Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK, is jailed

The rapid arrest, charging, jailing and hanging of Ellis for killing her lover was done in four months flat. Even the jury took just 14 minutes to consider.

Fifty years later, her surviving sister campaigned for the crime to be reduced to manslaughter. She said that there were extenuating circumstances such as the sexual abuse they both suffered in their childhood and the fact that her victim had punched Ruth in the stomach and caused a miscarriage ten days previously.

The appeal failed...