The evil rapist who drowned his mother in the bathtub dies in prison weeks after being given freedom

A dangerous sex offender who murdered his girlfriend and hid her body in a rolled-up carpet has died in prison.

Victor Farrant died of cancer on Friday May 3, just months after his victim’s devastated family was told his release was being considered on compassionate grounds. The 74-year-old from Portsmouth was sentenced to life in prison in 1998 for the brutal murder of his former girlfriend Glenda Hoskins, 44, and the attempted murder of Ann Fidler, 45.

Glenda’s son Iain, who owns Ma Boyle’s in Liverpool city centre, told the Daily Mirror: “Farrant’s life sentence and the judge’s comment that he should die in prison should have been respected.” However, Farrant’s death, like his imprisonment, changes nothing for us.

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“The circumstances and death of our mother Glenda Hoskins will haunt us for the rest of our lives.

“However, his death ends a very painful chapter for all of us. We and the general public should certainly feel safer now that this repeat offender and psychopath will not strike again.”

Back in March, Iain and his siblings David and Katie made an urgent appeal for the government to keep Farrant behind bars after they were told he was being considered for early release due to his terminal illness.

They wanted a change in the law to prevent prisoners from being released early on compassionate grounds when a judge has declared they should never leave prison.

He said at the time: “For anyone who has a say in this consideration, it is a completely reckless decision. Anyone who chooses to be released may have blood on their hands.

“He could strike again with anyone. It may not be a vengeful or vengeful attack on us or our family. It could be the nurse at the hospice he was discharged to, it could be the woman at the corner store.”

It was February 1996 when Farrant drowned Glenda, his ex-girlfriend, in the bathtub after demanding sex. He then rolled her body in a carpet and hid it in the attic before escaping in Glenda’s car, stopping on the south coast along the way to sell her belongings.

In a cruel twist, it was Glenda’s 15-year-old daughter Katie who found her body after failing to pick her and David up from school.

Farrant, meanwhile, fled overseas. He became Britain’s most notorious fugitive as Interpol searched the continent for Farrant in one of the biggest manhunts ever.

Glenda’s children believe that Farrant should not have had the freedom to kill their mother in the first place. He had already been sentenced to twelve years in prison in 1988 for raping a woman and inflicting serious bodily harm on her and attacking another woman with a bread knife.

But he only served six years of that sentence before being released on license. Just a month after his early release on December 27, 1995, Farrant visited sex worker Ann Fidler and attacked her with bottles and an iron, leaving her with partial brain damage and no memory of the incident.

DNA evidence left at the crime scene may have linked Farrant to the brutal attack, and the Hoskins family believes he should have been arrested before he had the opportunity to kill their mother.

Instead, the future killer began dating Glenda while pretending to be a successful airline pilot. When she ended the relationship, the possessive Farrant stalked her before murdering her in her own home.

Katie said: “Our family has been massively let down by the prison system and the Home Office before. Had Farrant not made sure beforehand that he could be released early and unsupervised; if the prison system had listened to his probation officer, Judith Hartsilver, who could see through him and know what he was; If he had been properly supervised and his fingerprints and DNA had been in every police database, our mother would still be alive.”

Farrant was still on the run when police made a direct appeal to him on Crimewatch UK to turn himself in, as ten women across the UK were under police protection because of him.

He was finally arrested in July 1996 after a British tourist recognized him while working at a hostel in Nice, France. But it was not until January 1997 that Farrant was extradited to Great Britain. A year later he was found guilty at Winchester Crown Court of the murder of Glenda and the attempted murder of Ann.

He was sentenced to life in prison for murder and sentenced to an additional 18 years for attempted murder. Judge Butterfield said Glenda’s murder was “a reckless, callous and evil act”, adding that the act was “planned, premeditated and committed in cold blood”.

He said: “You have destroyed many other people’s lives. You should not be given the opportunity to do this again. This murder was so terrible and you are so dangerous that the life sentence in your case means exactly that. You will never be released.”

Iain said: “This brings to an end an agonizing two months since the Ministry of Justice contacted us about plans for his early release. For me as a victim, the lack of information and clarity about the steps in this process was confusing and unnecessary.

“We believe that, while respecting the judicial process, we could have been spared a great deal of pain and mental anguish had we been able to have better access to the facts of his application for release.”

A Prison Service spokesman said: “Victor Farrant died at HMP Wakefield on May 3rd. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.”

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