Rapist Victor Farrant, who drowned his mother, dies in prison just weeks after trying to be released

A convicted murderer and rapist who drowned a mother in the bathtub before hiding her body in a rolled-up carpet has died in prison just weeks after attempting a compassionate release.

Victor Farrant was serving a rare life sentence for the murder of his former girlfriend Glenda Hoskins, 44, and the attempted murder of Ann Fidler, 45. He was convicted at Winchester Crown Court in 1998, where Judge Butterfield declared that he was so dangerous that he “should never be released.”

Still, officials informed Ms. Hoskins’ family in March that Farrant, 74, who has terminal cancer, was being considered for compassionate release. But on Saturday (May 4) it was confirmed to David, Katie and Iain Hoskins – Glenda’s children, who were 13, 15 and 21 at the time of her murder – that Farrant had died the day before at HMP Wakefield,” reports the Mirror .

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Liverpool restaurateur Iain, now 47, 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. 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.”

The Mirror exclusively revealed last month how the family received the devastating news that the terminally ill Farrant was being considered for early release so he could be cared for outside prison – and that the decision to release him could be made within weeks.

The angry family made an urgent appeal to the government to keep Farrant behind bars until his death. They wanted a change in the law to prevent the early release of prisoners on compassionate grounds when a judge has declared they should never leave prison

It was February 1996 when Portsmouth worker Farrant drowned 45-year-old Ms Hoskins, his ex-girlfriend, in the bathtub after demanding sex. He then hid her body, rolled up in a piece of carpet, in the attic before fleeing the scene.

In a cruel twist, Ms Hoskins’ 15-year-old daughter Katie found her accountant’s body in the attic after she neglected to pick her and David up from school.

After the murder, Farrant fled in Ms Hoskins’ car, stopping to sell her belongings on the way to the south coast where he escaped to Europe. He became Britain’s most notorious fugitive as Interpol searched the continent for Farrant in one of the biggest manhunts ever.

Ms Hoskins’ children believe 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 – which gave him the freedom to commit murder. He met Ms. Hoskins in 1993 when she was released from prison.

Then, just a month after his early release from prison on December 27, 1995, Farrant visited former Downing Street secretary and later sex worker Ann Fidler before attacking her with bottles and an iron, leaving her with partial brain damage had no memory of the incident.

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

Instead, the fiend took up his relationship with Mrs. Hoskins, who was separated from her husband Tony, and told her that, according to Iain, he was an airline pilot.

When she ended the relationship, the possessive Farrant began stalking 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. “If Farrant hadn’t already thought about being let out 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 of the murder of Ms Hoskins and the attempted murder of Ms Fidler at Winchester Crown Court.

He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Ms Hoskins and a further 18 years for the attempted murder of Ms Fidler. Judge Butterfield said Ms Hoskins’ murder was “a reckless, callous and evil act”.

He added that her murder was a crime that was “planned, premeditated and committed in cold blood” and that Farrant was not prepared to accept denial.

The judge called Farrant a “highly dangerous man” who had shown no remorse and told him: “You have destroyed the lives of many other people.” You should not be given the opportunity to do that 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, whose family wrote to Justice Secretary Alex Chalk and Home Office Secretary James Cleverly asking them not to release Farrant when his release was being compassionately considered, last night thanked MPs Penny Mordaunt, Kim Johnson, Flick Drummond and Mr Chalk for theirs Support.

He added: “This brings to an end an agonizing two months since the Department 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 given 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.”