Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.

The brutal murder and mutilation of a disabled man leads police to 21-year-old Anthony Arkwright, a habitual local criminal who committed four murders in a spree.

over the august bank holiday weekend, 1988, the mining village of wath upon dearne in south  yorkshire England was rocked to its core.

the body of 25year old marcus wright  was discovered in his home.

he’d been  tortured and mutilated.

there were blood all over the place and  then he got cigarettes  stuck in his face.  in his eyes , his’ nostrils, he’s ears, mouth ,like a birthday cake.’ with canldes in.

 in  a final act of callousness ,the killer had inserted on of marcus’s own crutches  into his abdomen the cheer enormity of the violence used in this case is extreme,it is, to use that  word, truly evil.

the killer was 21 year old anthony arkwright.

over the coming days more bodies would be discovered in similarly horrific  circumstances.

he didnt  just kill his victims, he completely obliterated them , he humiliated them and he didn’t feel bad about  doing it , if anything  , he quite  enjoyed it

even the police were  wary of what  they might  discover next.

in less  than a week  four victims were discovered

Anthony arkwright had been revealed as one of the  world’s most evil killers

august 1988 ,wath upon dearne, south of yorkshire England,

late in the afternoon on the same day as disable resident marcus law  badly mutilated body  was discovered a neighbor anthony arkwright was arrested for  his killing .

just two days later  45 year old retired teacher  raymond ford was found brutally  murdered.

he´d been stabbed  250  times 

before his organs and intestines were removed and trailed  around his flat.

Blood splattered the hallway where Marcus had been slaughteredCredit: Courtesy of H2

marcus was  bad enough, cigarettes poking out of his gouged out eyes  and crutch  stuck into his  stomack, but this is worse,if it´s possible.there’s  virtual  no organ left  inside his body .

Arkwright butchered Raymond while wearing this devil maskCredit: Courtesy of H2

raymonds entrails are all around him, they’re in the bathroom, they’re ine the bedroom and they’re in the hallway

as arkwrights lawyer proclaimed his  clients innocence to the press, news of a second neighbor found  slaughtered after his arrest began to spread.

a wave of fear desdended on the community 

retired detective constable david winter discovered  the second victim 

the body was found while  anthony   arkwright were in custody . that gave credence to  the police ,they got a madman running loose at  wath. so everybody thining , it’s not him . it’s got to be somebody else.

there was more to come ,within days, two further victims were discovered

including arkwright own  grandfather .stasys puidokis

The killer bludgeoned him to death in a shed in his allotmentCredit: Courtesy of H2

 The impact of crimes like this on any  local  community are going to be devastating.because here’s somebody who has been in the area for a while  people know who he is. he’s a familiar face this sin’t some monster  that ‘s coming from the outside , it’s the evil witihn .

this killer story begins on 24th march 1967. anthony richard arkwright  wasborn in a row house in wath upon dearn  in south yorkshire.

 the son of a milkman,he was the middle  child of five  sibblings and his family life was disfunctional from  a very early age.

arkwright spent a lot  of his early years in and out of children’shomes and this  means that  he has a very  insecure attachment with  his caregivers

The killer spent 30 minutes murdering Mr Ford having taken off all his clothes (pictured)

so this is a child  who doesn’t feel secure , he doesn’t feel warm and what  that can sometimes translate  into is this kind of defensiveness, this sense  in which ‘ i can’t depend on  other  people its just me and i’ve got  to look after myself

arkwright struggled at school and  was teased by his peers  as  people began to  speculate about the true nature  of relationships within his family

he was bullied  at school because there were rumors that was completely untrue, that he was the result of an incestuous relationship between his mother and his grandfather .

 the reality is not  what counts  it’s what he thought and what he experienced  that was out there and the kids  thought it was truth and so he was teased a grat deal  and when an individual is teased  repetitively in childhood it affects them emotionally in  very significant ways.

Arkwright enjoyed killing and took his time over itCredit: Courtesy of H2

off the back of the bullying arkwright kind of retreats into himself, he spends a lot of time  on his own ,he’s a loner. and when people don’t have those social connections with others ,they ruminate,the spend a lot of time  thinking about things .

escpecially ,ways iwhich the’ve been wronged by  other  people , so youv’e got this undercurrence of rage ,that’s  developing  in him.

the resentment that young anthony arkwright harbored for his family smoldered  inside him and he became  a troubled teenager ,he often find himself on the wrong side of the law and he was well- known face in the local police stations

david winter remembers him as one of their regulars,he had known him since he was about 14 year old, he were  a petty thief.

over the coming years he became obsessed with weapons and had a reputation for being  a habitual  troublemaker

he got quite  a few convictions for petty crime , not  petty to the victims but  burglaries,damaged , small assaults and things like that . 

he was forever getting into trouble and he’d been sent to youth custody  , he was  a troublesome man altogether.

and while  he was in prsion  he took a great interest in jack the ripper. and the yorkshire ripper peter sackcliffe,reading books about them.

perhaps for the first time in his life a subject engaged him.

he developed this fascination with mass murder and perhaps he saw it  as a way of making his mark in the world.

summer of 1988

 the 21 year old  was working at  a scrap metal merchants in mexborough and living nearby   wath upon dearne in public housing on the denman road estate.

neil hurst was one of his neighbors ,and said  that  anthony arkwright looked like a  young  clint  eastwood, very frightening kept for  himself.,he used  to wear long coats and cowboy  hats.

david winter said :he was one of the people who wanted to  draw attention to himself. he really loved himself, very  tall .taller then me .

another of arkwright’s neighbors was  45 year old  raymond ford. he was the gentleman who lived opposite  arkwright in a block of flats,he was a retired  school teacher, suffering from mental health. and kept himself very much to himself.

raymond and arkwright had history .arkwright like to bully him at one point each have excrement through his letter box

in august  1988 raymond was burglarized several  items had  been stolen including a microwave and a mantle  clock, he reoprted it to the local police

one of the second hand dealers came up to the police station and mentioned  that  he  bought a microwave oven from anthony arkwright. given his name and paid 20 ppunds.

it would  decided that arkwright is going  to be arrested

on the 26th  of august the friday berfore the bank holiday weekend arkwright was fired from his job at the srcapyard for poor attendance.he was extremely aggrieved to add insult to injury

early the next morning  the police were knocking  on  his door and he was arrested for the burglary of raymonds flat .

the officer were suprised to find a whole arsenal of knives in his home,

but there was something else that sparked their interest ,they found in his flat, a pocket watch. that was unique, theýd not seen before  and decided that it wasn’t right that he would have a pocket watch , it was an old person’s  pocket watch.

and so they decided to bail arkwright  on the saturday  evening  in order they could make further inquiries.

having just started his  evening shift ,detective constable david winter was tasked with getting a  statement  from raymond ford about the burglary. 

he offered arkwright a lift. mr winter took  arkwright back home and he´s going into  his  flat which is on the right  mr winter ent to the left  side. to raymond ford. knocking on the door and he  hadn’t gone in at that time and  he just said he´d been out , he´s drunk.

 mr winter said he will  be back and left it there.

at the  time it seemed lik an innocent remark. but akwright would do everything he could to stop the police from getting a statement from raymond.

in less  than 24 hours arkwright had lost his job, and been arrested,he needed an outlet for the pent-up energy simmering inside him.

later that evening  arkwright met up with neil and his cousin as the three men got into  the car  a  neighbor ,25 year old marcus law  blocked their way.

neil started the engine and then marcus came in front of me in  his wheelchair

” where you going ” and neil said ” get out of the road”

 and next anthony said ” i’m gonna kill that bastard. and then that’s when neil thought “wowie” neil said no ,his having a laught . 

antohny said ” im going to kill that bastard” and neil loooked at anthony’s face and he could see from his eyes that he meant what  he said. and  neil believed it 

once at the nightclub arkwright’s behavior didn’t improve ,he was so agressive that they were  eventually thrown out by  bouncers.

akwright’s demeanor that night made neil  incredibly nervous.

at home  , arkwright hot out of neil’s car  and next neil saw  arkwright just picked up and thorugh its at reaymonds ‘flat  window.  neil thinking   what’s he gonna do  , all i  needed to know   i didn’t   need  to be there and  neil and  his cousins  left .

whilst neil and his cousin called it a night, antohny  was only just  getting started. he had a score to settle with his neighbor , the bin was merely the beginning of what he had in store for rayomond ford.

raymond according to  arkwright had told the police about the burgarly had suggested  arkwright was  responsible and and doing so , he’d taken the power  away from arkwright and arkwright wanted that power back .

 in the early hours of sunday the 28th of  august , arkwright entered raymond’s flat . using a  key he stolen during the burglary.bizzarely he was dressed in pair of  underpaints and devils mask.

but he didn’t want to leave any forensic traces on clothing that was why he was wearing the devil mask and also of  pair of underpaints.

not  only arkwright kill raymond ford ,he stabbed him 250 times , that’s 250 decisions to xause harm to this individual.

 and then he draped his entrails around the home.

the force arkwright used to stab raymond was so great that several of the knives actually broke 

he must have been stabbing and stabbing for a very long time, there are broken knives,  he would go home and get another knife ,you would  suspect he’d probably  have to have the  rest  during that . because  simply the repetitive action  to 250 times would be incredibly physicallly  difficult.

still he takes out just about  every single entrail from  raymond’s body and drapes them  not only in the bedroom ,but all around the flat.imagine the scene.

far cry  he’s  somebody who was always  sense of humiliation  a sens of shame and now he’s projecting  that onto his victim , he’s saying i’m the powerful one now, i can do what i want to you

 shortly afterwords , neil hirst  was woken by loud banging,akwright having washed  raymond’s blood was pounding  on his door.

neil didn’t  open the door. later that day , david winter was back on shift,he was conscious that  he needed to get a statement about the burglary.

he went straight to raymond ford, thinking  catch  him before the  pubs open. and still no reply and  still akwright  comes out  and says ” well he’d been drinking all day. mr winter keep coming back   he did that all evening , knowing that the file’s got to be in  on the monday morning he was desperate to try to get this satement .and each time he knocked on fords  door  ,arkwright came out . mr winter said it was strange. it was like ” you’re waitng for me”

akwright spent much  of that sunday afternoon with marcus  law ,the same neighbor that  he’d recently threatened to kill.

25  year old marcus  had been injured in a  motorbikke accident as a teenager and lived in a bungalow on the denman road estate.

akwright had shared his cigarettes with marcus law and he didn’t have any money.  and he was quite sure that marcus law would have  cigarettes  in his bungalow but  he did not  show him  where the cigarette were.and so that was what caused the argument later on in  the night.

on the sunday evening arkwright paid marcus another  visit to try  to peruade him to give up some cigarettes  still marcus insisted  he had none and so arkwright proceeded to search the bungalow.

and then arkwright discovers that there are some  cigarettes in a draw and he feels  that ” i’ve been lied to , so it’s this sense of real disproportionate reaction to a kind of everyday  situation.

we now dealing with someone who’s disintegrating into a desperate  horrific  sadistic fantasy all we know  is that in what  can only described as an utterly  depraved manner ,

arkwright attacks marcus ,relentlessly .marcus is not just killed,he ‘s brutalized, qute stabs him over 70 times  and when he’s there with his body in the  flatafterwards, he takes cigarettes and puts them into his ears ,his nose, he’s eyes.

you would say :well  , how could   he possible be so angry at this neighbor ,what did  the neighbor do to deserve that and the answer is  ” nothing” but it was  this displacement from  all of the anger that arkwright  felt over the years unto other people  , the neighbor being one.

the following day was the bank  holiday monday.marcus’s mother was moving away for a new job and  11 .30 in the morning. she called  to say goodbye to her son and was unable to get in originally  which was unusual but she managed to slip the chain on the front  door and get access to the place and she found him beenvery brutally murdered.

marcus’s distraught mother  ran to the police station . david vinter was one of the first  officers on the scene.

marcus laid out on the floor and all  his chest  cavity were open,there were a crutch through his body ,it was actually sticking up . there were  blood  all over the place  and cigarettes stuck in every orifice  in the face.

the quite mining village  of waht upon dearm , now had a major murder investigation on its hands.

detective superintendent michael  burdis was called in

as michael  made his way to waht  police station, an officer leaving marcus’ bungalow saw arkwright  in the street and expected  arkwright to speak to him because they were  on good terms and spoke to each other whenever they  met.

when michael arrived arkwright was already in the  the interview roo, so far police knew arkwright eas a friend of marcus laws.and police were following that line of inquiry.

what did he know about  the moments of this friends ,so michael was no reason to really to suspect arkwright of any  particular crime . 

investigation into marcu’s killing  continued with officers making door -to -door inquiries in the hope finding  witnesses who may have seen his killer .

on the mondey evening they  spoke with a lady  who recounted how arkwright wisited her that morning and he’d broken the news that marcus was dead.

she thought that marcus  law ha probably commited  suicide but that was an hour before  marcus law’s mother  had found the body .

so it was quite clear that   arkwright  must be a prime suspect for that crime .

clearly arkwright had inside information and he was arrested on suspicion of  marcus’s murder.

arkwright wasn’t admitting that offense. akrkwright was merely rambling on all sorts of objects and talking anything  but the  actual response to the questions about  the crime itself.

at the same time  the police  had a major investigation to undertake with house to house inquiries with searches of the scene , searches of the area , the postmortem and  the rest of the material that goes on with  the major crime investigation.

On  wednesday the 31st august as officers continued to speak to residents.

david winter’s thougths  returned to raymond ford.he’d been so involved with the murder investigation but still hadn’t managed to get a statement  from raymond about  the burglary.

coincidentally he was the only resident ,that the house to house team hadn’t  manage  to get in contact with.

 a front window was smashed . police officers  looked in , they  could  see this sea of bottles that went from the window right to the back of the room.like a slope.

and his chair was in front  of the TV.big piles of newspapers all over the  place, televison was on

david made his way in  through the broken window,it was immediately obvious that something was amiss. blood all over the wall, all over the floor, big piles of it.blood dried up floor .

david  looked through into a bedroom and behind the door was his  body ,but it were all covered up with clothing  but  could see a hand.

litterally three feet deep in clothing and underneath that was the body of raymond ford having suffered grotesque injuries.

whilst the police were making their grisley discovery, arkwright was appearing  in magistrates court charged with murder of marcus law  and the burglary at raymond  ford’s flat.

detective  superintendent michael burdis now had a second horrific crime to investigate  . but he already had a good idea who was going to be that prime suspect.anthony arkwright.

two of the detectives had been talking to him was sitting in a canteen area  and waiting for a solicitor to attend so they  were merely sitting  waiting , during that time on the  table was a pack of cards and arkwright was flicking throught this cards

 and eventually said to the detectives” i can read the cards” and he turned over the fall of hearts and said  ” one you’ve got two three  four to come. that prompted  alarm in the old  officers because they  as far they knew ,there was just one body .

so they rang that information through to david burdis at the incident room,but of course by that time the police found  raymond ford’s body. which meant then there were two more.

he didn’t want  to act like the ordinary criminal the ordinary murder who goes there and confesses or start crying ” youg goit me ,oh, my god.” he wanted to do the opposite of that .

 he wanted to be newsworthy  to be notorious, to be infamous in some way.

the case had  just been blown wide open ,the police now believe there were more  victims but they had no leads as to who these unfortunate souls may be.

both known victims had been from denman road estate and all available police resources were sent to the area to knock on  doors and make sure that every resident was safe and well.

they  use the local authority who provided them with a joiner to help them break into properties if they couldn’t  get in  the fear there might be a body in there.

but at the same time police had another team of  officers trying to trace his family  background andhis family relations and other people that he  may  well have been in contact with.

detective sergeant richard venables was part of  the team investigating arkwright’s background.

he was tasked with  his local knowledge in mind to look at arkwright’s family to try and build up a picture of the guy in  custody  would allegedly commited these horrific murders.

richard learned that arkwright’s grandfather , Stasys Puidokis

a 68 year old  lithuanian gentleman named  .

lived with his partner Elsa Konradite in nearby mexborough

the police made  several visits to that house  from about  tuesday  the 30th of august went  once twice a day .they didn’t get any answer.

by  friday september 2nd the police still hadn’t managed to speak to the couple but neighbors had noticed normal activity at the house , the bottles of milk left on the doorstep, had been taken taken in each day.

they assumed that either the grandfather or elsa  were collecting it and taking it into the house but  actually the milkman was going by later  in the day ,noticing that it hadn’t been taken in and he was taking it away

so that meant that  police knew that  there’d be no activity at that house and so they feared for the safety of  his grandfather .

On the friday afternoon ,Richard paid a final visit to the house in mexborough, when yet again  there was no response ,he had no option but  to break in.

he noticed the upstairs window of the front bedroom was open,the next door neigbhor  lend  a ladder .

when he looked through the window and  the untidy ransacking of the bedroom  he knew there was a problem.

the scene was reminiscent of many burglaries they’d seen before and so richard and his colleague made their way through the window into the  bedroom.

richard got into that room ,and smelled death before  many  times  ,and he knew the house had got the smell of death.

what he was gonna be  confronted by… that´s when he´s heart stared to Quicken after  a search of the upstairs room ,revelead nothing but ransacking belongings, 

richard prepared himself to go down the stairs……….

transport yourself into this position,you’re an investigtor ,you´ve been briefed as to what this guy’s allegedly done ,he disemboweled a guy ,he stabbed him 250 times, he stabbed another disabled guy  70 times, he sliced his body open ,he swam the crutch up the body  and then all of  a sudden you know you’re gonna  discover this guy’s work.

 richard and his colleague walked down  the stairs together  and as they got to the spot where the landing and the banister opened up sufficiently, richard leaned forward and he looked back towards the kitchen , the old lady who was laid in the  kitchen door, and he saw the ax protruding fromher head .clearly she was dead.

 the body was of 72 year old Elsa Konradite arkwright step-grandmother. 

she ‘d been ironing on the kitchen table when she  was attacked. she struck in the head with an ax but  there’s non of the excess that´s shown with the   other victims , it’s not  the sort of clear message that he tried to send  with other’s its simple get  rid of the problem.

richard’s next consideration was where  his granddad were . and the  grandad wasn’t there 

but richard  had an idea where he was.because as part of their investigation  that week  he’d been told by locals that granddad had an allotment, the allotment was locked ,the allotment shed was locked.

it was quite a substantial home build ,his grandfather had been a  minor and  it  was really well -made piece of equipment and police officers  had to open that first .

once they’d broken through the door ..

michael  and his team made yet another gruesome discovery.

inside  the shed itself was a workshop.and arkwright’s grandfather was jammed against the  legs of this workbench and again ,he’d been very savagely attacked.

arkwright  stabbed him first of all ,he stabbed him with such force, he severed  the spinal cord.that itself is an incredible level of violance and that wasn’t enough for him.

he then strikes him with an ax almost certainly ehen he’s paralyzed and  unable to respond

and with a large heavy hammer,so this  is not just  killing,this is sheer nedless brutality

Later  arkwright would tell investigators that he’d killed his grandfather  partly because of the rumors that  he may actually  be his father .

rumors  that had tainted his whole life and it perhaps gives a clue as to why  he would exercise such extreme brutality on the old man.

The bloody crime scene where Arkwright murdered his grandadCredit: Courtesy of H2

this was much  more violence than  was needed to end his grandfather’s life,so these are these feelings of shame of humiliation of rage . really coming  to the surface.it’s a way  of kind of retaliating it’s a way of taking back power

 

michael : allthough  arkwright was obviously prime suspect, you take all the right steps to  make sure  that  you gather  all the scientific material that you can gather .

as crime scene  investigators meticalously gathered  evidence 

21 year old  anthony  arkwright remained in police custody  at raw marsh police station charged with murdering four people including  his own grandparents.

allthough he was confident they  had  identfied  the serial killer

detective superintendent michael burdis knew that proving the case  might  not be that simple

one of the problems that  the police had was that  akwright had a right to be in some of the premises .

the grandfather’s house, the grandfather’s allotment shed , so any traces of  fingerprints. or DNA  could have been legitimately there  and so didn’t really  provided police  with tangible evidence.

so it was a matter of proving that arkwright had actually  committed the murder rather than merely being present at the scene . 

what did giv them  evidence was ,the fact that  there were items  that were stolen from those premises .

in particular one item seized when arkwright was first arrested for the burglary at raymond ford flat’s now became very  significant

the pcoket  watch  that was found in his flat,the the police  believed originally  had come from

raymond ford was actually his grandfather’s.

with  difficulties gathering evidence conclusively  linking arkwright to some of the murders

michael knew that what they  really  needed  was a confession

however despite already  having spent several days in the interview room

being questioned about marcus and raymond, 

arkwright had refused to give up  any information.

he did talk but it wasn’t answering questions that were rational and wasn’t giving  police responsible answers to anything that they were asking him.

when he learned that the bodies of his grandparents had been found and another two murder charges were to  be brought agains him arkwright made an unusual   request .

he asked  if he could be  itnerviewed on tape .

now ,they weren’t using   tape recorded interviews  in those days.but the investigators were  about  to start the process so ,they decided to go ahead in the hope that  arkwright would then the facility useful for him and would be able to talk to them .

it didn’t work  quite like that because he merely  enjoyed the experience and rambling on tape about   horror films that he’d watched and experiences  that he’d tried to relive himself but non of it was a response to the questions about the murders,so michael put a stop to that .

michael was  getting tired of arkwright stringing his officers  along. 

later that evening , detective  superintendent himself started the tape in  the interviewroomhe asked questions ,he didn’t respond at all. michael continually asked  arkwright if he would identify his name for the purposes of the tape and he didn’t respond to that .michael asked arkwright questions about his family and didn’t respond 

arkwright  never spoke at all so michael switched the tape off and  he left the  interviewroom quite  frustrated and about five minutes later his  solicitor came down the corridor and said ” he wants to speak to you “

but michael refused to  go through the scenario again.but the solicitor was very persuasive 

michael went back to the interviewroom as he was setting the machin up again  arkwright sang a little song.and michael said”stranger in the night”

and then of course the reality  begins to pour out of arkwright.because in a period of just 56 hours  he’s brutally killed , strongly brutally savagely dispatched four people.

 and then  wnet on to make a full  confession  of the murder of  raymond ford and  marcus law and started speak about his grandfather and the  tape ran out .

he had to endure more of arkwright’s games  but michael had managed to get confessions for two of the murders.

the following morning the interview resumed and michael hoped arkwright  would also confess  to killing his grandfather and elsa.

 he didn’t have a problem reacting to the grandfather’s murder  that argued over the fact  that he did not rebuilt  this motorcycle that theay was suppposed to be working on. and he felt justified  in commiting that  particular crime.

 he also began to speak about something that  had haunted him since he was a child. the local folklore that his grandfather was infact his father 

wether arkwright ever believed that  to be  the case,that   wasn´t true ,it certainly wasn’t the father of  arkwright,but arkwright did give that  information and imply  that was maybe why  he’d murdered his grandfather .

when it cames to talking about  elsas murder,however ,arkwright’s whole demeanor  changed. 

his voice went particularly quet ,he was talking about  darkness and light ,black and white,he was black and elsa was  white. and the fact that elsa  wa lithuanian like his grandfather  and didn’t speak any english, he was concerned that she didn’t  understand the language

 and he felt that he was doing the right thing by  taking  her life.

her killing wasn’t as violent as the other murders in this killing spree which suggests  that she  wasn’t  part  of this kind of project of vengeance,

she hadn’t done anything to, in his mind justify or deserve the kind of violence that he enacted on other people so  she was litterally a barrier that had to be  removed.

arkwright revealed that his killingspree had started on firday the 26th of august  ,the day he was fired from his job at the scrapyard.

and in the wake of that firing,he sat off on 56 -hour killing spree, which would leave four people dead.

the victims were found in the opposite order to that in which  they’d been killed, he  killed 

his grandfather might have been the last to be discovered but he was arkwright’s first murder.

for his neighbor neil hirst this was a shocking revelation

it meant that arkwright  had already killed at least two people  by the time he was trying to get into neil’s flat in the early hours of sunday  the 28th of  august. it put a different perspective on arkwright’s motive for  the visit.

Neil: if i had  answered that door,i would have been killed that night myself. definitely if i had aswered   the door to him ,so yes i think he would take my life if i had answer that door.”

 july 1989

anthony arkwright appeared at sheffield crown court ,he was  charged with four counts of murder

but the trial  arkwrightreally is the director and star of his own movie. he was most flamboyant he appeard wearing a jacket and a bow tie in court and he waved at the journalists and wawed at people

if you look at pictures of him at the time, you see the face of  a man who’s almost sneering at the camera.as if” look what i have done. look at me ,i’m so clever” it wasn’t at all clever.

michael:our understanding and the understanding of the judge  what he ws pleading guilty to all four murders it was quite a bizarre  event, because  when he was arraigned before the judge and the clerk of the court put the charges to him,

he pleaded not guilty to everything.which took everybody  by suprise including his own barristers

the hearing was adjourned whilst his defense team attempted to find out the reasoning behind the last minute change in plea.eventually arkwright returned to the court on the understanding that he was permitted to read a poem that he’d written .

there’s a very clear reason why he does this  ,because he’s enjoying the attention , he´s enjoying the notoriety, and a poem is something that’s quite unique ,it’s something that’is  quite unusual.

 he knows that this is sometihng that the media will pick up on .something that he’ll be remembered by .it wasn’t  really a  poem , it was just a rambling of words and after a few minutes the judge said :no i think we’ve had enough and we’ll stop the trial. there.

and how do you plead to these charges and he pleaded  to the three  charges  murder against  raymond ford , marcus war and  hisgrandfather

and not guilty to the murder of elsa .

the judge ordered elsa’s killing to remain on file and on the 12 of july 1989

arkwright was sentenced  for the  other three murders.

the judge describes him as  an evil fantasist and calls the crimes grotesque sadism.

its impossible not to agree with him. 

he sentences arkwright  to life with a minimum term of 25 years.

1990

arkwright case was reviewed by the home secretary who imposed a whole life  tariff.

arkwright is the youngest person ever to have  received this term in the UK and has been condemned to die in prison.

michael :life   would mean life as far as he was concerned and i think that’s a proper sentence i dont think  this is a safe man to ever allow out on the street  again .

hos goal was not just to kill and to destroy and to release all of  his anger and rage he carried with him his whole life but  he wanted to be infamous

arkwright took exeptional pride in killing in the moste grotesque way , to take someone’s life is bad enough,but to  then to destroy what remains of their body either by eviscerating it or by gouging the eyes out or by stabbing it several  hundred times , this are the acts of a man who clearly deserved to be called Evil.