'Gran was hanged at 28 for killing abusive boyfriend - but she was no murderer'

Daily Mirror

2 days ago

It's been 70 years since Stephen Beard's grandmother Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in the UK for murdering her violent loved David Blakely. Now Stephen is calling for her to receive a posthumous pardon
The anniversary of a loved one's death is always difficult, but for Stephen Beard Sunday will mark 70 years since his grandmother Ruth Ellis was executed - the last woman to hang in Britain.
He hopes this will be the year that Ruth, who was sentenced to death aged just 28 after shooting dead her abusive former lover David Blakely, receives a posthumous pardon.
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Former Hollyoaks actor Stephen, who will share his thoughts about Ruth on the family WhatsApp group on Sunday, tells The Mirror: 'We're in the process of having her gravestone replaced, too.
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'We want something that reflects who she was - a complex, funny, courageous woman and a trailblazer in life and in death.'
Father of four Stephen,who lives in Dubai, has instructed top legal firm Mischon de Reya to start the pardon process, arguing his grandmother was a victim of a miscarriage of justice and that significant evidence was omitted from her trial.
It is hoped the application will go before the Justice Secretary, the Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood, this autumn, who will advise The King on whether to grant Ruth a conditional pardon. It will not quash her conviction, but could be granted if it is shown Ruth was morally and technically innocent.
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'This was an injustice. As a society don't we want to explore how that happened? Doesn't Ruth deserve a second chance to be heard?' asks Stephen, 36, who played Hollyoaks' Archie Carpenter for two years from 2008, but now works in real estate.
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Born in Wales, the fifth of six children, Ruth's life was peppered by abusive and violent men but, by the end of the 1940s, and with a child to support, she was working as a nude model. Later she became a nightclub hostess in London's Soho and an escort.
By 1953 and now a divorced single mum, she was appointed manager of a nightclub in Knightsbridge,where she met David Blakely, a former public school boy and hard drinking racing driver, who was violent towards her.
Ruth later told the jury at her trial: 'He only hit me with his fist or hands.'
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Desmond Cussen, a former RAF pilot-turned accountant also came into her life, but the relationship with the volatile Blakely continued.
At one stage he punched her in the stomach and she later miscarried. On Easter Sunday 1955, Ruth arrived at The Magdala pub in London's South Hill Park, where she suspected Blakely - who was seeing other women - might be.
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As he stepped out of the pub, Ruth took a revolver from her handbag and shot him five times. She was arrested immediately and an off duty police officer heard her say: 'I am guilty, I'm a little confused.'
On 20 June 1955, her hair freshly peroxided, she appeared at The Old Bailey. After a short trial the jury took just minutes to convict her. Three weeks later Ruth was executed at Holloway Prison, leaving behind two children, Georgina - Stephen's mum - who was three and 10-year-old Andy.
Her executioner, Albert Pierrepoint, later recalled how she walked 'right to me' and 'tried to smile' at the last but never spoke. 'She was a brave woman.'
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Stephen believes her trial was deeply flawed and crucial evidence about her physically abusive and coercive relationship with David Blakely was not put forward. 'Her state of mind should have been considered in light of her relationship
with Blakely, who was so violent towards her,' he says.
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'Here was a woman who had lost so much - her job, her daughter had also been shipped off to adoptive parents and her best friend had died in a car accident two weeks before.'
The gun used in the murder belonged to Desmond Cussen. He had even taught her how to use it - but the jury remained unaware of that fact. 'Does that not make him an accessory to the murder? He told Ruth he would look after the children financially for her but in the end he was a witness for the prosecution,' says Stephen.
He believes his grandmother was punished as much for her class and lifestyle as her crime. 'In 1955 attitudes towards women after the war were largely that they should return to the home - be traditional, be in the kitchen,' he says. 'My grandmother was a career-focused, working class woman in London's club scene - the opposite of what some thought a 'proper' woman should be.
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'She was divorced, a single mother, a nightclub hostess; there had been sex work. 'I believe all that affected the outcome of the trial.'
While the case maintains its grasp on the public's imagination, it has also cast a long shadow over Ruth's family down the decades.
Her former husband died by suicide in 1958. Her son Andy also took his own life in 1982, while her daughter Georgina struggled with alcohol and died at the age of 50, after having high profile relationships including one with George Best.
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Even today, Georgina's daughter and Stephen's sister, Laura Enston, 46, admits she spent decades distancing herself from Ruth's story.
'I grew up thinking she was like the caricature portrayed in the press, a social climbing, cold blooded killer,' she says.
'I took on the shame and the embarrassment of that and turned it into a secret. I didn't want a part of it and was petrified people would find out.' Now working as a head of marketing in Manchester, Laura was bullied at school by those who knew about Ruth.
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'In the playground people would shout 'your grandma is a murderer.' Some girls at school would draw the hangman game and push it under my desk.'
It was only by reading the book A Fine Day for a Hanging by Carol Ann Lee, which re-examines the case in the context of the time, that she began to understand the real Ruth.
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'That's been the most wonderful experience. Ruth was actually a very modern woman. Although she had been abused by every significant man in her life she was nevertheless a single mum running a business. She had an apartment. She had savings.Things started to unravel when David Blakely walked into her life.' Stephen, too, still feels the reverberations of the 70-year-old crime.
'I can't help but think that what happened has echoed down the years - the affiliation has impacted other generations. I don't think my grandfather and uncle would have taken their own lives had it not been for what happened to Ruth.
'But there is a positive side. There is nothing in life which scares me. If I am facing something difficult I think 'of course I can do it - my grandmother faced
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the gallows.'' Ruth's death sparked huge controversy back in 1955 and paved the way for the abolition of capital punishment for murder ten years later.
Now, decades later, the last woman to be hanged is once again at the centre of a high profile legal case. Grace Houghton, an Associate at the legal firm Mishcon de Reya, says the firm has 'quite the history' with the Ruth Ellis story.
'This firm acted for Ruth in her divorce and then after her trial. Just 22 hours before she was due to be executed, Lord Mishcon, after meeting with Ruth at Holloway Prison, tried to intervene to try to secure a reprieve,' she says.
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'It is a privilege to try to continue the work of our founder.' Two years after the execution, the law was amended to introduce the defence of diminished responsibility.
'I believe Ruth's case had an impact on this change in the law. If she had been tried after 1957, that defence would have been available for Ruth and would likely have been argued by her defence team,' says Grace.
For Stephen and his family, the anniversary of Ruth's execution will be a chance to reflect on their grandmother's life and legacy.
'I never knew her in life but in death she feels concrete to me,' he says. 'She was a proud, vital, determined woman, not some wild psychotic murderer. She was also a victim of injustice. That wrong has to be righted.'