Heather Arnold

Case record: Heather Arnold

Background

Heather Arnold was a mathematics teacher at Kingsdown Comprehensive School, Warminster. Paul Sutcliffe also worked as a mathematics teacher at the school. Heather Arnold and Paul Sutcliffe were connected through Paul Sutcliffe’s marriage: after Paul Sutcliffe’s marriage broke up, he and his wife, Jeanne, tried to help Heather Arnold cope.

Jeanne Sutcliffe was 39 years old. Jeanne Sutcliffe’s daughter Heidi was eight months old.

The offence

On Wednesday 30th April 1986, Paul Sutcliffe returned home from work and discovered the battered bodies of his wife, Jeanne, and his baby daughter, Heidi. Both bodies had severe head injuries, and in both cases the cause of death was a cut throat.

Officers investigating had a feeling that the killer would try to dispose of the murder weapon, an axe, in the household rubbish.

Investigation

A team of four undercover detectives worked as dustmen. When they got to Mrs Arnold’s house they were given a white carrier bag. When the detectives examined it they found three charred pieces of an axe handle.

The axe head was found in Heather Arnold’s possession. Forensic examination found flakes of red paint from the axe both on Jeanne Sutcliffe’s body and in Heather Arnold’s car.

According to the police, Heather Arnold confessed to the killings following her arrest but, on the advice of her solicitor, she withdrew her statement.

Trial

Heather Arnold’s trial began on 1st April 1987 at Bristol Crown Court.

Heather Arnold told the court that she had found the axe in her garage. She said she had not recognised the implement, panicked, and had felt “some inexplicable need to get rid of it.” She then chopped up the handle and tried to dispose of it in the waste.

The jury did not believe her story. On 15th April, after deliberating for over seven hours, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on two counts of murder.

Sentencing

Heather Arnold was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Her sentence was imposed on April 16, 1987.

Appeals

Heather Arnold was later committed to Broadmoor from where she appealed against her sentence, arguing that she was suffering from diminished responsibility at the time of the killings.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the case in February 1996.

At the appeal, the Court of Appeal was asked to either substitute verdicts of “not guilty of murder, guilty of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility”, or order a retrial.

Lord Justice Hobhouse, giving judgment with Mr Justice Laws and Mr Justice Butterfield, dismissed the appeal.

“She has failed to persuade us that it is necessary or expedient ... to admit any further evidence,” the appeal judges said.

The judge said that before her trial Heather Arnold was subjected to psychological tests and “no relevant abnormality was found”. The judge said she was shown to be highly intelligent, and that although the defence of diminished responsibility was available at the trial, the defence did not use it.

“She was an intelligent and articulate woman. She was in a fit state to take decisions about her defence and to instruct her lawyers.”

During treatment for depression at Ravenscroft, Heather Arnold began to give accounts of what had happened which “varied markedly from what she had said at the time of the trial”, Lord Justice Hobhouse said.

In relation to what she admitted after the trial, it was recorded that she had “hated” Mrs Sutcliffe and had killed her because she wanted to be closer to Mrs Sutcliffe’s husband, Paul, a fellow mathematics teacher.

The appeal also included a report that:

“A teacher who denied murdering a mother and her baby with an axe 10 years ago cannot now claim she was suffering from diminished responsibility, the Court of Appeal decided yesterday.”

Outcome

Heather Arnold was found guilty in 1987 of murdering Jeanne Sutcliffe and her eight-month-old daughter in Westbury, Wiltshire.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal in February 1996.

Other details

Heather Arnold was 59 years old at the time of the Court of Appeal proceedings reported in February 1996.

At trial, Heather Arnold said she knew nothing of the killings, and later admitted to psychiatrists that she “hated” Mrs Sutcliffe and had killed her because she wanted to be closer to Mrs Sutcliffe’s husband, Paul.

Broadmoor Hospital included a consultant psychiatrist in 1993 who said Arnold should appeal against conviction on the grounds of diminished responsibility.