The Trial

Justice Catches up with Arthur

“...a deliberate and repetitive liar...He has no concept of the truth.”-Prosecuting CounselFor the first time ever in a British murder trial, the jury are shown a police video of the scene. The seven-minute tape replays the scenes of horror.The evidence against Hutchinson is formidable. Hutchinson had at first denied being at the house at all. Dr Geoffrey Craig testifies that the bite marks left in the cheese in the fridge exactly match Hutchinson’s.So Hutchinson, loving the attention the court gives him, changes his story. His defence might be considered laughable if it wasn’t trying to cover his brutally horrific crimes.

"There's your Killer"

On 11 September 1984, in Durham Crown Court, Hutchinson points to a reporter from the Sunday Mirror and accuses him of the murders. Hutchinson constructs a story where the young woman he raped had consented to have sex and the reporter ‘and others’ had murdered the family. Hutchinson explained that his prints were on the champagne bottles because he had picked them up to use as ‘weapons’ against the reporter.Hutchinson is asked why he had originally claimed to have been nowhere near the house and had now changed his story. Hutchinson claimed the reporter had been threatening his beloved mother:“That man there (pointing to the reporter in the gallery) has been going to my mother’s house every week for the past 10 months and I was frightened for her. I wanted to get the truth out...There’s your killer.”Someone who is truly frightened is Hutchinson’s surviving rape victim. She bravely testifies and withstands a cross examination that suggests sex was consensual. In the near four hours she is in the witness box, she never once looks at Hutchinson. Hutchinson is seen to occasionally smile as she gives evidence.On 14 September 1984, a jury of six women and six men find the 43-year-old Hutchinson guilty of the murder of three people and the rape of a teenage girl.The Judge rules that he should serve 18 years.After the conviction, his beloved mother realises her son is a liar, a rapist and a murderer. Press reports say she vows never to see him again.“He’s pitiable. But his actions make pity very difficult.”-Diane Simpson, Behavioural PsychologistThe then home secretary, Leon Brittan later rules Hutchinson should face the whole-life tariff and should never be released.“Many of the criminals that I’ve dealt with have had feelings of remorse and of regret to a large extent the actions they’ve committed...Arthur Hutchinson didn’t have… those sort of feelings.”-Mick Burdis, Detective Chief Inspector, South Yorkshire Police