Derek bentley biography

This page is dedicated to Derek Bentley, who was hanged on 28 January 1953 for a murder he did not commit. Here is his story.

Bentley, completely unarmed and while being held by a policeman after an abortive break-in, is alleged to have called out to his accomplice "Let him have it, Chris".

After a while, Chris Craig shot and killed a policeman.

Derek bentley film

16-year-old Craig was jailed - 19-year-old Bentley was hanged. The story has generated several books, a film and even some songs. It took 16619 days from Derek's death, but he has, at long last, been pardoned (see my view of the story).

12 May 1999 - the Home Secretary has decided to give compensation to the Bentley family, after an earlier request (13 April) had been denied (BBC and Yahoo). He had said that the mistakes of the trial judge did not fall within the allowed reasons for awarding compensation.

He had also refused to invoke the 'particular circumstances' rule which would have allowed compensation.