Man who killed three partners gets harsher sentence on appeal

A garage worker who killed three of his partners over four decades must serve a longer minimum jail term after appeal judges ruled his original sentence was unduly lenient.

Theodore Johnson, 64, was sentenced in January to life in prison with a minimum of 26 years for the “brutal and merciless” murder of his most recent victim, Angela Best.

Johnson bludgeoned Best with a claw hammer and strangled her with a dressing gown cord in north London a couple of months after the end of their 20-year relationship.

He had two previous convictions for manslaughter for killing two other former partners, in 1981 and 1993. After the attack in 1993, he was detained in a secure hospital but was conditionally discharged in 1997.

At the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday, three court of appeal judges increased his minimum term to 30 years after the solicitor general, Robert Buckland QC, argued his original sentence was unduly lenient. Johnson will be 94 before he is eligible for parole.

Outside court Buckland said the judges’ decision was a “proper reflection of what was a most appalling set of circumstances that led to the murder of the defendant’s third partner”, adding: “I’m very glad the court agreed with my submission that the minimum term should be increased to reflect the extreme gravity of the case.”

Source: theguardian