{{Short description|British spree killer (1964/1965 – 2023)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Stephen Farrow''' (1964/1965 – 21 August 2023) was an English vagrant who served a whole-life tariff for two murders committed in early 2012. Farrow, whom psychiatrists diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, had an obsessive hatred of Christianity, which he attributed to sexual abuse from a priest.<ref name=psy/><ref name=life/> He stabbed to death 77-year-old retired teacher Betty Yates in Bewdley, Worcestershire, and the Reverend John Suddards (aged 59) in Thornbury, Gloucestershire. He also confessed to the unsubstantiated murder of a backpacker in Devon in 1988.<ref name=psy/>
==Background== Farrow was hyperactive from a young age, and was sent home from his first day at school. At the age of 10, he set a church altar on fire and watched it burn. He hated his strict father, but loved his mother.<ref name=psy>{{cite news|title=Stephen Farrow 'the psychopath'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20159704|accessdate=21 October 2015|date=2 November 2012|website=BBC News}}</ref> As an adult, Farrow was a heavy smoker of cannabis.<ref name=life>{{cite news|title=Stephen Farrow: John Suddards and Betty Yates murderer jailed for life|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20171967|accessdate=21 October 2015|website=BBC News|date=2 November 2012}}</ref>
In 1994, Farrow was convicted of aggravated burglary at the home of an elderly woman in Stourbridge. He told a forensic psychiatrist that he had fantasies of committing rape during burglaries. When it was being decided whether he should serve his punishment in prison or in a mental hospital, he told a psychiatrist from Ashworth Hospital that he had wanted to kill from his teenage years, and had already murdered a backpacker in Devon six years prior. Although the doctor diagnosed him with antisocial personality disorder, he theorised that Farrow was exaggerating his claims in order to have a safer place of detention than prison.<ref name=psy/>
During his trial, Farrow admitted to a burglary in Thornbury around the turn of 2012. He pinned a note to the house's kitchen table, reading, "Be thankful you did not come back or we would have killed you Christian scum. I... hate God". The threat was not personal, as the occupants were not religious.<ref name=body/> On New Year's Eve, he texted a friend that, "Church will be the first to suffer".<ref name=life/>
==Murders== thumb|The Reverend John Suddards was the vicar at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Thornbury. On 4 January 2012, Farrow broke into Betty Yates' isolated cottage and killed her by stabbing her in the neck.<ref>{{cite news|title=Retired teacher Betty Yates was stabbed in neck|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-16525712|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=12 January 2012}}</ref> Detectives suspected that she had been beaten with her walking stick before her death.<ref>{{cite news|title=Betty Yates murder: Teacher 'beaten with her walking stick'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-16587288|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=16 January 2012}}</ref> Crimestoppers offered a reward of £10,000 for information on the murder,<ref>{{cite news|title=Betty Yates murder: Crimestoppers offers £10,000 reward|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-16675306|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=23 January 2012}}</ref> and new leads were investigated after the crime was featured on BBC One's ''Crimewatch''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Betty Yates murder: New leads after Crimewatch appeal|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-16759163|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=27 January 2012}}</ref> Yates and Farrow were acquainted.<ref name=body>{{cite news|title=Vicar John Suddards death: Pornography left on body'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19813484|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=4 October 2012}}</ref>
On 14 February, the Reverend John Suddards was killed at his vicarage; Avon and Somerset Police declared that the death was suspicious after his body was found by builders.<ref>{{cite news|title=Clergyman found dead at Thornbury vicarage|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-17027100|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=15 February 2012}}</ref> Suddards, a former lawyer who joined the clergy after a car accident, had only moved to his new parish in June 2011, from Witham, Essex.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gillespie|first1=Liza-Jane|title=Thornbury welcomes new vicar|url=http://www.gazetteseries.co.uk/news/9089384.Thornbury_welcomes_new_vicar/|accessdate=21 October 2015|work=Gazette|date=16 June 2011}}</ref> He had previously spoken of the risks of his occupation, in which he would regularly welcome strangers into his home.<ref>{{cite news|title=Murdered vicar the Reverend John Suddards 'was there for the vulnerable'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-20128885|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=2 November 2012}}</ref> After stabbing Suddards to death, Farrow drank the vicar's beer and watched a DVD, before stealing his mobile phone and watch.<ref name=body/>
==Legal proceedings== On 18 February, police named Farrow as a suspect in Suddards' murder, warning the public not to approach him.<ref>{{cite news|title=Police hunt for Stephen Farrow over Reverend John Suddards murder|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-17084845|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=18 February 2012}}</ref> He was arrested the following day in Folkestone, Kent, where he was also questioned on Yates' murder,<ref>{{cite news|title=Stephen Farrow arrested over Betty Yates murder|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17091519|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=19 February 2012}}</ref> and was charged with both murders and the burglary on 22 February.<ref>{{cite news|title=Vicar John Suddards and Betty Yates murders: Man charged|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17125316|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=22 February 2012}}</ref> A week later, a 43-year-old man who had been previously arrested on suspicion of Suddards' death was eliminated from the investigation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Reverend John Suddards murder suspect eliminated from inquiry|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-17211433|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=29 February 2012}}</ref>
On 29 June, Farrow pleaded not guilty to both murders, but admitted to the burglary.<ref>{{cite news|title=Stephen Farrow denies murdering vicar and teacher|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-18644725|accessdate=21 October 2015|publisher=BBC News|date=29 June 2012}}</ref> His trial at Bristol Crown Court began on 4 October;<ref name=body/> he later admitted Suddards' manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.<ref name=life/> The jury were unanimous in finding him guilty of killing Suddards, and an 11–1 majority found him guilty of the murder of Yates.<ref name=life/> The judge, who called Farrow "sadistic", sentenced him to spend the rest of his life in prison.<ref name=life/> Detective Chief Inspector Simon Crisp of Avon and Somerset Police stated that tracking Farrow was difficult due to his nomadic lifestyle, but an anonymous phone call from a woman in Kent had led to his arrest.<ref name=life/>
After the sentencing, Suddards' sister Hilary Bosworth questioned if the murders could have been avoided if people with Farrow's record of violence were properly dealt with, asking, "Do we, as a society, need to think again about how we might better monitor those in the community?"<ref name=life/>
Farrow died at HMP Frankland on 21 August 2023, at the age of 58.<ref>{{cite news |title=Double killer Stephen Farrow who murdered vicar and pensioner dies in high security prison |url=https://www.itv.com/news/central/2023-08-24/stephen-farrow-double-killer-who-murdered-vicar-and-retired-teacher-dies-in-jail |access-date=24 August 2023 |work=ITV News |date=24 August 2023}}</ref>
==Legacy of victims== Suddards' parishioners and family set up a Memorial Fund to raise money for causes with which he was involved, including the reintegration of the homeless and scholarships for students of Christian scripture.<ref>{{cite web|title=The John Suddards Memorial Fund|url=http://johnsuddardsmemorialfund.org/|publisher=John Suddards Memorial Fund|accessdate=21 October 2015|archive-date=17 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217154837/http://johnsuddardsmemorialfund.org/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
== See also == List of prisoners with whole life orders
==References== {{reflist|30em}}{{Murders in the United Kingdom in the 2010s}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Farrow, Stephen}} Category:1960s births Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:2023 deaths Category:2012 crimes in the United Kingdom Category:2012 murders in the United Kingdom Category:Anti-Christian sentiment in the United Kingdom Category:Crime in Worcestershire Category:English people convicted of murder Category:History of mental health in the United Kingdom Category:Suspected serial killers Category:British critics of Christianity Category:Murder in Gloucestershire Category:Murder in England Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by England and Wales Category:People with antisocial personality disorder