My grandfather sentenced last woman hanged in UK – she should be pardoned, says Nigel Havers
The Coronation Street star whose grandfather, the High Court judge Sir Cecil Havers, sentenced Ruth Ellis to death in 1955 for shooting dead her lover David Blakely, called for a posthumous pardon.
Havers, who is playing his grandfather in a new ITV drama A Cruel Truth: The Ruth Ellis Story, revealed Sir Cecil was 'extremely upset' by the case after a jury convicted her of murder, which came with a mandatory death penalty. Havers added that his grandfather had always believed it had been a crime of passion, which could have resulted in a sentence for manslaughter and would have avoided the death penalty.
Descendents of Ellis, who was in an abusive relationship with Mr Blakely at the time, argue that she was a victim of a miscarriage of justice and are pushing for a posthumous pardon.
Speaking to the BBC, Havers agreed with demands to pardon Ellis. 'I love that. Of course I would, that would be my choice, too. I would love that to happen,' he said.
Describing filming his scenes for the drama, he said: 'I burst into tears [after filming]. I felt very sorry for my grandfather because he was extremely upset. He wrote a letter to the home secretary at the time and said this woman must not be hanged and the home secretary ignored it.'
Elllis was a nightclub hostess and shot Mr Blakely outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead. The jury returned a verdict of premeditated murder in just 20 minutes and, as a result, it fell to Sir Cecil to don the black cap and pass down a sentence of capital punishment. She was hanged at HMP Holloway on July 13 1955.
Ellis's case led to a petition with 50,000 signatures being sent to the Home Office for clemency, but none was granted. Significant media attention made her execution a high profile event, which was a significant driver to ending capital punishment in the UK.
Family tragedy followed, with Ellis's ex-husband suicide in 1958 and her son, Andy, who was just 10 when his mother died, taking his own life in 1982 while in his twenties.
Sir Cecil had sent money to Ellis's son every year from her death until the judges's own in 1977, Havers told the BBC.
'As far as my aunt is concerned, what she told me was that he financed one of the children, he supported them, that's how strong he felt,' he said.
On August 13, 1964, Gwynne Evans and Peter Allen became the last men to be executed in the UK for beating and stabbing to death van driver John West.
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