“MAD” HOWARD HUGHES | Child Rape Murder of 7yo SOPHIE HOOK | Klinefelter Syndrome (XXY Chr) | British National Party Controversy | ALS/ Envelope Signed from HMP Frankland–Unit for Dangerous Inmates

Mr. Hughes. ALS. Airletter. 8.25 x 4 in. SEALED. Content unknown. Pristine.

• A/k/a: "Mad Howard"
• Classification: Murderer
• Characteristics: Rape
• Number of victims: 1
• Date of murder: July 29, 1995
• Date of arrest: Same day
• Date of birth: 1965 (age 58)
• Victim profile: Sophie Hook, 7
• Method of murder: Strangulation
• Location: Llandudno (pron: lan·did·now), Wales, United Kingdom
• Status: Sentenced to life in prison on July 18, 1996ⁱ

Howard Hughes (b. 1965 | age 58; hereinafter referred to as “Mad” Howard) is a convicted child murderer.

Early life

"Mad" Howard was born in Llandudno, North Wales, in 1965, the youngest of four children born to Gerald and Renee Hughes. He had three older sisters, and his father was a wealthy businessman who ran a construction firm. He was born with a genetic disorder which caused him to grow at an abnormally quick rate, and on starting primary school in 1969 he quickly gained a reputation for being aggressive with other pupils.

He was expelled from several primary and secondary schools for violent attacks on other pupils, and at one stage his father offered the headteacher of one private school double fees to keep him on, but the headteacher refused to allow Howard to remain at the school.

"Mad" Howard would regularly play truant from school, where he and other tearaways would steal items including bicycles from garden sheds. He would sell stolen bicycles from the garden of the family home. When his parents divorced, he moved into his mother's house.

Involvement in crime

In 1981, "Mad" Howard came to the attention of the police when, at the age of 16, he was detained for violently strangling a seven-year-old boy, leaving him unconscious and requiring hospitalization. He was sentenced to probation after being found guilty of assault.

He moved into a Llandudno apartment after leaving home, where he started a protracted argument with the woman who lived next door. He frequently played loud music, threatened to "blow her head off" with a gun, and peered over the fence while she was sunbathing.

In 1985, "Mad" Howard was briefly admitted to a mental hospital in Northamptonshire but failed to make any real progress. According to a friend, he continued to walk the streets of Llandudno and look up girls’ skirts while standing below a footbridge, as well as peering into the dormitory at an all-girls boarding school.

In 1987, he was charged with raping a 14-year-old girl but the case collapsed due to a lack of evidence. By this stage, the local school children had given him the nickname "Mad Howard".

The Sophie Hook murder

On July 29,1995, seven-year-old Sophie Hook traveled to Llandudno.

She was allowed to sleep in the back garden in a tent that night with the two other children, both family members. In the morning, Sophie was missing. Her naked body was later found washed up on the beach at Craig-y-Don at just after 7:00 am by a man walking his dog.

Sophie's parents identified her body later that day, and a post mortem revealed that she had been raped and strangled. "Mad" Howard was arrested within hours of Sophie's body being found, and he was charged with murder two days later.

The trial

"Mad" Howard went on trial at Chester Crown Court on June 24, 1996, charged with abduction, rape and murder.

The jury heard no forensic evidence which linked "Mad" Howard to Sophie's death, but they received valuable information from three witnesses. "Mad" Howard's father Gerald told the jury that his son had admitted the murder to him shortly after he was arrested and being held in custody at a local police station.

Jonathan Carroll, a 30-year-old thief who was in prison at the time he testified, told the jury that he had seen "Mad" Howard carrying a hessian sack along a Llandudno street on the night of Sophie's murder, and that he had caught a glimpse of a body in the sack. A third witness, convicted child sex offender Michael Guidi, testified that "Mad" Howard had boasted to him some time earlier that he would like to 'rape a girl of 4 or 5'.

The jury also heard details of the injuries that Sophie had sustained in the attack, many of which had been inflicted before she died. However, there was no forensic evidence to link "Mad" Howard to these injuries.

On July 18, 1996, the jury returned a guilty verdict on all three charges against "Mad" Howard. The 31-year-old was then given three life sentences by trial judge Mr Justice Curtis, who branded "Mad" Howard a 'fiend' and recommended that he should never be released from prison.

Appeals

On September 5, 1997, the Court of Appeal gave "Mad" Howard leave to appeal against his conviction for the abduction, rape and murder of Sophie Hook. Six months later he sparked further outrage by launching a £50,000 compensation claim against the Bryn Estyn children's home, where he claimed he was abused as a child. Two weeks later, the Court of Appeal rejected "Mad" Howard's bid to have his convictions quashed.

"Mad" Howard's second appeal took place on September 4, 2001, but the Court of Appeal again decided that there were no grounds for his convictions to be quashed. The judges who made the decision also ruled that they would not allow "Mad" Howard to further contest his convictions unless any new evidence turned up. "Mad" Howard then decided to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights, but has so far yet to do this.

Doubts over "Mad" Howard's guilt

There have been some doubts over whether "Mad" Howard was actually the murderer ever since he was convicted of the crime in 1996, largely due to the fact there was no more than circumstantial evidence to connect him to the crime at the time of his trial – and no further evidence has turned up since, circumstantial or forensic. This fact did not go unnoticed by local and national press at the time of the murder.

Blunkett's sentencing decision

On November 24, 2002, the then Home Secretary David Blunkett announced that four convicted child murderers would each spend a minimum of 50 years behind bars before being considered parole. "Mad" Howard was one of them, the others were Roy Whiting, Timothy Morss and Brett Tyler.

This ruling meant that "Mad" Howard would not be considered for release until 2045 and the age of 80, but the Home Secretary's powers of setting minimum terms was stripped within 48 hours as a result of a legal challenge by another convicted murderer who took his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

British National Party controversy

In June 2004, the far right British National Party came under heavy media and public criticism for distributing literature across North Wales featuring an image of Sophie Hook and several other victims of similar murders as part of a leaflet campaign for a return of the death penalty. Gerry Davies, the man who found Sophie's body, spoke of his disgust at the BNP's exploitation of the tragedy and voiced his opinion that it was a “vote loser” for the BNP rather than a “vote winner”.ⁱⁱ

• VIDEO: Murder in Merseyside: The Summer of Death | https://youtu.be/hF0ymJZoT8k
• VIDEO: North Wales Most Evil Killers - (Crime documentary 2020), 10:20 | https://youtu.be/mPO66QVOKAs

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