List of major crimes in the United Kingdom

Full article adapted from Wikipedia revision 1379383022 by Wikipedia contributors. Text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Formatting has been adapted; article text and references are retained. Snapshot imported 2026-10-09.

Further information: Unsolved murders in the UK

This is a list of major crimes in the United Kingdom and Crown dependencies that received significant media coverage and/or led to changes in legislation.

Legally each deliberate and unlawful killing of a human being is murder; there is no crime of assassination or serial killing as such, for example.

Murder of minors

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Name of incident	No. of deaths	Date/Location	Details
The Murder of Fanny Adams	1	August 24, 1867 (1867-08-24) Alton, Hampshire, England	Eight-year-old Fanny Adams remains were discovered in a hop field after she disappeared while playing with two other girls. Local man Frederick Baker was arrested shortly afterwards and subsequently convicted of her murder at Winchester Assizes. He was sentenced to death and hanged on 24 December 1867. The case attracted widespread attention in the British press, and the expression "Sweet Fanny Adams" later became associated with the case.
The Murder of Muriel Drinkwater	1	July 27, 1946 (1946-07-27) Swansea, Wales	12-year-old schoolgirl Muriel Joan Drinkwater disappeared while walking home through woodland near her family's farm in Penllergaer. Her body was discovered the following day; she had been sexually assaulted, beaten and shot. The case became known as the "Little Red Riding Hood murder" and prompted an extensive police investigation, but no one has ever been charged with her killing. In 2008, detectives recovered a DNA profile from a semen stain on her clothing, allowing investigators to eliminate suspects who had been under suspicion for decades. In 2019, South Wales Police confirmed that forensic testing had ruled out convicted child murderer Harold Jones as the killer. The murder remains unsolved and is one of Wales's long-running historic murder investigations.
The Teddington towpath murders	2	May 31, 1953 (1953-05-31) Notting Hill, London, England	Two teenage friends, 16-year-old Barbara Songhurst and 18-year-old Christine Reed, were attacked while cycling home along the River Thames towpath near Teddington Lock, Middlesex. Both girls were sexually assaulted and murdered, and their bodies were dumped in the river. The killings prompted a major police investigation involving the questioning of more than 1,600 men in the surrounding area. Alfred Charles Whiteway, a 21-year-old labourer, was arrested in June 1953 and subsequently tried at the Old Bailey for the murder of Songhurst. He was convicted in November and sentenced to death; the charge relating to Reed's murder was ordered to lie on file. Whiteway was hanged at Wandsworth Prison on 22 December 1953. The case attracted considerable attention for the scale of the investigation and the forensic evidence used to secure Whiteway's conviction, although controversy surrounded the handling of his alleged confession and the disappearance of a weapon while in police custody.
The Murder of Roy Tutill	1	May 31, 1968 (1968-05-31) Surrey, England	4-year-old Roy Linzee Tutill disappeared while hitchhiking home from school in Surrey. His body was discovered three days later near Cherkley Court, Mickleham; he had been sexually assaulted and strangled. The murder remained unsolved for more than 30 years, until advances in DNA analysis linked forensic evidence from the original investigation to Brian Lunn Field, a convicted sex offender whose DNA had been recorded after a later arrest. Field pleaded guilty to Tutill's murder at the Old Bailey in November 2001 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The case demonstrated how advances in forensic science could solve historic murders decades after the crime.
The Murder of Mark Tildesley	1	June 1, 1984 (1984-06-01) Wokingham, Berkshire, England	Seven-year-old Mark Tildesley disappeared while visiting a funfair in Wokingham. A major search and national publicity campaign failed to locate him, and his disappearance became one of Britain's most prominent missing-child cases, featuring on the BBC's newly launched Crimewatch UK programme. In 1990, an investigation into child abuse uncovered evidence that Tildesley had been abducted and killed by members of a paedophile gang associated with Sidney Cooke. Leslie Bailey pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1992 and was sentenced to life imprisonment; however, Cooke and other alleged participants were not convicted in connection with Tildesley's death. Tildesley's body has never been recovered, and the case remains a notorious unsolved child murder.
The Murder of James Bulger	1	February 12, 1993 (1993-02-12) Merseyside, England	Two-year-old James Bulger was abducted from the New Strand Shopping Centre in Bootle, Merseyside, by two 10-year-old boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. They led him away from the shopping centre and walked him approximately two and a half miles to a railway line, where they murdered him. His body was discovered on the railway line two days later. Thompson and Venables were convicted of murder in November 1993 and became the youngest people convicted of murder in England and Wales in modern times.
The Murder of Stephen Lawrence	1	April 12, 1993 (1993-04-12) London, England	18-year-old Black student Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in an unprovoked, racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Eltham, southeast London. The initial Metropolitan Police investigation was heavily criticised for its failures. A subsequent public inquiry, led by Sir William Macpherson, concluded in 1999 that the Metropolitan Police was institutionally racist and made 70 recommendations for reform. In 2012, Gary Dobson and David Norris were convicted of Lawrence's murder following the discovery of new forensic evidence. The case led to significant changes in British policing and criminal justice, including changes to the law on double jeopardy and the investigation of racially motivated crimes.
The Murder of Richard Everitt	1	August 13, 1994 (1994-08-13) London, England	15-year-old Richard Everitt was stabbed to death in Somers Town, north London, while walking with two friends. The attack followed tensions between local youths and was reportedly carried out by a group seeking revenge against another teenager; police initially investigated whether the killing had a racist motive, although the Metropolitan Police later stated that the evidence did not establish it as a racist killing. In November 1995, Badrul Miah was convicted of conspiracy to murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 12 years. Showat Akbar was convicted of violent disorder and sentenced to three years' detention, while Abdul Hai was acquitted after the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence against him. The identity of the person who inflicted the fatal stab wound was not established at trial.
The Murder of Daniel Handley	1	October 2, 1994 (1994-10-02) Hungerford, Berkshire, England	Nine-year-old Daniel Handley was abducted while fixing his bicycle in Beckton, east London, by Timothy Morss and Brett Tyler. He was sexually assaulted and strangled, and his body was buried in woodland near Bradley Stoke, South Gloucestershire, where his remains were discovered in March 1995. Morss and Tyler were convicted of his murder at the Old Bailey in May 1996 and sentenced to life imprisonment. The case attracted particular attention because the men had targeted a child to fulfil their shared sexual fantasies, and both had previous convictions for sexual offences against children. In 2002, the two men were among four child murderers assigned 50-year minimum terms by the Home Secretary; the policy was subsequently challenged in court, reinforcing that decisions on minimum terms for life prisoners must be made through the judicial process.
The Murder of Victoria Climbié	1	February 25, 2000 (2000-02-25) London, England	Victoria Climbie was an eight-year-old girl who after being taken to North Middlesex University Hospital in Edmonton, London suffering from malnutrition and hypothermia. Originally from the Ivory Coast, Victoria was taken to first Paris then London by her aunt Marie Thérèse Kouao in a form of informal foster care common in her society. In July 1999, they moved in with Kouao's partner Carl Manning. Over the following months, Victoria experienced severe abuse and was twice admitted to hospital. The couple believed in Witchcraft and that Victoria was demonically possessed. After her death, Kouao and Manning were found guilty of her murder in January 2001. The authorities were accused of failing to sufficiently intervene to protect the girl.
The Murder of Danielle Jones	1	June 18, 2001 (2001-06-18) East Tilbury, Essex, England	15-year-old Danielle Jones disappeared while walking to a bus stop near her home in East Tilbury, Essex, on her way to school. Her uncle, Stuart Campbell, became the focus of the investigation after forensic evidence linked him to her disappearance. Investigators also used mobile-phone records and forensic authorship analysis to challenge a text message Campbell claimed Danielle had sent after she vanished, helping establish that he had attempted to make it appear she was still alive. In December 2002, Campbell was convicted of abducting and murdering Danielle despite her body never having been found. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, with a concurrent 10-year sentence for abduction, and was later given a minimum term of 20 years before parole consideration. The case became a notable example of a murder conviction secured without recovery of the victim's body and highlighted the growing role of digital evidence in criminal investigations. Danielle's remains have never been found.
The Murder of Sarah Payne	1	July 1, 2000 (2000-07-01) Kingston Gorse, West Sussex, England	Eight-year-old Sarah Payne was abducted while playing near her grandparents' home in. Her partially buried body was discovered 16 days later in a field near Pulborough. Roy Whiting, a convicted sex offender, was arrested and subsequently convicted of her abduction and murder in December 2001, receiving a life sentence with a recommendation that he never be released. The case generated extensive national media coverage and led to the campaign for "Sarah's Law", which called for greater public access to information about convicted sex offenders.
The Killing of Damilola Taylor	1	November 27, 2000 (2000-11-27) Peckham, London, England	10-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor was attacked with a broken bottle while walking home from school. He suffered a severed artery in his thigh and died from blood loss. After an initial trial ended without convictions, new forensic evidence led to a retrial. In 2006, brothers Ricky and Danny Preddie were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in youth custody. The case became one of Britain's most high-profile child killings and prompted wider discussion about youth violence and knife crime.
The Murder of Milly Dowler	1	March 21, 2002 (2002-03-21) Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England	13-year-old Milly Dowler disappeared while walking home from school. Her body was discovered in September in woodland near Yateley, Hampshire. In 2011, former nightclub bouncer Levi Bellfield was convicted of her abduction and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The case later became closely associated with the News of the World's phone-hacking scandal after the newspaper illegally accessed Milly's voicemail during the search for her. In June 2011, Levi Bellfield was convicted of her abduction and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole-life tariff. The case later became closely associated with the News of the World phone-hacking scandal after journalists unlawfully accessed Milly's voicemail while she was missing, with the incident becoming a major focus of the subsequent parliamentary investigation into phone hacking.
The Soham murders	2	August 4, 2002 (2002-08-04) Soham, Cambridgeshire, England	10-year-old schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman disappeared after leaving a family barbecue in Soham, Cambridgeshire. Their bodies were discovered 13 days later in a ditch near RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Ian Huntley, a local school caretaker, was subsequently charged with their murders and convicted in December 2003, receiving two life sentences. The subsequent Bichard Inquiry found serious failures in the recording, management and sharing of police information and in the vetting of people working with children. Its recommendations led to significant changes to police intelligence and child-protection procedures.
The Chohan family murders	5	February 15, 2003 (2003-02-15) London, England	Five members of the Chohan family—businessman Amarjit Chohan, his wife Nancy, their two young sons and Nancy's mother Charanjit Kaur—were kidnapped and murdered in London by a criminal gang. The gang intended to take control of Amarjit's freight company and use it for drug trafficking. Three of the victims' bodies were later recovered after being dumped at sea, but the bodies of the two children were never found. Kenneth Regan and William Horncy were convicted of all five murders and given whole-life orders, while Peter Rees was convicted of Amarjit's murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The case resulted in an eight-month trial, then the longest murder trial in Metropolitan Police history.
The Killing of Peter Connelly	1	August 3, 2007 (2007-08-03) London, England	Peter Connelly was a 17-month-old infant who was found dead in his family home in Haringey, North London on 3 August 2007. Peter had suffered serious injuries prior to his death including a broken back, fractured ribs and a blow to the face which knocked a tooth out of his jaw. The boy had various interactions with the authorities in the months prior to his death including being briefly taken out of his mother's custody at the end of 2006. His mother Tracey Connelly, stepfathAugust 3, 2007 (2007-08-03) er Steven Barker and stepuncle Jason Owen who were all members of the same household at the time of Peter's death were found guilty of causing his death in November 2008.
The Murder of Rhys Jones	1	August 22, 2007 (2007-08-22) Croxteth, Liverpool, England	11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead while walking home from football practice in Croxteth, Liverpool. He was struck by a stray bullet fired by 16-year-old Sean Mercer, who was shooting at members of a rival gang outside the Fir Tree pub. The killing prompted widespread national attention and a major police investigation, with appeals on Crimewatch helping investigators gather information about the gunman. Mercer was convicted of murder at Liverpool Crown Court in December 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 22 years. Several others were convicted of assisting an offender for helping Mercer evade the police after the shooting. The case became a national symbol of the impact of gun crime and gang violence on innocent bystanders and led to campaigns against gun violence in Liverpool.
The Murder of April Jones	1	October 1, 2012 (2012-10-01) Powys, Wales	April Jones was a five-year-old girl from Machynlleth, Powys who disappeared after being allowed outside to play without adult supervision and a child witness said that April had climbed into a van voluntarily. The search conducted by police and volunteers to find the girl in the months after her disappearance was the largest police search in British history but achieved no results. Various evidence led to Mark Bridger being suspected of murdering April, particularly the discovery of traces of her DNA in the man's wood-burner. He was found guilty of murdering April Jones in May 2013.
The Murder of Breck Bednar	1	February 17, 2014 (2014-02-17) Grays, Essex, England	In February 2014, 14-year-old Breck Bednar was murdered at a flat in Grays, Essex, after being groomed online by 18-year-old Lewis Daynes, whom he had met through online gaming. Daynes had gradually manipulated Bednar and encouraged him to visit his flat, where he was fatally stabbed. Daynes pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment in January 2015, with a minimum term of 25 years. The sentencing judge found that the murder was driven by sexual or sadistic motivation. The case received widespread attention because of the role of online grooming and gaming communities, and was later examined by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The Murder of Becky Watts	1	February 19, 2015 (2015-02-19) Bristol, England	In February 2015, 16-year-old Becky Watts was murdered at her home in Bristol by her stepbrother Nathan Matthews during an attempted kidnapping. Matthews subsequently concealed and dismembered her body, which was discovered in a shed in Barton Court after a major police investigation. Matthews was convicted of murder and conspiracy to kidnap and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 33 years. His girlfriend Shauna Hoare was convicted of manslaughter and conspiracy to kidnap and sentenced to 17 years in prison. Both Matthews and Hoare subsequently lost their appeals against their convictions and sentences.
The Murder of Alesha MacPhail	1	July 2, 2018 (2018-07-02) Rothesay, Bute, Scotland	Alesha MacPhail was a 6-year-old schoolgirl from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland who was reported missing from her grandparents' home on the Isle of Bute at 6:25am on 2 July 2018. She was staying with her father, Robert, and her grandparents, Calum and Angela MacPhail. It is claimed that Alesha's mother, Georgina Lochrane, 23, who could not be contacted immediately after Alesha went miJuly 2, 2018 (2018-07-02)ssing, found out about her daughter's disappearance and later death on the social media platform Facebook. Alesha's body was found in woodland on the site of an abandoned hotel, around 20 minutes walk from her grandparents' home. 16-year-old Aaron Campbell was eventually arrested and charged with Alesha's abduction, rape and murder and sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in jail.
The Murder of Arthur Lambinjo-Hughes	1	June 17, 2020 (2020-06-17) West Midlands, England	Arthur Lambinjo-Hughes was a 6-year-old boy living in Shirley, Metropolitan Borough of Solihull who was murdered by his stepmother. Arthur had been living a somewhat troubled life over a couple of years. During restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, his carers Thomas Hughes (father) and Emma Tustin's (stepmother) behaviour towards him became increasingly abusive causing his physical condition to deteriorate. On 16 June 2020, his stepmother killed him through a severe assault to his head. Tustin and Hughes were later convicted of murder and manslaughter respectively along with other charges.

Individual murders

Murder is the unlawful killing of another person without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought.

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Name of incident	No. of deaths	Date/Location	Details
The Red Barn Murder	1	1827 Polstead, Suffolk, England	In May 1827, Maria Marten disappeared after travelling to the Red Barn at Polstead, Suffolk, with her lover William Corder. Her body was discovered buried beneath the floor of the barn the following year, after her stepmother claimed to have repeatedly dreamed that Maria had been murdered and buried there. Corder was arrested, tried at Bury St Edmunds in August 1828, convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Bury St Edmunds on 11 August 1828.
The Murder of Lord William Russell	1	May 5, 1840 (1840-05-05) London, England	72-year-old Lord William Russell, a retired politician and uncle of future prime minister Lord John Russell, was murdered in his bed at his home in London. His throat had been cut, and his valet, François Benjamin Courvoisier, initially suggested that the house had been burgled. Investigators later found evidence connecting Courvoisier to the crime, and he was convicted of murder at the Central Criminal Court in June 1840. He confessed to the killing and was publicly hanged outside Newgate Prison on 6 July 1840. The case attracted widespread public attention and became associated with early discussion of forensic identification, after a doctor suggested that fingerprint evidence could help solve crimes, although fingerprinting did not become routine police practice until decades later.
The Murder of Gay Gibson	1	October 18, 1947 (1947-10-18) Off the coast of Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau)	21-year-old actress Eileen "Gay" Gibson disappeared during a voyage from South Africa to Southampton aboard the MV Durban Castle. Ship's steward James Camb admitted that he had pushed Gibson's body through the porthole of her cabin into the Atlantic Ocean, but claimed that she had died suddenly during consensual sex and denied murdering her. Gibson's body was never recovered, but Camb was tried for murder at Winchester in March 1948 and convicted after a four-day trial. He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was released on licence in 1959.
The Lord Lucan case	1	November 8, 1974 (1974-11-08) Belgravia, London, England	Sandra Rivett, the nanny to the children of Lord Lucan, was murdered at the Lucan family's home in Belgravia, London. Lady Lucan was also attacked but survived and identified her estranged husband as her assailant. Lucan disappeared shortly afterwards and was never seen again. A 1975 inquest jury found that Rivett had been murdered by Lord Lucan, although he was never tried or convicted and the Metropolitan Police continues to treat the killing as an unsolved murder. In February 2016, the High Court granted a declaration of presumed death for Lucan, more than 40 years after his disappearance.
The White House Farm murders	5	August 6, 1985 (1985-08-06) Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex, England	Nevill and June Bamber, their adopted daughter Sheila Caffell and her six-year-old twin sons, Daniel and Nicholas, were shot dead at White House Farm near Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex. Police initially believed that Caffell had killed her parents and children before taking her own life, but the investigation later focused on her adopted brother Jeremy Bamber. Bamber was convicted of five counts of murder at Chelmsford Crown Court in October 1986 and was sentenced to life imprisonment; his convictions were upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2002, and he was subsequently made subject to a whole-life order. The case has remained controversial, with Bamber maintaining his innocence and successive challenges examining disputed forensic evidence, including the rifle silencer and blood found on it.
The Newall Murders	2	October 10, 1987 (1987-10-10) Island of Jersey	Nicholas and Elizabeth Newall were bludgeoned to death at their home in St Brelade, Jersey, following a family argument. Their sons, Roderick and Mark Newall, concealed their parents’ bodies in shallow graves and subsequently left the island. The murders remained unsolved for almost six years, during which the brothers obtained an inheritance after their parents were legally presumed dead. The case was eventually reopened after Roderick confessed to his uncle, and the bodies were discovered in woodland on the island in November 1993. Roderick pleaded guilty to both murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment in August 1994. His younger brother Mark was convicted of helping to conceal the crime and received a six-year prison sentence.
The Killing of Rachel Nickell	1	July 15, 1992 (1992-07-15) Wimbledon Common, London, England	23-year-old Rachel Nickell was stabbed 49 times and sexually assaulted while walking with her two-year-old son on Wimbledon Common, south-west London. Police initially focused on Colin Stagg, who was charged with her murder after an undercover "honey trap" operation attempted to obtain evidence against him; the case collapsed in 1994 when a judge ruled the evidence inadmissible, and Stagg was later formally recognised as completely innocent. A later investigation identified Robert Napper through DNA evidence, and in December 2008 he pleaded guilty to her manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility and was ordered to remain detained indefinitely at Broadmoor Hospital. The case became one of Britain's most controversial murder investigations because of the wrongful prosecution of Stagg and the subsequent revelations of police failures that had allowed Napper to remain at large.
The Murder of Stephen Cameron	1	May 19, 1996 (1996-05-19) M25 motorway, Greater London, England	21-year-old electrician Stephen Cameron was stabbed to death during a road-rage confrontation at the M25/A20 interchange near Swanley, Kent. Cameron had been travelling in a van with his girlfriend Danielle Cable when Kenneth Noye's Land Rover cut across their path, leading to a confrontation in which Noye stabbed Cameron with a knife before fleeing the scene. Noye fled Britain and was eventually traced to Spain, where he was arrested in 1998 and later extradited to the United Kingdom. In April 2000, Noye was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey by an 11–1 majority verdict and sentenced to life imprisonment; his claim that he had acted in self-defence was rejected. His conviction was subsequently challenged but was upheld by the Court of Appeal in 2011.
The Murder of Jill Dando	1	April 26, 1999 (1999-04-26) Fulham, London, England	37-year-old BBC television presenter Jill Dando was shot once in the head on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, west London. The murder prompted one of the Metropolitan Police's largest investigations and attracted extensive national attention, but the perpetrator has never been identified. Barry George was convicted of Dando's murder in 2001 and sentenced to life imprisonment, but his conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal in 2007 after fresh forensic evidence cast doubt on the firearms-residue evidence used at his trial. Following a retrial in 2008, George was unanimously acquitted. No one has been convicted of Dando's murder since, and the case remains unsolved.
The Murder of Rachel Moran	1	January 1, 2003 (2003-01-01) Kingston upon Hull, England	21-year-old Irish-born Rachel Moran, a dance and cabaret student at Hull College, disappeared while walking home from her parents’ house in Hull after New Year celebrations. Her body was discovered 28 days later, concealed in a cupboard in a flat on the Orchard Park estate, close to the home she shared with her boyfriend. She had been stabbed more than 20 times. Her neighbour, Michael Little, was arrested after police searched nearby properties during the extensive investigation. He was convicted of murder at Hull Crown Court in October 2003 and sentenced to life imprisonment; during the trial, he attempted to blame the killing on a friend, but the jury rejected his account. The disappearance triggered a major search by Humberside Police and attracted extensive national attention before Moran’s body was found.
The Murder of Sally Anne Bowman	1	September 25, 2005 (2005-09-25) Croydon, London, England	18-year-old aspiring model and hairdresser Sally Anne Bowman was raped and murdered outside her home in Croydon, south London. She had been stabbed seven times, and her body was found in the driveway of her home. The investigation initially involved a large-scale voluntary DNA screening programme, with around 1,700 men providing samples, but the killer was identified only after a DNA match in June 2006. Mark Dixie, a former pub chef who had been arrested following a pub brawl, was identified through a match between his DNA and forensic evidence recovered from Bowman. He was convicted of her murder at the Old Bailey in February 2008 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 34 years. The case attracted national attention because of the role of DNA profiling in solving the murder and the questions it raised about the retention and use of DNA profiles from people arrested but not convicted of offences.
The Murder of Sophie Lancaster	1	August 11, 2007 (2007-08-11) Bacup, Lancashire, England	20-year-old Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, were attacked by a group of teenagers in Stubbylee Park, Bacup, Lancashire, because of their gothic appearance. Both suffered severe head injuries, and Lancaster died in hospital 13 days later. The attack prompted widespread condemnation and became a prominent example of violence against people associated with alternative subcultures. Ryan Herbert pleaded guilty to murder, while Brendan Harris was convicted after trial; both were sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2008. The judge described the killing as a hate crime, stating that the couple had been targeted because their appearance was different from that of their attackers. The case led to the establishment of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation, which campaigns against prejudice and violence directed at alternative subcultures.
The Murder of Joanna Yeates	1	December 25, 2010 (2010-12-25) Clifton, Bristol, England	25-year-old landscape architect Joanna Yeates disappeared after returning to her flat in Clifton, Bristol. Her body was discovered on Christmas Day in a roadside verge near Failand, eight days after she was last seen; a post-mortem examination established that she had been strangled. Her neighbour Vincent Tabak was arrested in January 2011 and subsequently convicted of murder at Bristol Crown Court in October. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years. The case attracted extensive national and international media attention and became one of Britain's most prominent murder investigations of the early 2010s.
The Murder of Lee Rigby	1	May 22, 2013 (2013-05-22) London, England	25-year-old Fusilier Lee Rigby was murdered in Woolwich, southeast London, while returning to his barracks after working at the Tower of London. He was struck by a car before being attacked with knives and a cleaver by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who were subsequently convicted of his murder. Adebolajo and Adebowale were found guilty at the Old Bailey in December 2013, in what prosecutors described as a terrorist murder motivated by Islamist extremism. The killing prompted widespread national condemnation and led the Government to establish an Extremism Task Force and introduce further measures aimed at tackling extremism and radicalisation.
The Murder of Jo Cox	1	June 16, 2016 (2016-06-16) Birstall, West Yorkshire, England	Jo Cox, the Labour Member of Parliament for Batley and Spen, was shot and stabbed outside a library in Birstall, West Yorkshire, while preparing to hold a constituency surgery. Thomas Mair, a far-right extremist, was arrested at the scene and subsequently convicted of her murder, as well as causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Bernard Carter-Kenny, a pensioner who had attempted to intervene. Mair was sentenced to a whole-life order, meaning he would never be eligible for release except in exceptional circumstances. The murder took place during the 2016 European Union referendum campaign and was described in court as a terrorist act inspired by extreme right-wing ideology. It prompted widespread national condemnation and renewed scrutiny of the safety and security of elected representatives.
The Murder of Joy Morgan	1	December 26, 2018 (2018-12-26) London, England	20-year-old Joy Morgan, a midwifery student at the University of Hertfordshire, was last seen at a church gathering in Ilford, east London. She disappeared after spending time with fellow church member Shohfah-El Israel, who initially lied to police about his movements and her whereabouts. Israel was convicted of her murder at Reading Crown Court in August 2019 and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum term of 17 years. At the time of his conviction, Morgan's body had not been found, despite extensive police searches. In October 2019, a dog walker discovered her remains concealed beneath logs in woodland near Stevenage, Hertfordshire; a subsequent inquest was unable to establish the precise medical cause of death. In July 2026, the Court of Appeal refused Israel permission to appeal his conviction, ruling that the post-mortem evidence obtained after the discovery of Morgan's body did not undermine the safety of the jury's verdict.
The Murder of Sarah Everard	1	March 4, 2021 (2021-03-04) London and Kent, England	33-year-old Sarah Everard was abducted while walking home from a friend's house in south London by Wayne Couzens, a serving Metropolitan Police officer. Couzens used his police warrant card and handcuffs to falsely detain her, before driving her to Kent, where he raped and murdered her. Everard's remains were discovered in woodland near Ashford on 10 March. Couzens pleaded guilty to kidnapping and rape in June 2021 and to murder in July, and was sentenced to a whole-life order in September 2021. The murder caused widespread public concern about violence against women and girls and confidence in the police. The subsequent Angiolini Inquiry identified significant missed opportunities and failures in the vetting and scrutiny of Couzens before he committed the murder, leading to recommendations for changes to police recruitment, vetting and the handling of sexual offences.
The Murder of David Amess	1	October 15, 2012 (2012-10-15) Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England	Conservative MP David Amess was fatally stabbed during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. His killer was Ali Harbi Ali, a British Islamic State sympathiser, who was arrested at the scene. In April 2022, Ali was convicted of murder and the preparation of terrorist acts, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order.
The Murder of Holly Bramley	1	March 17, 2023 (2023-03-17) Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England	26-year-old Holly Bramley was stabbed to death by her husband, Nicholas Metson, at their flat in Lincoln. Metson concealed her remains in the flat before dismembering her body and dumping the remains in the River Witham with the assistance of his friend Joshua Hancock. Most of Bramley's remains were recovered, although some were never found. Metson pleaded guilty to murder in 2024 and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 19 years and 316 days. The case subsequently received further attention through campaigns by Bramley's family for a national register of animal abusers, following evidence of Metson's previous abuse of animals.

Spree killings

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Name of incident	No. of deaths	Date/Location	Details
The Hungerford massacre	16	August 19, 1987 (1987-08-19)1987 Savernake Forest, Wiltshire Hungerford, Berkshire, England	27-year-old Michael Robert Ryan shoots multiple people including his own mother and a police officer before dying of suicide. No motive was ever established.
The Dunblane massacre	18	March 13, 1996 (1996-03-13) Dunblane, Stirling Scotland	Thomas Hamilton shoot dead 16 school children and their teacher before dying of suicide. Hamilton had been the subject of several complaints to police regarding inappropriate behaviour towards young boys, including claims that he had taken photographs of semi-naked boys. It remains the deadliest mass shooting in British history.
The Cumbria shootings	14	June 2, 2010 (2010-06-02) 30 sites throughout West Cumbria, England	Taxi driver Derrick Bird killed 12 people including his twin brother and two other people known to Bird. Bird shot a further 11 who survived with injuries. He died of suicide while being hunted by the police. No motive was formally established, but there has been speculation that Bird may have had a grudge against people associated with the Sellafield nuclear site where he had worked as a joiner. Bird was being investigated by HM Revenue and Customs at the time of the shooting.
The Plymouth shooting	6	August 12, 2021 (2021-08-12) Keyham, Plymouth, Devon, England	22-year-old Jake Davison from Plymouth, shot and killed five people, including his mother and a 3-year-old girl. Davison also injured two others before fatally shooting himself. A source close to the family said that Davison had recently deteriorated after suffering from mental health problems for most of his life, and that his mother was "begging for help from the authorities but nobody did a welfare check". Videos uploaded to YouTube by Davison included references to "inceldom", the black pill worldview and general nihilism. In his last video, Davison described himself as "beaten down and defeated by life".
The 2024 Southport stabbings	3	July 29, 2024 (2024-07-29) Hart Street, Southport, Merseyside, England	On 29 July 2024, 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana attacked children and adults with a knife at a dance class at the Hart Space community centre in Southport, Merseyside. Three girls, six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar, were killed, while eight other children and two adults were injured. Rudakubana was charged with three counts of murder and ten counts of attempted murder and, in January 2025, pleaded guilty to all charges. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 52 years, less time spent on remand. The Attorney General subsequently declined to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal, noting that the 52-year minimum term was the second-longest sentence imposed by an English court. The attack prompted a major public inquiry, which examined the circumstances leading up to the attack and identified lessons concerning the handling of Rudakubana by the Prevent system and other agencies.

Serial killings

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Name of incident	No. of deaths	Date/Location	Details
The William Burke and William Hare murders	16	1828 Edinburgh, Scotland	etween 1827 and 1828, William Burke and William Hare murdered at least 16 people in Edinburgh, Scotland, selling their victims' bodies to anatomist Robert Knox for dissection. The murders were committed against people who were often poor or vulnerable, with many victims suffocated before their bodies were taken to Knox's anatomy school. The discovery of their final victim, Margaret Docherty, led to the men's arrest, and Hare turned King's evidence in exchange for immunity. Burke was convicted of Docherty's murder at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, sentenced to death and hanged on 28 January 1829; his body was subsequently publicly dissected. The case caused widespread public outrage and helped expose the shortage of legally obtained cadavers for anatomical study, contributing to the passage of the Anatomy Act 1832, which expanded the lawful supply of bodies for medical dissection.
The Mary Ann Cotton case	21	1865–1873 Sunderland, England	Mary Ann Cotton was an English woman suspected of poisoning numerous members of her family and household with arsenic during the 1850s and 1860s. She was eventually arrested after the death of her seven-year-old stepson, Charles Edward Cotton, in West Auckland, County Durham, in 1872; an examination of his remains found arsenic, prompting the investigation into other suspicious deaths connected with Cotton. Cotton was tried at Durham Assizes in March 1873 and convicted of the wilful murder of Charles Edward Cotton. She was sentenced to death and hanged at Durham County Gaol on 24 March 1873. Although she was convicted of only one murder, Cotton has subsequently been suspected of killing as many as 21 people, including children, husbands and other relatives, making her one of Britain's most notorious alleged female serial killers.
The Jack the Ripper murders	5	1888 Whitechapel, London, England	Between August and November 1888, a series of murders was committed in the Whitechapel and Spitalfields districts of London's East End. Five victims—Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly—are generally regarded as the "canonical five" and were linked by police and later historians to the unidentified killer known as Jack the Ripper. The murders, several of which involved throat-cutting and mutilation, generated widespread public fear and attracted enormous press attention, while the Metropolitan Police conducted a major investigation involving hundreds of officers and received numerous letters claiming to have been written by the killer. Despite the extensive investigation, the murderer was never identified or brought to trial. Other murders in the Whitechapel area have subsequently been attributed to Jack the Ripper, but there is no certainty that they were committed by the same person.
The John Christie murders	8+	1943–1953 Notting Hill, London, England	Between 1943 and 1953, John Reginald Halliday Christie murdered at least six women at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, London, including his wife Ethel Christie. Several victims' bodies were concealed inside the property or buried in the communal garden. The case became particularly notorious because Christie was a key prosecution witness against his neighbour Timothy Evans, who was convicted and executed in 1950 for the murder of his infant daughter Geraldine. After Christie was arrested in 1953, the discovery of further bodies at 10 Rillington Place raised serious doubts about Evans's conviction and Christie's role in the deaths of Evans's wife Beryl and daughter. Christie was convicted of murdering Ethel Christie and hanged at Pentonville Prison on 15 July 1953. In 2004, the High Court described Evans's conviction as one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice and concluded that there was no credible case that he had murdered either his wife or daughter.
The Moors murders	5	1963–1965 Manchester, England	Between July 1963 and October 1965, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley murdered five children in and around Manchester: Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans. The victims were aged between 10 and 17, and the bodies of four were eventually found, with the remains of Keith Bennett still undiscovered. Brady was convicted in 1966 of murdering Kilbride, Downey and Evans, while Hindley was convicted of murdering Downey and Evans and of being an accessory after the fact to Kilbride's murder. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1985 Brady confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett, and Hindley subsequently admitted involvement in all five killings. The discovery of Reade's remains on Saddleworth Moor in 1987 confirmed her death, while Bennett's body has never been found. The case became one of the most notorious series of child murders in British criminal history and generated sustained public debate over sentencing, parole and the treatment of life prisoners.
The Bible John case	3	1968–1969 Glasgow, Scotland	Between February 1968 and October 1969, three women—25-year-old Patricia Docker, 31-year-old Jemima McDonald and 29-year-old Helen Puttock—were murdered in Glasgow after visiting the Barrowland Ballroom. The three killings were linked by police and attributed to an unidentified serial killer who became known as "Bible John" after witnesses reported that he quoted the Bible and condemned adultery. The investigation became one of the largest manhunts in Scottish criminal history, with thousands of people questioned, but the killer was never identified and the murders remain unsolved. Following the conviction of serial killer Peter Tobin for three unrelated murders between 2007 and 2009, investigators examined whether he could have been Bible John. Police subsequently stated that Tobin had been eliminated as a suspect.
The Peter Sutcliffe murders	13	1975–1980 West Yorkshire, England	Between 1975 and 1980, Peter Sutcliffe murdered 13 women and attempted to murder seven others across Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. His attacks created widespread fear across northern England and became the subject of one of the largest criminal investigations ever conducted by a British police force. Sutcliffe was arrested in Sheffield in January 1981 and subsequently confessed to the killings. At his trial at the Old Bailey in May 1981, he was convicted of 13 counts of murder and seven counts of attempted murder and sentenced to 20 concurrent life sentences, with a recommendation that he serve at least 30 years. In 2010, the High Court ruled that Sutcliffe should never be released, and the Court of Appeal upheld the whole-life order in 2011. The investigation was subsequently criticised for serious failures, including the way police handled information and suspects during the five-year manhunt.
The Dennis Nilsen killings	12-15	1978–1983 Muswell Hill, London, England	Between December 1978 and January 1983, Dennis Nilsen murdered young men and boys at his homes in north London. Nilsen later confessed to killing 15 people, although he subsequently claimed that three of the victims he had originally described were fictitious; eight victims have been identified, while the identities of several others remain unknown. His crimes were discovered in February 1983 when a blocked drain at his flat in Muswell Hill was found to contain human remains. Nilsen was arrested shortly afterwards and confessed to numerous killings. At the Old Bailey in 1983, Nilsen was convicted of six counts of murder and two of attempted murder and sentenced to life imprisonment, with a recommendation that he serve at least 25 years. His sentence was subsequently converted to a whole-life tariff, meaning that he was never eligible for release.
The Fred and Rose West House of Horrors case	13+	1973–1987 Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England	ed and Rose West were responsible for a series of murders in Gloucestershire between the late 1960s and 1987, many of which involved young women and girls and took place at their homes in Gloucester. In February 1994, police began excavating the garden and cellar of 25 Cromwell Street after investigating the disappearance of their daughter Heather West. The investigation uncovered the remains of nine people at the property, while further victims were subsequently discovered at other locations. Fred West was charged with multiple murders but committed suicide in prison on 1 January 1995 before he could stand trial. Rose West was subsequently tried at Winchester Crown Court and convicted in November 1995 of ten murders, receiving ten life sentences with a whole-life tariff. The case became one of Britain's most notorious serial murder investigations, with the discovery of the bodies at 25 Cromwell Street attracting extensive national and international attention.
The Beverley Allitt case	4	1991 Grantham, Lincolnshire, England	Between February and April 1991, nurse Beverley Allitt attacked 13 children on the children's ward at Grantham and Kesteven General Hospital in Lincolnshire, killing four and seriously injuring nine others. The attacks included deliberate injections of insulin and air, causing children to suffer hypoglycaemia and air embolisms. Allitt was arrested in November 1991 and, following a trial at Lincoln Crown Court, was convicted in May 1993 of four murders, three attempted murders and six charges of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. She was sentenced to 13 life sentences and recommended to serve at least 40 years in prison. An independent inquiry chaired by Sir Cecil Clothier QC subsequently examined the deaths and injuries and found failures in hospital management, staffing, supervision and the handling of unexpected clinical incidents, making 13 recommendations for changes to NHS procedures.
The Harold Shipman case	15 convicted, possibly up to 250	1975–1998 Hyde, Greater Manchester, England	Between 1975 and 1998, British general practitioner Harold Shipman murdered patients while working as a doctor in Todmorden and Hyde, Greater Manchester, administering lethal doses of diamorphine and disguising the deaths as natural causes. He was arrested in September 1998 after concerns arose over the death of Kathleen Grundy, whose forged will named Shipman as the sole beneficiary; the subsequent investigation uncovered evidence of numerous other suspicious deaths. Shipman was convicted at Preston Crown Court in January 2000 of murdering 15 patients and forging Grundy's will, receiving 15 concurrent life sentences and a recommendation that he remain imprisoned for life. A subsequent public inquiry concluded in 2002 that Shipman had killed at least 215 patients between 1975 and 1998, with the final inquiry later estimating that he had killed approximately 250 patients in total, making him one of the most prolific serial killers in British criminal history. The inquiry also identified serious failures in the systems for monitoring doctors, certifying deaths and investigating suspicious deaths, leading to major recommendations for reform of the coronial and death-certification systems.
The 2011 Stepping Hill Hospital poisoning incident	2 dead (injured 20)	June-July 2011 Stockport, Greater Manchester, England	Between June and July 2011, patients at Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport, Greater Manchester, were poisoned after insulin was deliberately injected into saline bags and ampoules used to treat patients. The contaminated products caused severe hypoglycaemia and resulted in the deaths of two patients, while numerous others were poisoned or seriously harmed. The investigation, known as Operation Roxburg, became one of Greater Manchester Police's largest and most complex investigations, initially leading to the wrongful arrest of another nurse, Rebecca Leighton, who was released after six weeks when investigators concluded she was not responsible. Staff nurse Victorino Chua was subsequently identified as the perpetrator and, in May 2015, was convicted of murdering two patients, poisoning 19 others and attempting to poison seven more. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 35 years. The case became one of Britain's most serious hospital poisoning incidents and highlighted the potential dangers of inadequate security and access controls over medicines and treatment areas.

Sex crimes

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Date	Name of perpetrator(s)	No. of deaths	Location	Details
1970s–1980s	Medomsley Detention Centre	Unknown	Durham, England	A prison for young male offenders where more than 1,800 living former inmates have reported sexual and physical abuse by staff. Many of the prison guards are believed to have belonged to a paedophile ring.
1955–2009	Jimmy Savile	Unknown	Various	Television personality who used his celebrity status as a BBC Television personality, to sexually abuse hundreds of children and young people over a fifty-year period, with his victims including audience members, patients at Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary, and inmates at Broadmoor Hospital. Crimes did not become publicly known until almost a year after his death in 2011.
2010	Derby child sex abuse ring	Unknown	Derby, Derbyshire, England	A group of men who sexually abused up to a hundred girls in Derby, in one of the most severe cases of sexual abuse in recent times. In 2010, after an undercover investigation by Derbyshire police, members of the group were charged with 75 offences relating to 26 girls. Nine of the 13 accused were convicted of grooming and raping girls between 12 and 18 years old. The attacks provoked fierce discussion about race and sexual exploitation.
2015-2017	Reynhard Sinaga	Unknown	Manchester, England	Serial rapist who lured his male victims to his home in Manchester and then drugged and raped or sexually assaulted them. Convicted of 159 assaults but thought to have been responsible for at least 206, Sinaga was described by the Crown Prosecution Service as the most prolific serial rapist in British legal history.

Organised crime, corporate crime, employment related crime, corruption, criminal conspiracies and terrorism

Further information: Corruption in the United Kingdom, Gangs in the United Kingdom, List of terrorist incidents in Great Britain, and List of killings by law enforcement officers in the United Kingdom

See also

• List of heists in the United Kingdom
• List of unsolved murders in the United Kingdom
• Terrorism in the United Kingdom

References

• Flanders, Judith (2011). The Invention of Murder. London: Harper Press. ISBN 978-0-00-724888-9.