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Method of murder: Stabbing
with knife - Strangulation
Location: Manchester,
England, United Kingdom
Status:
Sentenced to three life sentences on
May 2, 1978
Trevor Joseph Hardy (born 1947 in
Manchester, Lancashire), also known as the Beast of Manchester,
is a convicted British serial killer who murdered three teenage girls
in the Manchester area between December 1974 and March 1976. In 1977,
he was found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Murders
Janet Lesley Stewart, 15, was stabbed to death on
New Years Eve 1974 and buried in a shallow grave in Newton Heath,
North Manchester.
Wanda Skala, 17, was murdered in July 1975 on
Lightbowne Road, Moston while walking home from the hotel where she
worked as a barmaid. She had been hit over the head with a brick,
robbed, and sexually assaulted. Her body was found partially buried on
a construction site.
In March 1976 after walking home from a staff
party, Sharon Mosoph was stabbed and strangled with a pair of tights
prior to being dumped in the Rochdale Canal at Failsworth, Oldham. The
bodies of Skala and Mosoph were found stripped and mutilated.
At the height of the hunt for the serial killer,
23,000 people were stopped and searched.
Arrest, trial and conviction
Although Hardy was arrested for Skala's murder
after bragging about it to his younger brother, he was freed on the
basis of an alibi he had arranged with his partner, Sheilagh Farrow,
and because he had filed his teeth so they would not match the bite
marks found on her body. He would go on to kill Mosoph six months
after being freed.
Trevor Hardy was arrested for the murders of Wanda
Skala and Sharon Mosoph in August 1976. He confessed to the murders
and to that of Janet Lesley Stewart - who until then had been a
missing person. Prior to Stewart's murder, Hardy had been released on
parole for battering a man with a pickaxe. He reportedly mistook
Stewart for a schoolgirl with whom he was infatuated. Hardy removed
Stewart's ring and gave it to another girl as a "love token". Morris
had also kept Skala's blood-stained clothes and her handbag as "grisly
trophies". The investigation revealed that Morris killed Mosoph after
she witnessed him attempting to burgle a shopping centre at night.
At his trial, Hardy fired his attorney and
attempted to confess manslaughter; however, the plea was rejected and
he was found guilty of murder. On 2 May 1978 at the Manchester Crown
Court, Hardy was sentenced to three life sentences for the murders.
More than 30 years after his arrest, Hardy is
currently serving his sentence at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire
where he is reported to have a "good work record".
He maintains his innocence and reported sent a
letter to Mosoph's relatives blaming his parents. On 23 February 2008,
The Times revealed that Hardy was one of up to 50 prisoners in
Britain who had been issued with a whole life tariff and were unlikely
to ever be released. The whole life tariff was reaffirmed in June 2008
by the High Court.
Manchester locals had long suspected Hardy in the
1971 murder of 17-year-old Dorothy Leyden, and in 2004 family members
requested that the Greater Manchester Police re-examine old evidence.
Detectives reviewing the cold case believe forensic evidence
exonerates Hardy in the murder of Leyden, as DNA samples examined more
than 30 years after the crime were found not to match Hardy.
Serial killer will die in jail
By Chris Osuh - Menmedia.co.uk
June 13, 2008
A SERIAL killer dubbed the Beast of Manchester has
been told he must spend the rest of his life behind bars for the
murders of three teenagers.
Trevor Hardy, now 63, was convicted in May 1977 of
killing Janet Stewart, 15, Wanda Skala, 18, and Sharon Mosoph, also
17, and given three life sentences.
Mr Justice Teare, at London's High Court, has ruled
that Hardy must serve the whole of his life in jail.
He said Hardy - already one of Britain's longest-serving
prisoners - was still protesting his innocence and had shown not a
shred of remorse.
On New Year's Eve 1974, Hardy mistook Janet - a
Rose Queen at the Harpurhey church she attended - for a schoolgirl
with whom he was infatuated.
He stabbed and buried the teenager in a shallow
grave in Newton Heath. He also ripped a ring off her finger and gave
it to another girl as a love token.
Wanda, a barmaid from Moston, was walking home from
work at the Lightbowne Hotel when she was hit with a brick, robbed and
strangled in July 1975.
Her body was found on a building site. Hardy had
stripped and mutilated her and kept blood-stained clothes and her
handbag as grisly trophies.
Sharon, of Failsworth, was stabbed and strangled
before her stripped and mutilated body was dumped in the Rochdale
Canal in March 1976.
She had been on her way home from a staff party
when she caught Hardy trying to break into Marlborough Mill.
Quarries
After the murder Hardy went on the run, living in
quarries, railway tunnels and canal banks and violently sexually
assaulted another woman in a pub toilet.
Setting a whole-life tariff for Hardy, Judge Teare
said the evidence showed `sexual or sadistic conduct' and there were
`no mitigating features'.
He said: "Hardy does not accept his guilt and
therefore shows no remorse."
Rejecting Hardy's plea that his minimum jail term
should be around 30 years, the judge said: "This is a case where the
gravity of the offences justifies a whole life order."
He remarked on Hardy's `good work record' in prison,
where he is trusted with access to sharp implements. However, he said
that could make no difference to his view that Hardy can never be
released.
The murders of the three young girls appalled
Manchester. Hardy began his killing spree after being released on
parole for battering a man with a pickaxe in a row over a round of
drinks.
Hardy was arrested for the murder of Wanda after he
bragged of it to his younger brother. While in custody, Hardy filed
his teeth into points so they wouldn't match the bite marks he had
left on her body.
Because of this and an alibi he had arranged, Hardy
was freed. Six months later, he killed Sharon.
At his trial, Hardy sacked his QC and conducted his
own defence before attempting to confess to manslaughter. His plea was
rejected and he was found guilty of murder.
