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Brother of victim ‘horrified’ as killer Fergie aide flees open jail
Sri Carmichael, Consumer Affairs Reporter24 Nov 2009
The family of the man murdered by the Duchess of York's former aide told today of their shock at the killer's escape from jail.
Jane Andrews, 40, absconded from East Sutton Park in Kent on Sunday, four days after she was moved to the open prison.
Richard Cressman, whose brother Tom, 39, was killed by Andrews in 2000, said he was “horrified” she was on the run and condemned the decision to let her leave a higher security jail.
His mother, Barbara, 81, said she was “very upset” and had double-bolted her doors. Police patrols have been stepped up near her Kingston home.
Andrews was sentenced to life for bludgeoning her lover to death then stabbing him through the heart with a kitchen knife when he refused to marry her. She was due for parole in 2012.
Mr Cressman, 58, from Dorridge, in the West Midlands, said: “We are all naturally shocked and horrified. Knowing the very manipulative and devious nature of Jane Andrews as well as her violent nature, we felt it was just premature and inappropriate for her to be moved. Part of me feels like saying We told you so.' She is dangerous.”
He said wanted to meet Justice Secretary Jack Straw and tell him to take murder more seriously.
“[Ministers] are more concerned about rehabilitating offenders and getting them out of prison rather than protecting society. We have just got our values wrong.”
Prison officers noticed their highest-profile inmate was missing on Sunday. The authorities admit the last time Andrews was accounted for was 1pm that day. The escape is more shocking because she reportedly attempted suicide on Wednesday, hours after she arrived at the jail, and would have been expected to be on close watch.
Andrews was moved from HMP Send, near Woking, after claiming therapy had changed her. She was originally sentenced to 15 years in 2001 but that was later reduced to 12 on appeal. Andrews worked as dresser to the duchess until 1997. She owns a £600,000 flat in Battersea. She told inmates she planned to sell drawings of princesses Beatrice and Eugenie to fund her life after jail.
Former detective superintendent Jim Dickie, who led the initial murder case, said he was not surprised she had gone on the run, but questioned how she could have been able to do so.
He said: “Nothing that Jane Andrews does ever surprises me. She is totally disingenuous and very manipulative and this news doesn't really surprise me. How many weekends has she had to wander off? If it has been several then I would suggest she planned this.”
Reader views (20)
IN reply to Ferranti in London:
Unfortunately, when one kills for the motive of 'not marrying', they cannot expect the sympathy vote, mentally disturbed or not. If she was upset and depressed over it, she should have gone to see a psychiatrist, not kill him. And it was a very violent murder.
From what happened in the trial, it certainly sounded like he was trying to get out of the relationship and could not. I know of other men in similar situations and they live dreadful and fearful lives with women they do not want to be with and are afraid to leave them. These men feel foolish asking for help. Unless you have come across such a situation, it is hard to believe they exist.
It is one thing to feel sorry for the mentally disturbed, but quite another to have sympathy for them when they ruin other people's lives and kill for greed. I would prefer these people not be allowed back into society.
- Elaine, London and Massachusetts, 25/11/2009 15:54
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These cruel and vicious comments are horrible; is it just possible that this woman was deeply mentally disturbed and depressed by her common law husband's (she was living with him I think?) refusal to actually validate their relationship? I would imagine she felt deeply depressed over this. She is clearly not thinking straight to escape when she would almost certainly have got parole so soon anyway. I am deeply sorry for the Cresswell family but please let us not demonise this woman. Many men commit far worse crimes with less provocation.
- Ferranti, London UK, 25/11/2009 07:01
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Why are the Police, do-gooders, prison softies and other numpties worried about this 'vulnerable' person? She KILLED!!, and now she's escaped. Why are none of these idiots concerned about the relatives of her victim? Oh, sorry, I forgot, under Nu Labours crime policy, victims are just an inconvenience. The questions I would want answered are:
1. What was a murderer doing in an open prison?
2. Why did it take them so long to realise she had escaped?
3. Why, having killed this poor man, she only got 12 years?
4. When is the judiciary and governemnt going to realise that murder is a crime, and that life should mean that - life! , or, in exceptional circumstances at least 30 years.?
I hope, Jack Straw, you are reading this and can present some HONEST and TRUTHFUL answers.
- Joannie, Newham, London, 24/11/2009 19:56
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"There is no reason for women ever to receive a custodial sentence. If they have committed a violent crime, they probably had good reason for doing so and they pose no real danger to the public at large. - Bloke, Lambeth"
I trust you speak in jest. On the very off chance that you're serious, how does refusal to marry someone, under any circumstances, merit a grisly, violent death as in this case?
Plenty of the comments have been making their own unqualified psych/med diagnoses, injecting personal prejudices, and complaining about the government and its sentencing policies (ok, the latter may have a good point) - but when all is said and done it is unlikely that the prison service are entirely happy about an escape either, any more than they are when ANYone absconds.
Also, it has to be asked, why are the family so afraid of her? Has she made any threat against them - ever? Or is it just the paranoia brought on by shock/horror revelations (and perhaps leading questions from sometimes over zealous newshounds trying to flesh out a story)?
- Rogan, Irving, 24/11/2009 19:32
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one wonders why the deceased family does not start a civil action against her for compensation for the loss of his life? After all, if successful, she can pay from the value of the Battersea home. Hope they reconsider!
- Charles Absente, Jersey CI, 24/11/2009 18:41
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My heart goes out to the Cressman family. They have been grossly let down by the system. The authorites have more concern about Jane Andrews welfare than the family's feelings and the public's safety. It was very distressing to hear the authorities express their concerns for her welfare on TV. She is an expert con artist if she has been able to con them as well.
They seem to have forgotten that a young man was brutally murdered by a greedy evil woman he unwittingly let into to his life. He then paid with his life when he realised his mistake. This was not even a burglary gone wrong, as bad as that would be. This is worse.
It was marry me or I will kill you. A crime of greed and selfishness. A vicious crime of revenge. A mafia style crime of retaliation and they are worried about her welfare. It beggars belief. Not the usual crime seeking money for drugs or basic survival. She just decided she would kill her man because he would not marry her. She is very dangerous as Richard Cressman says. Anybody who could kill for that reason is very dangerous indeed.
I very much doubt her suicide attempts were genuine. They were a ruse to play the victim and gain sympathy to distract the authorities from her real intention--escape. And it worked. You might have guessed from my insight that I have come across one of these types before. They are very nasty indeed, dangerous and fool alot of people.
She is probably long gone by now and not even on continental Europe.
- Elaine, London and Massachusetts, 24/11/2009 16:21
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The establishment takes care of its own - even its own murderers....reduced sentence on appeal, open prisons, parole in 2012, all very soft. But they got had this time. Thanks guys - a lunatic on the run and an innocent family hurt and terrorised again. Well done.
- Digger, London, 24/11/2009 13:00
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The Liberal left have destroyed Britain in the last forty years,combine that with the present communist style government which we now have and we are left with a society thats bordering on anarchy,the LibLabCons have failed this once proud nation and brought it to its knees.
- General Lee Wright, Battered Britain Fried UK., 24/11/2009 12:49
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People like this are psychologically dangerous, as well as physically dangerous and the public must be warned. Is she a psychopath, a sociopath, have narcissistic personality disorder? It appears most will get violent if they do not get their way. Some do not appear to get violent, atleast not publicly. For instance, the general psychological assessment on Bernie Madoff is that he is a sociopath.
Can the public please have some guidelines from the government or psychiatric professional regarding what characteristics to look out for so we can be forwarned about these people?
Even the Prison Service appears to have been fooled by Jane Andrews. She fooled Tom Cressman initially to get him interested in her and then he could not get out of it. I know of other woman who act just like her, but the men they are living with or married to are too afraid to try to get out of the relationship for fear of what might happen. They have reason to be fearful. Poor Tom Cressman tried and look what happened to him.
- Elaine, London and Massachusetts, 24/11/2009 12:02
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If she was a nice person at heart who made a dreadful mistake, she'd have apologised to his family, kept her nose clean and been on good behaviour until 2012 and then got parole under the present system. As it is, she's harboured a grudge that she was wrongly accused, is above everyone else and has simmered all these years. Silly woman. No wonder the poor bloke refused to marry such an unsavoury character:he probably sensed he was being manipulated. She's made her own bed: she can lie in it.
- Janet, London, UK, 24/11/2009 11:54
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There is no reason for women ever to receive a custodial sentence. If they have committed a violent crime, they probably had good reason for doing so and they pose no real danger to the public at large.
- Bloke, Lambeth, 24/11/2009 11:25
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Prisons are made for inmates to walk out of now,
seems to me a very good idea it saves keeping them
and when out and on the run they can't caim anything, so saving the country money,ok to me
- Richard Edmunds, Rayleigh UK, 24/11/2009 10:52
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This story is incredible, a convicted murderess in an an open prison - Wow! It's long, long way from the death penalty.
- Patricia, London, 24/11/2009 10:50
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You can now literally 'get away with murder' in the U.K. What a farce! British justice, once the finest in the world, is now its laughing stock -- thanks to 12 years of slap-on-the-wrist goody-two-shoes 'lefties'!
- Phil Jones, London UK, 24/11/2009 10:13
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When are we going to hold the people accountable for these blunders? They appear to be un-affected by the mistakes they make in their careers, possibly it even enhances them. On what evidence do these so called experts decide that someone guilty of such an atrocious act of violence has actually become someone that is "safe" to re-integrate with society at large. The bottom line is they are dysfunctional in the extreme and cannot be accommodated in society with our current structures. They maybe a human being and provide interesting case studies for the medical profession, but not at the expense of the rest of society.
- Gilbert, Canterbury, 24/11/2009 09:53
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Poor woman, probably thought she was going to get a caution, imagine her shock, I'm surprised she did not launch a compensation claim.
- Steve M, London, 24/11/2009 09:34
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"... bludgeoning ... to death with a cricket bat then stabbing him through the heart ..."
A convicted murderess not even having spent 9 years in jail is moved to an open-air prison in preparation for her inevitable parole in 2012. Only 11 years for murder now!?!!
WTF????
Labour = tough for the victims of crime.
Just take the Law into your own hands, do not bother with the pathetic systems we now have because of the Liberal-Lefties.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 24/11/2009 09:04
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Given a so-called "life" sentence in 2001, and prepared for parole in 2012!
"Mrs Cressman said: 'I'm sure the police will catch her and then she's ruined her chances of getting out on parole, hasn't she?'"
Don't be too sure in the bonkers Britain of today!
- Croyboy, Croydon, 24/11/2009 08:32
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Yet another individual who out-smarted the shrinks . . .
- Roz, France, 24/11/2009 08:27
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Why does Life in Prison sentence only means 8 or 9 years in Jail ?
- Stan White, leeds, 24/11/2009 07:56
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