THE TERRIBLE EXECUTION OF PHILIP HENRY FOR THE BRUTAL RA*PE AND MU*RDER

 Philip Henry - a rape murder.


25 year old Philip Henry was a soldier serving in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry based at York and on the night of Tuesday the 10th of March 1953 he broke into the house of 76 year old Flora Jane Gilligan at 30 Diamond Street in York.  He got in through a window and once inside raped Flora and then strangled and battered her to death.  


Flora’s body was found the next morning outside the back door of her house.  She had been thrown or pushed from her upstairs bedroom window.  Police found a number of good fingerprints at the scene and then launched a targeted fingerprint campaign.  One of the target groups was the soldiers at Strensall barracks and here they found their match in Henry.


Henry denied everything and told officers that he had caught the last bus back to camp.  Nobody could recall seeing him on the bus and Private Harry Clegram whose bunk was next to Henry’s confirmed that he had not been present at 11.45 pm.  Henry was arrested and charged with the murder.  His clothes were examined and small splinters of wood found which matched the wood of the window frame he had crawled through.  These were a crucial part of the prosecution’s case.


Henry was tried at York before Mr. Justice Jones on the 16th to the 18th of June 1953.  The jury took the unusual step of asking to visit the crime scene, which the judge allowed.  Having inspected it they reached a guilty verdict after two hours.  Henry’s appeal before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Goddard, sitting with Justices Donovan and Parker, was dismissed on the 13th of July.

  Mr. G. R. Chetwynd the Labour MP for Stockton submitted a petition signed by 1,100 local people asking for a reprieve for Henry to the Home Secretary, David Maxwell Fyfe.  On the 28th of July it was announced that this had been rejected.


Henry was hanged at Armley Prison in Leeds by Albert Pierrepoint, assisted by Royston Rickard at 9.00 a.m. on Thursday the 30th of July 1953.  

He weighed 210 lbs. and was given a drop of 5’ 7”.  The certificates of execution were posted on the prison gates at 9.09 a.m.

Henry’s records are sealed until 2029, so there is no further official information on this case.

Here is a photo of the murder scene.

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