Anthony Hardy

Anthony John Hardy (born May 31, 1951) is an English serial killer who was convicted of murdering three women in London.

Early life

Born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, Anthony Hardy had an apparently uneventful childhood and excelled in school and college, particularly in engineering.

He married and fathered two sons and two daughters, but his wife divorced him in 1986, accusing him of domestic violence. In 1982, Hardy had been arrested for trying to drown his wife but the charges were later dropped.

After the divorce, Hardy spent time in mental hospitals, diagnosed with bipolar disorder.^[1] He lived in various hostels in London, picking up convictions for theft and being drunk and disorderly. He was arrested in 1998 when a prostitute accused him of raping her, but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

Murders

In January 2002, police were called to the block of flats that Hardy lived in after a neighbour complained that someone had vandalised her front door and that she strongly suspected Hardy. When the police investigated Hardy's flat they found a locked door, and despite his original claims to the contrary, police found that Hardy had a key. Investigating the room, the police found the body of a dead woman lying on a bed. She was identified as Sally White, 38, a prostitute living in London.

A coroner subsequently determined that White had died of a heart attack, even though she was found naked in a locked room with cuts and bruises to her head.

Hardy spent a short time in jail for the vandalism offence.

On December 30, 2002, a homeless man hunting for food in some bins found some of the dismembered remains of two women found stuffed in bin-liners. The victims were identified as Bridgette MacClennan, 34, and Elizabeth Valad, 29.

Arrest and trial

The investigation lead to Hardy, who was arrested a week later. He had gone on the run but been spotted by an off-duty policemen when he went to a hospital to collect his prescription for insulin . A search of his flat found that there was evidence, including old blood stains, that indicated the two women had been killed and dismembered there. Both had died over the Christmas holidays.

Under arrest, Hardy simply said "No comment" to every question put to him by police. He was eventually charged with the murders of both MacClennan and Valad, as well as that of Sally White, the woman whose death had originally been put down to natural causes.

At his trial in November 2003, Hardy, despite his initial lack of cooperation with the police, abruptly changed his plea to guilty to all three counts of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Because of Hardy's history of psychiatric problems and violent behaviour, an independent enquiry was announced into his care. ^[2]

Hardy has also been linked to the earlier unsolved murders of two prostitutes found dismembered and dumped in the Thames.

In popular culture

After the trial had finished and Hardy had been sentenced to life imprisonment, controversial British rap artist Plan B released a song about Hardy, dubbing him the 'Camden Ripper'. In the song it describes how Hardy had psychiatric problems and was able to carry out the murders because of 'neighbors who were always out raving'. The song also describes a fourth victim, called Suzanne, whose body was rumored to never have been found.

Also mentioned in the song "Guided tour of Camden" by Charlie Sloth. In the song's music video, Sloth says "You see that house up there? That's where the Camden Ripper used to live. And he used to hire out hookers chop into pieces and hide them in fridges and cookers. You see that there? That's where they found one of the girl's legs."

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