Anthony Arkwright is a convicted British spree killer who, over the course of 56 hours in August 1988, murdered three people in Wath-upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire.
Arkwright spent most of his childhood in care homes and performed badly at school, drifting into a life of crime and a sentence in a borstal.
[3] By the time he was 21, Arkwright was working for scrap merchants in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, but he was sacked on 26 August 1988 for a poor attendance record.
On 29 August, early in the morning, Arkwright entered the specially adapted bungalow belonging to his other next-door neighbour, Marcus Law.
It was suggested that when shocked police had found the three remaining bodies, Arkwright felt that he was losing control, and so invented a fifth victim, leading to further searches of lakes and drainage ditches.
[9] Whilst at HMP Hull awaiting trial, Arkwright smeared the walls of his cell with his faeces in a dirty protest at not being recognised and revered as he believed he should be.
[14] In 2003, Home Secretary David Blunkett changed the law so that certain people sentenced to life in prison, would spend the rest of their lives there, with no chance of parole.
This was challenged in 2013, when the European Court of Human Rights decreed that whole-life tariffs without the option for a review or parole amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment.