Life means life jail sentence for 'Camden Ripper' killer Anthony Hardy

Friday May 14, 2010

ANTHONY Hardy - the serial killer who murdered three women who worked as prostitutes and chopped two of their bodies up - has been told he will die in jail.

The man who became known by the tabloid nickname 'The Camden Ripper' was told at the High Court that a release tariff would not be attached to his prison sentence.

His imprisonment now becomes one of only a small number of cases in Britain in which convicted killers have been told there is no prospect at all of release. A change in the law meant 700 cases where life sentences had been passed were sent back to trial judges for clarity on when prisoners could expect to be eligible in parole. In Hardy's case, that opportunity will not arise.

Now 58, the killer was originally given three life sentences in November 2003 after confessing to the murders of Sally Rose White, Elizabeth Valad and Brigitte MacClennan. The remains of Ms Valad and Ms MacClennan were found butchered and left in bin bags put out for collection outside Hardy's former council flat on the College Place Estate in Camden Town over Christmas 2002.

The same judge, Mr Justice Keith, who sentenced Hardy at the Old Bailey originally ruled today  that he should not ever be freed.