Arthur Hutchinson

Arthur Hutchinson (born Hartlepool, County Durham, England, on 19 February1941) is an English murderer and rapist who committed three murders and a rape in 1983. He is currently incarcerated, serving a sentence of life imprisonment.

All of Hutchinson's murders and the rape were carried out during one combined attack on a family who had celebrated the marriage of one of their daughters on the previous day. Neither the victims of the attack nor their assailant had ever met each other before.

In 1983, 28-year-old Robert Laitner was stabbed to death by Hutchinson in his bedroom in the South Sheffield suburb of Dore. His father, solicitor Basil Laitner, went upstairs to investigate the noise and was then stabbed to death by Hutchinson. Hutchinson then went downstairs and stabbed Avril (Basil’s wife) twenty-six times. She died from her wounds. Returning upstairs, Hutchinson then attacked Nicola, the youngest of the Laitners’ daughters, repeatedly raping her. The previous afternoon the family had enjoyed the wedding reception of the other Laitner daughter, Suzanne, who was away on her honeymoon when the crimes occurred.

Hutchinson was 42 years old when the crimes were committed. His palm print, left on a bottle of champagne (from the earlier wedding reception) led police to him. He was subsequently arrested, tried, convicted and received a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment in 1984.

The trial judge recommended a minimum term of 18 years, which could have seen Hutchinson paroled in 2002, but at least one subsequent Home Secretary is known to have issued Hutchinson with a whole life tariff (thereby making it extremely unlikely that he will ever be released) and in May 2008 he failed in a High Court appeal for his whole life tariff to be quashed.

References

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7404855.stm BBC News Website (16 May 2008) - 'Triple killer will die in prison']
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/prisons/story/0,,467198,00.html Guardian Newspaper article]