uphadya Anandavathy Bandara, a doctor from Singapore, by strangling her with a rope. She sustained a fracture to the back of her skull, possibly caused by a fall, and facial injuries. Her cardigan had been pulled up around her head.
xx) On 5 November 1980, in Huddersfield, he attacked Theresa Simone Sykes, aged 16, striking two blows to the back of her head, causing compound depressed fractures of her skull.
xxi) On 17 November 1980, in Leeds, he murdered Jacqueline Hill, a student, causing four fractures to her skull, one of them to the right eye, penetrating into her skull and another to the inner side of the left breast. Her blouse and bra were pulled up and her jeans pulled down. She may not have died at once.
He was arrested on 2 January 1981 in the company of Olivia Reivers. He admitted that he intended to kill her.
The Respondent's case at trial was that, in 1967, he had heard a voice, which he took to be a divine voice, in a graveyard in which he was working. In 1969 the voice told him that it was his mission to kill or eradicate prostitutes. Acting under that impulse, he committed the crimes. When interviewed after arrest, he made no mention of divine voices, but told the police that he was caused to commit the offences by anger at a particular prostitute who had humiliated him in 1969. He stated that after the first fatal attack on Wilma McCann, he “developed and built up a hatred for prostitutes in order to justify within myself the reason why I had attacked and killed Wilma McCann”. He said that killing prostitutes “became obsessional with me”. When asked about the first of his last six victims, none of whom were prostitutes, Josephine Whitaker, he said that he realised that she was not a prostitute but was not bothered, “I just wanted to kill a woman”.
The sole...
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R v Coonan (Peter William)
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