This year has seen a string of murderers convicted and locked up for appalling and sickening crimes. Among the most high-profle of these was Ali Harbi Ali, who was given a whole life order for the terror-related murder of MP Sir David Amess.
Just days before Christmas quadruple killer Damien Bendall was sentenced to a whole life term for murdering his pregnant partner Terri Harris, her two children Lacey and John Paul Bennett and Lacey’s friend Connie Gent. Bendall also raped Lacey as she lay dying.
In Scotland, the family of Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son finally saw someone jailed for their murders. Their bodies have never been found since their disappearance more than four decades ago, and the case was one of the longest running missing persons inquiries in the country. William MacDowell, 81, was handed a life sentence after being found guilty of the murders.
The case of five-year-old Logan Mwangi, who was found dead in a river in Bridgend, Wales, shocked the whole nation. It transpired that Logan was the victim of a campaign of abuse. His mother Angharad Williamson, her partner John Cole, and Cole’s stepson - who was only 13 years old at the time of Logan’s death, were all locked up after being found guilty of murder.
Here are 20 of the most notorious criminals who faced justice this year.
In Scotland, the family of Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son finally saw someone jailed for their murders. Their bodies have never been found since their disappearance more than four decades ago, and the case was one of the longest running missing persons inquiries in the country. William MacDowell, 81, was handed a life sentence after being found guilty of the murders.
17. Ian Stewart.
Ian Stewart was already serving a life sentence for the murder of his fiancee, when he was convicted of killing his wife.
He killed 51-year-old children’s author Helen Bailey in 2016 and was found guilty of her murder in 2017.
After this conviction, police investigated the 2010 death of Stewart’s wife Diane, 47, and in February he was found guilty of her murder.
Stewart was sentenced to a whole-life order at St Albans Crown Court.
However, this was quashed after he appealed his sentenced and a minimum term of 35 years put in its place.
After killing Helen Stewart dumped her body in the cesspit of the £1.5 million home they shared in Royston, Hertfordshire.
Several years before, Diane’s cause of death was recorded at the time as Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP).
Stewart had claimed in court that he had returned from the supermarket to the family home in Cambridgeshire, and found his wife collapsed in the garden.
He said he thought she had suffered an epileptic fit. However she had not suffered from one in 18 years.
18. Hakeem Kigundu.
Arsonist Hakeem Kigundu killed two of his neighbours in a “premeditated and devastating revenge attack.” In October he was sentenced to a whole life order in jail.
Kigundu, 32,had admitted pouring petrol in the hallways of Rowe Court in Reading, Berkshire, and starting the fire that killed Richard Burgess, 46, and Neil Morris, 45, at around 2.45am on 15 December, 2021.
Two residents were also seriously hurt, Joel Richards suffered third-degree burns, while Laura Wiggins was left with a punctured lung, a kidney hematoma and fractures to her pelvis, ribs, right arm and spine.
Kigundu also outlined his intention to kill his neighbours in a voice note, and created an email address with the words “burn them all”.
The court heard Kigundu planned the attack after growing angry that his neighbours had complained about his antisocial behaviour and losing his job as a BT engineer in the months before.
19. James Watson.
Rikki Neave was 6 years old when he was found dead in woodland near his home in Peterborough in 1994. Twenty eight years later James Watson was found guilty of his murder.
Watson was 13 when he lured schoolboy Rikki to woods near his home in and strangled him to fulfil a “morbid fantasy” he had told his mother about three days before.
He stripped Rikki and posed his naked body in a star shape for sexual gratification, deliberately “exhibiting” him near a children’s woodland den.
Rikki’s murder was among the most high-profile cold cases on police files until Watson’s DNA was identified on the victim’s clothes following a re-examination of the case.
He was given a life sentence with a minimum of 15 years. The judge said the law meant Watson had to be handed a term relevant to his age at the time of the offence. Photo: g
20. Jordan McSweeney.
Jordan McSweeney admitted the sexual assault and murder of Zara Aleena as she walked home from a night out on 26 June.
The sexual predator, 29, was captured on CCTV following three other women and confronting a fourth before he targeted Zara in Illford, east London. Zara was found with severe head injuries and struggling to breathe and emergency services were called at 2.44am. She died in hospital a short time later. McSweeney was sentenced to at least 38 years for the murder of the law graduate.