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Syd Dernley, Albert
Pierrepoint’s assistant
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QUOTE: “In particular, those people
who murder small children. They should still be executed, no matter what the
law says, and most people like myself think so.”
AUTHOR: Syd Dernley (29 December 1920
– 1 November 1994) was dubbed, as also has been Albert Pierrepoint, "the
last British hangman", although in fact he was not (this title belongs
jointly to Harry Allen and Robert Leslie Stewart). He was a welder by trade,
but was appointed assistant executioner by the Home Office in 1949, and
participated in 20 hangings until he was replaced in 1954. Execution by hanging
continued in Britain until 1964. In 1950 he assisted Albert Pierrepoint in the
hanging of Timothy Evans for the murder of his family, although Evans was
pardoned posthumously in 1966 when it was discovered John Reginald Halliday
Christie may have been the killer, as Christie's murders all carried a similar
modus operandi to the deaths of Evans' family. On 8 May 1951, Pierrepoint and
Dernley escorted convicted murderer James Inglis to the gallows immediately
adjacent, and hanged him without delay — the fastest hanging on record, taking
only seven seconds from the time he was removed from his cell until his fatal
'long drop'.
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