JANE ANDREWS

Jane Andrews, 34, the former dresser to the Duchess of York was jailed for life on the 16^th May 2001 after being convicted of the murder of her lover in a jealous rage. She had driven an eight-inch kitchen knife into the chest of Tom Cressman in his bedroom, after hitting him on the head with a cricket bat. She watched and did nothing to help as he desperately tried to remove the knife from his body.

After murdering Mr Cressman, Andrews went on the run, text-messaging friends and acquaintances, including the Duchess of York. The Duchess sent back a message asking her to give herself up. Andrews had killed Mr Cressman, 39, after he had refused to marry her. During her trial, she claimed that her former boyfriend, the son of a millionaire businessman, tied her up and anally raped her on the morning of the killing, and had sexually abused her for a prolonged period before that. Mr Cressman's family and friends spoke of their disgust at the way Andrews had tried to drag the reputation of the man she killed through the mud. Mr Cressman's mother, Barbara, 73, said: "She told a whole tissue of lies. She had months to make up a story. She has been very carefully stage-managed to make her appearance as bad as possible and learn her lines. She murdered my son with malice aforethought."

Behind the murder lay an extraordinary tale of ambition, vanity and lethal obsession. "Lady Jane" was the Duchess of York's affectionate nickname for the young aide with self-consciously grand manners. Seeing them together in fashionable restaurants or shops, it would have been easy to believe they were old friends from the same social milieu.

In reality, Jane Andrews was a royal employee and, on a salary of £18,000 a year, was expected to be dresser, accounts manager, part-time coiffure and companion, working very long hours. But the joiner's daughter from Cleethorpes had been desperate to break into fashionable society and, as far as she was concerned, she had.

The Duchess of York, and the lifestyle she represented, was idolised by Andrews. Her voice, with the Humberside accent expunged by elocution, began to sound like her mistress and even her blond hair turned a shade of red for a while. Andrews had been reinventing herself since childhood. She made it clear she did not feel at home at Hereford comprehensive school. A fashion course at the Grimsby College of Art was another step towards the exit. Her former lecturer Irene Smith recalled: "Jane was extremely single-minded. There was a purpose to her work: to get out of Grimsby. She knew what she wanted in life."

Andrews applied for a job as a dresser. After nearly six months, she got a response summoning her to be interviewed by the Duchess of York. Andrews started work four days later. The job brought accommodation at Buckingham Palace, a far cry from the two-bedroom inner city flat where her parents lived. "The Queen signs my pay cheques," she would boast at dinner parties.

Just what was being signed and by who remained a mystery. Andrews appeared to have carte blanche to spend the Duchess of York's money. Despite her modest salary, she somehow managed to buy a flat facing Battersea Park and keep £50,000 in her bank account. It's been alleged she stole a huge amount of money from the palace, but this has never proved legally.

The new life also brought a new circle of friends. Andrews appeared to have indulged in a varied love life, having affairs with men she met through work.

Andrews' boyfriends all experienced her jealous rage. When one ended their affair, she hurled ornaments at him. A journalist lover described how he was put under emotional pressure after he dumped her. She claimed that he had made her pregnant, but that she miscarried their child. He found the story to be a fabrication. Another journalist told police he was stalked by Andrews after their friendship ended.

There was surprise among her friends when Andrews married Christopher Dunn-Butler, a divorced, balding IBM executive 20 years her senior. He divorced her, citing infidelity, five years later.

Andrews' working relationship with the Duchess had remained strong, surviving the loss of a diamond necklace and bracelet (wedding gifts from the Queen) which Andrews had allowed to be checked into normal baggage on a flight from London to New York.

But things changed with the appearance of Count Gaddo della Gheradecsu, a Tuscan aristocrat with whom it's alleged the Duchess had an affair. The Count, however, also liked Andrews. When Andrews mentioned to colleagues at the Palace that she had received "an affectionate note" from him, Andrews was dismissed.

Andrews was inconsolable. Her weight plummeted and she began to lose her hair. She had psychotherapy and was prescribed tranquillisers. She was also diagnosed as suffering from a hormonal condition called polycystic ovary syndrome.

She then met the wealthy and urbane Tom Cressman and rapidly became obsessed with him. Mr Cressman's millionaire American father, Henry, had built up Bristol Street Motors into the biggest chain of Ford dealerships in Europe. He is also a former director of Aston Villa football club.

Andrews moved into Mr Cressman's £400,000 flat in Fulham and got a job as a PR manager for Claridges. But she had to leave the post after two months when it became clear that she was not up to it.

Soon Andrews was nagging Mr Cressman to get married and he was getting increasingly annoyed at the pressure, as well as her possessiveness. Once, Andrews left a message on Mr Cressman's telephone answering machine which said: "Where the fucking hell are you. I am walking the fucking streets. You are never there when I fucking want you." The accent had slipped back to Humberside.

Andrews had searched Mr Cressman's e-mail account and discovered erotic correspondence with a woman in Las Vegas called "Deborah". One of the e-mails also referred to Andrews as "a pair of old slippers I can't get rid of". Another referred to kinky underwear and was signed: "lots of licks and hugs and kisses, your pool boy". Others mentioned a girl being at Cressman's "mercy to do whatever he wanted".

Andrews faxed copies of the e-mails to the woman's workplace and also to Mr Cressman's mother, Barbara. Mr Cressman maintained that the e-mails were simply fantasies he was writing for a magazine.

Andrews claims that heliked her to dress in revealing underwear in bed and that he liked tying her up. She maintained he was obsessed with anal sex and said she was impelled to go along with this. Towards the end of last year, relations had improved sufficiently for Andrews to expect a marriage proposal during a holiday in the south of France, but that was the last thing on his mind.

Mrs Cressman recalled: "Jane had been hoping for a proposal. When it didn't come, her face was like a thunder cloud. Tom told me he had told Jane he didn't want to marry her. I think Tom had been trying for some time to persuade Jane to leave of her own volition and she had threatened suicide on other occasions. Tom never cared for himself. He thought Jane would do something to herself. Instead, it worked out the other way around."

Searching the couple's home after the murder, the police came upon a letter written by Mr Cressman to Andrews. It said: "I do care about you. Yes, times have been difficult for us over the last year but I do like you and like being with you.

"However, over the last few months, it has been like I have been walking on eggshells all the time. Your mood swings have been so hard to predict. Your jealousy has also got out of hand. You question me every day and will not let me do anything with 'the boys' and without you.

"You have been making me all your life and it is too much pressure on me. I must be part of your life, not all. I do hate to see you so upset. Whatever I say is wrong. I do care." The letter was found in the wastebasket, torn to bits by Andrews.

MARTIN FORSHAW

A policeman was jailed for life on the 23rd May 2009 for murdering his fiancĂ©e, also a police constable, and then faking a car crash to disguise the killing. Martin Forshaw, 27, admitted killing Claire Howarth, 31, as they prepared to fly to the Caribbean to marry. He had told her that he was still involved with his former girlfriend. After saying that the wedding was off, he beat Miss Howarth repeatedly with a hammer in the home that they shared, next to her wedding dress and packed suitcases.

Forshaw, known as Alex, pleaded guilty as his trial was due to start at Manchester Crown Court. Sentencing him to a minimum of 18 years, Mr Justice David Clarke said: “This was a brutal killing. Whatever immediately led up to it, you struck Claire Howarth at least five times to and around the head with a very heavy and dangerous instrument.”

The couple were preparing to fly to St Lucia for their wedding and Miss Howarth had texted a friend in the early hours of 7th May 2009 to say that they had been dancing round the house in excitement. Forshaw then told Miss Howarth that he was not going to marry her. It later emerged that he was booked on a holiday to Disneyland Paris with Lisa Charles, the mother of his four-year-old son. “He told her he did not wish to go through with the wedding. He realised that was the end of the relationship,” Peter Wright, QC, representing Forshaw, said. Mr Wright said that Miss Howarth confronted Forshaw with the garden mallet during the row that followed and that Forshaw “plainly lost his self control”. Pathologists said that Forshaw’s original claim of self-defence was “totally implausible”.

After the attack Forshaw carried Miss Howarth to her BMW. Mr Wright said that Forshaw admitted striking his girlfriend twice more during the car journey because he wanted to “put her out of her pain”. He drove around quiet country lanes before putting Miss Howarth into the driving seat and accelerating into a hedge. He then dialled 999, claiming that Miss Howarth had been injured because she was not wearing a seatbelt. She died later that day. The car was almost unscratched, but a post-mortem examination found that Miss Howarth had 14 separate injuries and died of “severe head trauma”.

“It was such a poor attempt to make it look like a crash that both the police and the ambulance service were immediately suspicious,” Senior Investigating Officer Andy Tattershall, of Greater Manchester Police, said. “The severity of Claire’s head injuries meant they could not have been caused by such a minor crash. That caused us to question Forshaw’s account and led us to unravelling this tragic sequence of events.”

The judge told Forshaw: “You may have been panicking but you were also cowardly . . . You, seeing her so seriously injured, finished her off.”

Miss Howarth had just completed two years’ probation with Greater Manchester Police. She was described as “a person who brought light into the police station” by her manager, Chief Superintendent John O’Hare.

Forshaw, of Meadow Way, Tottington, Bury, in Lancashire, had been with Cheshire Constabulary since 2003 and was an expert in self-defence. He had lived with Miss Charles until 2007. Mr Wright said that Forshaw had “buried his head in the sand” about his involvement with his child’s mother. “He was torn. Torn as to his loyalties and torn as to what, if any, future he ought to pursue for the best.”

TRACIE ANDREWS

Tracie Andrews, a former model and barmaid, attacked Lee Harvey in his car after they had stopped following an argument on the way to their flat in  Worcester. Andrews stabbed Harvey over 40 times.

3rd December 1996 Andrews appeared at a Press conference saying Harvey had been the victim of a road rage attack from a man with "staring eyes". She then took a drug overdose the following day but survived.

A West Midlands Police inquiry failed to find witnesses to the incident, and Andrews was arrested on the morning of Saturday 7th December, in Hospital. She was released on bail after being charged. She continued to maintain her road-rage defence.

29th July 1997 Andrews was found guilty by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court, for the murder of Lee Harvey. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and a 14-year minimum term was recommended, which if served, will leave her behind bars until at least 2011 and at the age of 42.

A subsequent appeal lodged by Andrews, alleging that she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice because of damaging publicity surrounding her case, this was thrown out at a hearing in October 1998.

April 1999 Andrews admitted that she had carried out the crime.

2006 it was reported in the national press that Andrews was hoping to be released from jail within months and planned to marry, but Home Office sources denied that she was due to be released imminently. She was moved from Foston Hall jail in Derbyshire to Send prison near Woking, Surrey.  

LESLIE MOOHAN

Friday 1st February 2008, Leslie Moohan strangled David Redpath with a belt and carved into his victims forehead with a razor. He then stashed the body under his bed in the homeless shelter  where the two lived. Moohan flipped after an argument. Moohan's lover Diane Armstrong later told the police she had found a body under a bed, and that she believed it to be Moohan.

Saturday 2nd February 2008, The body of David Reedpath was found in an upstairs bedroom of a property in Harrison Road, Edinburgh.

Monday 4th February 2008, Leslie Moohan appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court charged with murder after the discovery of a body in a guest house. Moohan aged 25, of no fixed abode, appeared in private before Sheriff John Horsburgh QC. No plea was made during the brief appearance and Mr Moohan was remanded in custody.

Monday 2nd June 2008, at the High Court in Glasgow Moohan admitted murder of Mr Redpath on 1st February, he will be sentenced later. Diane Armstrong admitted perverting the course of justice and will be sentenced at a later date.

2nd July 2008,  Moohan was given a lifer sentence, to serve a minimum of 15 years. Moohan's girlfriend, Diane Armstrong, was placed on probation for three years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid community work. The judge noted that she had already spent five months in prison waiting for the case to come to court.

SARAH ANDERSON

Young mother Sarah Anderson stabbed Dee Willis to death in the street following an apparently random confrontation. Anderson, 26 at the time, was on her way to a pub to settle an argument with another woman when she attacked the 28-year-old victim.

The killer, who had armed herself with a kitchen knife from her home, stabbed Miss Willis victim in the neck - severing her carotid artery and jugular vein with a single blow. Miss Willis, who had been out cycling with her boyfriend and was not involved in the pub dispute, died within an hour of the attack on July 1, 2008. She had lost unborn twin girls prematurely just two months earlier and was still mourning the loss of her own sister in 2004.

Anderson was later convicted of murder at the Old Bailey after an 8 day trial. The court heard she flew in to a rage after a heated confrontation with another drinker at the Kentish Drovers pub in Peckham High Street.

She argued with two women in the pub's beer garden and became so incensed she was seen 'spitting in the face' of one as she screamed at her. She warned the woman she would 'f*ck her up' and said: 'I know you lot think I'm a d*ckhead but watch out, I'm coming back.' Anderson returned home to get a knife, swapping her tight-fitting grey mini-dress for a pair of jeans in which she could conceal the weapon.

On her way back to the pub at around 11pm, she ran into Miss Willis in Bellenden Road, opposite a Lidl supermarket. The court heard angry words were exchanged between the pair and when Miss Willis got off her bike to challenge Anderson, the killer produced the knife and stabbed her in the neck.

Anderson was heard by witnesses aggressively shouting: "Come on bad girl, come on."

Prosecutor Brendan Kelly QC said: 'What seems to have happened is that Dee Willis grabbed hold of the hair of Sarah Anderson. 'But almost immediately Sarah Anderson has lunged towards Dee Willis and in doing so inserted the blade of the knife, in to the neck of Dee Willis. The knife severed Miss Willis's carotid artery and jugular vein, resulting in her bleeding to death."

Following the stabbing, Anderson fled via a friend's flat to Hertfordshire and then Basingstoke, Hants, before being arrested 10 days later. She denied murder and refused to give evidence during the trial, but claimed through her barrister that she was acting in self-defence.

Judge Richard Hone QC jailed her for life with a minimum 15 year term and told her: 'In my view there was an element of planning and premeditation which I think should be categorised as significant. 'The jury, in my view, quite rightly rejected self defence. To use a knife to the neck with a single blow of at least moderate force, up to the hilt, plainly shows a greater likelihood of an intention to kill rather than a lesser intention to cause really serious harm. You have an uncontrolled temper in certain situations, particularly when fuelled by alcohol. That was further demonstrated by your recent conviction for causing actual bodily harm. At the age of 26 you should have been better able to control yourself. You should also have thought of the consequences for your seven-year-old son when arming yourself with a knife. You have shown not a shred of remorse and an inability to face up to what you have done gives you no credit. You have destroyed more than one life by you self-centred actions that night.'

JADE BRAITHWAITE, MICHAEL ALLEYNE AND JURESS KIKA

Court artist's impression of Ben Kinsella's murderers: (l to r) Jade Braithwaite, 20, Michael Alleyne, 18 and Juress Kika, 19. Photograph: Elizabeth Cook/PA

Saturday 28th June 2008, 16 year old Ben Kinsella was at a birthday party, a party that was also to celebrate the end of his GCSE exams.

Sunday 29th June 2008, Ben was stabbed multiple times after being chased down a street following a fight he was not involved in at the Shillibeers pub and nightclub in York Way, Islington, around 2am Sunday morning. He died a few hours later in hospital. His parent were by his side after driving up from the south coast where they were on holiday.

A post mortem revealed that Ben died of multiple stab wounds.

Thursday 3rd July 2008, The three people arrested over Ben's killing have now been charged.

Juress Kika, 18, Michael Alleyne, 18, and Jade Braithwaite, 19, from London, pleaded not guilty to murder. A secret tape recording of the three young men of Ben Kinsella's murder concocting false alibis became a crucial piece of evidence for the prosecution.

Although all three were well-known to police, and both Michael Alleyne and Jade Braithwaite's names had been mentioned within hours of the attack, it was only when they were recorded discussing the killing in the back of a police car with their co-defendant, Juress Kika, that their guilt became clear.

Up to that point and during the trial, each blamed the other for the fatal stabbing. The recording showed they were in on it together.

They were taped "fixing up a story", Nicholas Hilliard QC told the Old Bailey in London. In extracts played to the jury, the three men discussed alibis, potential witnesses, CCTV evidence and getting rid of their mobile phones.

Alleyne, known as Tigger or T, seemed to describe how he took part in the knife attack before reassuring his friends that evidence had been disposed of. Braithwaite, who was involved in a dispute with one of Ben's friends shortly before the murder, asked his co-defendants to say he was not with them that night.

Alleyne was later to insist that he was at his "yard" asleep at the time, even though his father told police he had gone out.Hilliard told the jury: "Braithwaite is saying, I wasn't with T, I was somewhere else, T will say he was at his yard and his dad has got it wrong.

"That's what this is all about, this is fixing up a story to get away with murder. There is no falling out or blaming each other, nothing like that. They are getting their story straight."

Alleyne, a heavy cannabis smoker, fell out with his father after he spoke to police.Michael Alleyne Snr at first admitted that his son came back at about 2.30am on the night of the murder.Under pressure, he later claimed that the teenager was at home all night.

Alleyne sent a threatening letter to his cousin Kellie after she told police he and Kika confessed to the stabbing. Alleyne and Kika were arrested at Kellie's home in Chadwell Heath, Essex, two days after the murder.

The letter read: "To Slag aka snitch, You are a let down to the family. You are not my cousin, believe that. How are you gonna give my letters to the Boyden [police] and be snitching on me? You are not real at all. When will I see you? Your mum's still on road, so be careful how you move. "You don't know how I move on road. I'm a boss. People in North no who I am. Fuck that. When the shit hits the fan, you snitch. I don't need to tell you anything before you tell Boyden, you snitch. I don't know who the fuck you are, you don't try to keep me out of jail. I'm a real nigga and you ask your dad about me, he's seen things.

"You all best hope I don't bust case because people will be in trouble and you will never snitch on anyone again, I promise you that. Say no more, I am ghost [disappeared]. I ain't got time to rite to snitches, family that's not real. I got your statements, everyone will see Kellie is a snitch. You see, snitches get touched. You see blood, Tottenham ride or die. All the family know you are a snitch so if I get found guilty it's down to you."

Thursday 11th June 2009,

Juress Kika, 19, Jade Braithwaite, 18, and Michael Alleyne, 20, were convicted by a jury at the Old Bailey.

After the verdicts, it emerged Kika had been on the run from police for 10 days following a robbery in which a man was knifed on June 19.

Friday 12th June 2009, All three were sentenced to life in prison.

COLIN JOYCE AND LEE AMOS

                                           Colin Joyce and Lee Amos

15th June 2007, Ucal Chin was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Longsight area of Manchester. Later discovered to be a gang related shooting.

Six weeks later a crowd of up to 100 people, including children, were gathered after the 24-year-old's funeral. They were at Chin's wake when gunmen drove up and opened fire, spraying bullets into the crowd. Two mourners were hit. Tyrone Gilbert was killed. His friend Michael Gordon was injured.

22nd October 2008, Trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Ten alleged gangsters, all members of either Gooch or the Old Trafford Cripz, a gang affiliated to them, stood trial for a catalogue of gang-related crimes, including the two murders.

The killings happened months after a shoot-out between members of the Gooch and Doddington gangs.

Monday 6th April 2009, Colin Joyce was found guilty of murdering both Chin and Gilbert and attempting to kill Mr Gordon.

Lee Amos was convicted of killing Chin and trying to murder Gordon.

Aeeron Campbell, Narada Williams and his brother Ricardo Williams, were convicted of murdering Tyrone Gilbert. They were also found guilty of trying to kill Gordon.

Tuesday, 7 April 2009,
Mr Justice Brian Langstaff gave Joyce two life sentences, with a recommendation he serve a minimum 29 years. Lee Amos was sentenced to at least 35 years. Campbell was sentenced to life with a minimum of 32 years and Narada Williams was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 35 years.

Sentencing them, Mr Justice Brian Langstaff said: "Manchester is not the Wild West, but many of you treated the streets as if it were."