Ruth Ellis, last woman hanged in Britain, to be granted posthumous pardon
Ruth Ellis was executed on July 13, 1955, after being convicted of murder
The last woman hanged in the United Kingdom will be granted a conditional pardon, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has said.
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Ruth Ellis was executed on July 13 1955 after being convicted of murdering David Blakely.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told MPs: “I have the honour to say that His Majesty the King has accepted our advice to grant Ruth Ellis a conditional pardon, the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom.
“While the pardon does not claim she was innocent of killing David Blakely, it replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment to recognise a profound injustice in this exceptional case.”
The 26-year-old was a single mother of two when she met racing-car driver Blakely in 1953 at a club she managed.
The pair were in an abusive relationship with violence and mental torment at the hands of Blakely.
Ms Ellis' accounts, and those of her friends, doctors and other witnesses, say she was assaulted in public, pushed down the stairs and struck so hard in the ear she was briefly rendered deaf.
She was also punched in the stomach, which led to a miscarriage,and left with “multiple bruises all over the body”.
Several experts have said she was suffering from what is known as "battered women syndrome", a pattern of signs and symptoms in a woman who has suffered persistent violence by an intimate partner.
Laura Enston, her grand-daughter, said today that “justice has finally been done”.
Ruth Ellis, a nightclub hostess, was executed on July 13 1955 after being convicted of murdering David Blakely.
The sentence was carried out at Holloway Prison.
Ellis shot Blakely dead outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, London, in April 1955.
Mr Lammy made the announcement as he stood in for Sir Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, while Sir Keir is at the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey.
“Today, justice has finally been done for our grandmother, Ruth Ellis – the last woman to be hanged in England in 1955," Mr Lammy told the Commons.
“This pardon does not undo what happened 71 years ago. It does not restore the lives that were broken – the children left behind, the years lost.
"But it says, formally and finally, that Ruth should not have been executed; that the justice system failed her. That acknowledgement matters profoundly to our family.
“Ruth was a victim of sustained and brutal abuse. Her children – our mother and uncle – never recovered. My uncle took his own life; my mother’s trauma left her unable to be the parent we needed."
"The shadow of Ruth’s execution has fallen across two generations. We have carried shame that was never ours to bear.
“We are deeply grateful to the Justice Secretary (David Lammy) for having the courage to act.
"We hope Ruth’s story serves as a lasting reminder that the justice system must reckon with the abuse that drives women to the edge – and must never be afraid to acknowledge when it has got things wrong.”