Farrow Jailed For Life Over Double Murder

By Isabel Webster, Bristol Crown Court

An "extremely dangerous" psychopath has been jailed for life for the murder of a vicar and a retired teacher.

Stephen Farrow was told he would die behind bars by a judge at Bristol Crown Court.

He killed Reverend John Suddards at his vicarage in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, between February 12 and 15 this year.

The 48-year-old, of no fixed address, admitted showing no mercy as the vicar cried "I'm dying", to which he replied "F****** die then, hurry up".

Judge Mr Justice Field told Farrow: "I am satisfied that in your case a whole life sentence is an appropriate sentence in each of these dreadful, horrific killings. In my judgement, you acted sadistically.

"To put a knife deep into the body of Betty Yates as she lay helpless on the floor, having arranged her head on the pillow, was an act of absolute sadism.

"You did that because you wanted to. She wasn't threatening you. You put that knife in her to have the pleasure of doing it.

"As for Reverend Suddards, you killed him - having kicked him down, having told him to 'f****** hurry up and die' - with seven deep knife wounds.

"He was helpless. That conduct was clearly sadistic. Accordingly, there is no question in your case of the imposition of a minimum term."

Farrow had pleaded guilty to the clergyman's manslaughter, but denied it was murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He also denied the murder of grandmother Betty Yates at her home in Bewdley, Worcestershire, between January 1 and 5.

In between murders, Farrow burgled a house and left this note

A jury made up of four women and eight men spent almost two days considering the evidence before returning a guilty verdict for both murders.

The court heard that Reverend Suddards, 58, was found in a pool of blood, carefully laid out in his hallway, with pornography, condoms and streamers on and around his body.

The jury were told these items were designed to "humiliate" the clergyman as Farrow had a grudge against the Church.

After the murder, Farrow spent the night at the vicarage, just metres from the body of his victim, watching DVDs and drinking beer.

It was not disputed by the drifter's defence team that he "passed the threshold of psychopathy".

His barrister, Peter Gower QC, argued that although Farrow was not mentally ill at the time of the killing, he was suffering an "abnormality of the mind" which diminished his responsibility for his actions.

But prosecutor Michael Fitton QC told the jury "we do not accept his mental disorder diminishes his responsibility for what he did to entitle him to that defence".

Mr Fitton also rejected Farrow's denial of Mrs Yates' murder, saying: "Our case is that he was there and that he killed her and that he intended to kill her."

Her body was found two days after she was attacked, at the bottom of her stairs, with her head on her pillow and a knife still in her neck.

The 77-year-old widow had been stabbed four times in the head and beaten with an ornate walking stick.

A swab taken from the back of her left hand represented a "one-in-a-billion match" as a mixture of DNA belonging to her and Farrow.

The defendant admitted a separate charge of burgling a cottage in Thornbury, between December 21 last year and January 3 this year.

A note was also found inside the house he burgled, pinned to the kitchen table with knives, that read: "Be thankful you did not come back or I would have killed you, you Christian scum. I f*****g hate God."

Farrow, wearing a blue sweatshirt and blue tracksuit bottoms, showed no emotion as the jury foreman returned the verdicts after eight-and-a-half hours' deliberation.

Hillary Bosworth, the sister of Rev John Suddards, praised police involved in the investigation and said Farrow's sentence was "deserved".

"The deaths of John and Betty raise many questions," she said.

"What could have been done to avert these tragedies. Do we as a country do enough to ensure that psychopaths with a known history of violence and criminal offences are not left roaming around ... ready to attack someone?"

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