John Wilson Vickers (died 23 July 1957) was a criminal from the United Kingdom who became the first person to be executed under the terms of the Homicide Act 1957.
Vickers' appeal on the grounds that he had not intended to kill Duckett has become a leading case on the degree of malice needed to prove murder in English law.
[1] On either the fifteenth[1] or fourteenth of April 1957, Vickers broke into the cellar of a shop[4] in Carlisle owned by 72-year-old Jane Duckett, intending to steal money.
[1] Duckett later died of her injuries; her body was discovered when neighbours alerted the police that her shop had not opened that day.
Although the felony murder rule had been abolished by the Homicide Act 1957,[5] the prosecution argued that "if a man of 22 kicks and punches an old lady of 72 he intends to cause her grievous bodily harm.