True Crime With Caledonian Kitty

(Elizabeth Valad and Bridgette MacClennan above. Anthony John Hardy and his flat below) 

In my final post in The Camden Ripper case, please be aware as with parts one, two and three that the following includes some graphic and disturbing details.

The homeless man was doing his usual routine of looking through the bins for any bits of left over food and on this occasion he was looking in the bins outside of Anthony's council block.

As he lifted up the heavy lid of the bin, the smell of rotten food was overpowering but he spotted what looked like meat wrapped up in black bin liners. He took the objects out and began to unwrap them. To his horror and disgust he was holding two severed female legs in his hands. The police were contacted immediately and the whole area was cordoned off and searched. More female remains were found in various bins around the area and the police knew whose door to knock on first.

When the police arrived at Anthony's flat he was nowhere to be seen but they found a bin bag containing a woman's torso, a hacksaw and an electric power saw, both of which contained pieces of human flesh still attached. There was also pools of blood on the floor.

The neighbours had mentioned to the police as they did their door to door enquiries that they would often hear drilling noises coming from Anthony's flat at all hours of the day and night. 

The hunt was on to find Anthony John Hardy and to identify the human remains found in the bins and the flat. 

The remains identified belonged to two women, Bridgette MacClennan (34) and Elizabeth Valad (29). Their heads and hands were never found. Elizabeth was identified by the serial number that was on her breast implants. 

Bridgette MacClennan was originally from New Zealand and was the mother of two boys. Bridgette was said to have been a heavy cocaine user and would fund her addiction through prostitution. Anthony was one of her regular customers and police believe that she was either murdered and dismembered on the 30th of December 2002 or shortly before due to the condition of the remains. 

Elizabeth Selina Valad was born in Nottingham in 1972 and was described as rebellious from a young age. She came from a respectable family and her father was a professor at a University. When she was younger she lived with her parents in America but moved back to the UK when her parents got divorced. At 16 she seemed to go even further off the rails and her mother described her as being a difficult child who mixed with the wrong crowd. She would steal items out of her mother's house and disappear for days on end. She moved to London and by the age of 18 she was married and had a baby daughter. One day, Elizabeth decided that she was tired of being a mother and a wife and walked out on her family.

She began working in a massage parlour where she met a married, multimillionaire in his 70s. He became a sugar daddy figure for her and she described him as her ''meal ticket''. The man paid for her to live in an expensive apartment in London, bought her designer clothes and a car. This went on for 10 years and even during this period she would continue to work as a prostitute. 

When she did visit her family they were concerned about where all the money was coming from and how she could afford to live such a lavish lifestyle. She told her parents that she was working as a secretary but they didn't believe her so she told them the truth. Despite her parents concerns and pleas to give up this lifestyle, she refused and said that she loved the money too much.

When the relationship ended with the man she claimed to be her ''meal ticket'', she ended up working full time as a sex worker. 

People who knew her said that her life had taken a drastic downturn in the last few months of her life and she became a heavy cocaine user. When she worked in the massage parlour she would charge £30 a time for her services but by then she was so desperate that she would charge less and less just so she could get some drugs. 

Anthony must have thought he'd found another easy, vulnerable victim who he could persuade back to his flat with the promises of money and drugs. 

The police reviewed the CCTV cameras around Anthony's housing block and sure enough, Anthony was seen placing the bin liners containing the victims remains in the bins. At one point Anthony looked up at the camera. He was well aware that CCTV cameras were there and this was another demonstration of his arrogance and his overconfidence at thinking he was going to get away with it again.

Anthony managed to evade arrest for a week after the remains were discovered. He didn't exactly go out of his way to hide from the police as he continued to stay in Camden and freely walked around the streets. His face was splashed all over the newspapers and whilst on the run he shaved his beard in an attempt to alter his appearance. He wore his usual long black coat and a black baseball cap.

He was spotted by an off duty policeman at Great Ormond Street Hospital whilst he was collecting his medication. The policeman contacted his colleagues and they arrived at the hospital swiftly. Anthony knew the game was up but did his best to hide. During a search of the hospital, Anthony was found hiding behind some bins.

As the police tried to arrest him there was a scuffle as Anthony tried to resist arrest. One of the police officers was knocked unconscious and another was stabbed through the hand and his eye socket was dislocated. Despite suffering these painful injuries, the policeman managed to hold onto Anthony until backup arrived and he was arrested at the scene.

At the police station, Anthony replied ''no comment'' to every question put to him by the police. He was charged with the murders of Bridgette MacClennan and Elizabeth Valad.

Among the evidence against Anthony, the police had 44 pornographic pictures that Anthony had taken of Bridgette and Elizabeth. He had sent these pictures to a friend for safe keeping, the friend later turned them over to the police after the victims remains were discovered. One of the pictures depicted Elizabeth lying naked, posed on the bed with a sex toy and she was wearing a devil mask and a baseball hat. The devil mask and baseball hat were still in the flat when the police did their search. Elizabeth and Bridgette's blood was also found in his bathroom as he had dismembered them in his bathtub.


In November of 2003, Anthony John Hardy's trial began and as he knew the evidence was stacked up against him, he changed his plea to guilty and to the surprise of everyone, he claimed to be responsible for not only Bridgette and Elizabeth's death but also to Sally's death too. His confession about Sally's death had put the original conclusion by Dr Freddy Patel into question that she had died from natural causes.

The forensic pathologist Dr Freddy Patel was later suspended from the government's register of pathologists pending an enquiry into not only his findings in this case but in the death of Ian Tomlinson as well as many other cases. In 2012 his name was erased from the medical register by the General Medical Council, meaning that he can no longer practice medicine in the UK.

During the trial it was revealed how each of the women who died at the hands of Anthony John Hardy met their deaths. Anthony lured them to his flat with promises of money and drugs. He then engaged in extreme sex with the women before strangling them. He was described in court as a ''pornography obsessed necrophiliac'' who achieved sexual gratification by posing the nude bodies of his victims after death and taking explicit photos of their naked corpses. As he was disrupted by the police the first time they visited his flat and found Sally, he didn't have the chance to dismember and dispose of her body as he had done with Bridgette and Elizabeth. Police are sure had they not been there, Anthony would have done the same with Sally's remains.

During sentencing, Judge Justice Keith said to Anthony ''Only you know for sure how your victims met their deaths but the unspeakable indignities to which you subjected the bodies of your last two victims in order to satisfy your depraved and perverted needs are in no doubt.''

On the 25th of November 2003, Anthony John Hardy was given three life sentences.

 In May 2010 a High Court judge decided that Anthony should never be released from prison and placed him on the list of life tariff prisoners. Justice Keith said ''This is one of those exceptionally rare cases in which life should mean life.''

The police believe that Anthony John Hardy could be responsible for the deaths of other women in London but they have struggled to find evidence to charge him.

There was a lot of anger towards the authorities for releasing Anthony back onto the streets despite the fact there was damning evidence that he was a danger to women. The Daily Mail newspaper had reported that health supervisors were so scared of him that they refused to go to his council flat, agreeing to meet him only in cafes.

A public enquiry was held into why he was released when he was such a threat to society. There were calls for the panel of the three health managers (who deemed him fit to be released despite concerns by psychiatrists that he was a danger to women) to be fired from their positions. Some people argued that Anthony was a master manipulator and had managed to fool the panel and that the blame rests on him. The fact remains that if he had still been kept in the hospital, Elizabeth and Bridgette may have been alive today.

This was such a disturbing and gruesome case to cover and I started from scratch as I didn't know that much about it. It's unbelievable the amount of red flags that were ignored when it came to Anthony. I also feel very sad about the victims. When I write about the victims of crimes in my posts, I always aim to be truthful and talk about their backgrounds. Going into the backgrounds of these women was very upsetting, they had such hard lives and when I've researched similar cases in the past I can't help but wonder about the families of these women. I'm not placing blame on anyone as adults are free to make their own choices in life but I can't help but wonder what drives a young woman to run away from her family and prefer to live on her own, on the streets and turning to prostitution.

I used to work as a support worker for women who had been through sexual assault and forced into prostitution and I learnt a lot about their backgrounds and why they felt the need to run away. Some were forced into a life of drugs and prostitution because of their boyfriends or even family members. The stories I were told were very harrowing and I do feel sad for these women and men who feel that they have no choice.

It's also scary to think that there are still murders in London that remain unsolved but the police believe that Anthony may have had more victims. I think that's the case too as we have seen time and again that serial killers often have been responsible for more deaths but have only been charged in the cases where evidence has been found. I think Anthony could be responsible for murders in Australia too. We may never know but can take some comfort in knowing that he is locked up and will never be released.

Thank you as always for reading my latest case. It means a lot to me when someone comments on here or twitter about how they've enjoyed my posts or learnt about a case they hadn't heard of before. I always try to leave no stone unturned when I do my research.

RIP Sally Rose White.
RIP Bridgette MacClennan.
RIP Elizabeth Selina Valad.

Further reading & sources:

The History Of The Camden Ripper
Anthony Hardy Wikipedia
Anthony Hardy Murderpedia
Camden Ripper Must never Be Released
The Hunt For The Camden Ripper
Killers: Anthony Hardy

See you in the next post x

(A room in Anthony John Hardy's flat in Camden. There was a number of Television sets in this room along with a vast collection of pornographic videotapes. Photo credit: horrorgalore.com)

As I mentioned in part one, this post may contain some graphic and disturbing details.

Once Anthony had returned to the UK he managed to find his wife and children pretty quickly. He wasn't happy that Judith had started divorce proceedings against him and began stalking and threatening her. She reported him to the police and had a restraining order put out against him. Being the determined individual he was, he broke the restraining order and continued harassing her until he was arrested. He spent a short time in prison for violating the order.

Following his release from prison he attended outpatient clinics and was diagnosed with diabetes and manic depression. He was prescribed medication for both of these health issues.

In the early to mid 90s, Anthony developed an addiction to alcohol and drugs. He ended up living on the streets and would sometimes live at different hostels. He would be involved in various thefts and was arrested on various occasions for his aggressive behaviour. He ended up in jail again for a short period of time.

In 1998, a sex worker had reported him to the police for rape but due to lack of evidence the charges were dropped.

Anthony had a horrible view of women but had somehow managed to strike up and maintain a ten year friendship with a lady called Maureen Reeves. They would meet each other for coffee every now and then and Maureen was very fond of him and would later say that she always found him a very interesting and intelligent person. There was no love interest between the pair and Maureen knew of his obsession with Jack The Ripper. She would later comment that Anthony was always reading books about Jack The Ripper and talked about how fascinated he was with how he'd outsmarted the police. Maureen didn't seem to be that alarmed that her friend was obsessed with an infamous murderer. When she heard about what Anthony had later done, she was in shock and couldn't believe it was the same person that she had known for all those years.

In 2000, Anthony had his sights set on a flat in Camden. He chose this flat specifically because it was near Kings Cross which had a well known area for sex workers, drug dealers and pimps. It would be easy for him to find sex workers who would help him indulge in his addiction to violent sex if he promised them money and drugs.

It was around this time that a man who had been walking along the River Thames saw something floating in the water. On closer inspection he made the horrific discovery that the object in the water was the upper remains of a woman who's body had been severed at the waist. The police had to use pictures of her distinctive tattoo and a twisted lateral incisor tooth in hopes that someone would be able to come forward and identify her. After seeing the pictures in a newspaper her relatives came forward and she was identified as Zoe Louise Parker. Zoe was a 24 year old who had been working as a sex worker in the Feltham and Hounslow areas of London. She'd been described by her mother as a caring, loving daughter who had suffered from learning disabilities. [The police have never found Zoe's killer but they suspected that Anthony John Hardy may have been responsible but there is no evidence to connect him to her murder]

Less than two months later another horrific discovery was made and this time it was by a group of ten year old boys who had been fishing in the Regent's canal in Camden. The boys saw a bag floating in the water and being curious they decided to open it. To their horror, the bag contained human remains. The police were called and the canal was searched. Six bags were found which contained various female body parts wrapped in bin liners. Not all of the victim's body was accounted for and bricks had been put inside the bags in an attempt to weigh them down in the water.

Investigators suspected that the rest of the victim's body could still be in the canal or possibly kept as trophies by the murderer. The victim was later identified as 31 year old Paula Fields who was originally from Liverpool. She was a mother of two children and had lived in the Highbury Grove area of London. She'd been living in London and had somehow become involved in drugs and prostitution. Paula had been working as a sex worker to help fund her £150 a day cocaine habit. She was last seen getting into a red car and investigators believed that a hacksaw was likely used to dismember her body. Her ex boyfriend was the prime suspect at the beginning of the investigation due to his violent criminal past but he was soon released due to lack of evidence.

Paula's ex boyfriend John Sweeney was later charged with her murder and sentenced to life without parole. He had also murdered and dismembered another former girlfriend and disposed of the woman's remains in a canal in Rotterdam.

Once Anthony John Hardy had moved into the one bedroomed council flat on Royal College Street in Camden he was able to have access to sex workers on a regular basis. He would often be seen looking unshaven and would go for days without washing himself. He would dress in a long black coat and a black baseball cap. The neighbours thought he was a bit of a weirdo and would often see him coming back to his flat with different women. The man who lived next door to him said that he didn't see him much in the daytime but whenever he did happen to come across him, he described him as polite and friendly.

It didn't take much to anger Anthony and when the neighbour above him had a problem with her shower which was causing a leak into his flat, he became enraged. Instead of calling the council and sorting the problem out in a sensible manner, Anthony decided that this woman had wronged him and that he needed to get revenge.

He got some black paint and painted obscenities on her front door and then poured battery acid through her letterbox. The woman, understandably terrified, called the police who came out to investigate the situation. When the lady was interviewed by the police she spoke about how something wasn't quite right about Anthony and that she felt something odd was going on in his flat. She also mentioned that he always had women coming and going at all hours of the night.

The police went to Anthony's flat anyway because of the damage he had done to his neighbour's front door but they thought they would have a quick search of his flat just to be on the safe side.

When Anthony answered the door he was polite and let the officers come inside. The officers noticed that the flat was cluttered with strange yellow and red symbols painted all over the walls and there was an off-putting smell. Anthony looked like he'd been in the middle of something and officers found it suspicious how enthusiastic he was to come to the station with them. They noticed a locked door with a jacket pushed up against the bottom of it. When they asked for the key, Anthony claimed that the room belonged to a lodger and he didn't have the key. As he went to grab his coat, an officer reached into one of the pockets and the key fell out.

Not knowing what was going to be on the other side of that door, the officer turned the key and couldn't believe what he was seeing before him.

Continued in part three...

(Anthony John Hardy. Photo credit: really.uktv.co.uk) 

In the early 2000s, fear was in the air in London. Dismembered female remains were being discovered in bins, in a canal in Camden and in the River Thames. All of the victims were sex workers and the murders had echoes of the infamous Jack The Ripper case. Nobody knew when or where the murderer would strike next. 

In this series of posts I will be focusing on the crimes and background of Anthony John Hardy and his victims. Anthony was given the nickname ''The Camden Ripper'' by the press which I'm sure had suited him fine as he was obsessed with Jack The Ripper and aimed to follow in his footsteps. As you know, I always aim to give a detailed account of what happened during the crimes and sometimes graphic and disturbing details are included in the posts. 

Before I begin, this case was requested by one of my supporters. If you would like to request a case for me to cover or donate a coffee to help me continue the weekly true crime cases, maintain my blog or my RT account for bloggers on Twitter, you can do so by donating a coffee for a small fee here. If you do decided to donate, thank you so much, I really do appreciate it. 

Let's begin...

Anthony John Hardy's childhood was a quiet one, there was nothing alarming about him. He was a well behaved boy who was very intelligent for his age and would always strive to do better especially when it came to his school work. He was born on the 31st of May 1951 in Burton Upon Trent, Staffordshire, England and was the youngest of five children. His father was a Coal Miner and like a lot of working class families back then, it was expected that Anthony would grow up to follow in his father's footsteps. Anthony had a bit of a snobbish attitude to his working class background and didn't want to be a Coal Miner, he wanted the finer things in life and he decided to work even harder to get them.

He excelled academically at school and his teachers described him as a bright individual who was quick to learn and was well mannered. He attended grammar school and later won a place at the Imperial College in London. People who knew him back then describe Anthony as being very charismatic, intelligent and good looking. He was popular with girls and was a natural at holding interesting and pleasant conversations with both male and female friends.

It was during college that Anthony met and fell in love with Judith Dwight, she was very taken with his charming personality and found him to be both attractive and very intelligent. He seemed to be the perfect gentleman and it wasn't long till Anthony asked Judith to marry him. Judith accepted and they were both looking forward to sharing their lives together. After graduating, Anthony got a job as an Engineer with British Sugar which was quite a high status job. Things were working out perfectly for Anthony and now that they were financially stable, he and Judith began making plans to start a family.

Anthony and Judith's marriage in the beginning seemed to be a happy one and they were blessed with three sons and one daughter.

By Anthony's late 20s, cracks began to appear in the marriage and he would become verbally abusive to Judith and his children. He would have mood swings and would often sit staring into space. Judith tried her best to support him and make things easy for him when he was at home, she thought his behaviour was down to stress from work. Unknown to her, Anthony was visiting sex workers and having affairs whilst he was travelling away from home for work.

As well as suffering from mood swings and depression, Anthony became obsessed with violent sex and the women he had slept with during his marriage later came forward to say that he would strangle them during sex to the point where they couldn't breath and they had to beg him to stop or fight him off.

Anthony's mood swings and depression got worse when he lost his job due to the economic downturn. His abuse toward his wife and children would often turn physical. After numerous arguments, Judith persuaded him to see a Doctor and he was prescribed some antidepressants. With his mood swings and extreme highs and lows, Anthony at that time should have been diagnosed as bipolar but it was the mid 70s and it was a time when not much was really known about mental health.

Despite this slump, a surprising opportunity came Anthony's way when he was offered an Engineering job in Tasmania in Australia. It was an amazing opportunity and meant that the family would have to emigrate but they were very excited about it and Anthony seemed to have a new lease of life and things seemed to be working out again. He was in a better mood and Judith and the children were glad that they didn't have to walk on eggshells around him.

When Anthony was in a good mood he could be a really nice and fun person to be around but when he was angry, he was terrifying.

Once the family had settled in Australia and Anthony was enjoying his new job, things were going great. Despite all the positive things in his life, Anthony began to crave violent sex again and particularly enjoyed violent sex with prostitutes. He began his secret visits to sex workers and saunas behind Judith's back.

Problems struck again when Anthony lost his job due to cuts and his depression and mood swings returned. It seemed that the violent sex with prostitutes wasn't doing anything to help curb his frustration. He began behaving violently again towards his wife and children and decided that he wanted to kill Judith.

He spent weeks thinking about how he was going to murder his wife and put a plan into place. He filled up a bottle of water and put it in the freezer. He planned to use the frozen water bottle to hit Judith over the head and then he would wipe off any blood and leave it to defrost. He thought this was a clever idea and the police wouldn't be able to find a murder weapon and he would get away with it.

Anthony thought he was more clever than the police and could outsmart anyone. Once he had filled up the bath tub with water and had his frozen bottle of water, he approached Judith as she lay in bed sleeping. He hit her over the head and dragged her to the bathroom, trying to force her into the tub. With all the commotion, one of the children came running into the bathroom screaming at the sight of their father trying to drown their mother. Judith regained some strength and tried to fight back.

It is unknown who called the police but Anthony was arrested and he didn't put up a fuss, he held his hands up and admitted that he wanted to kill his wife. Back at the police station, Anthony would put on the performance which would see him wriggle his way out of situations. He would claim that he had psychological issues and that he really needed to be in a psychiatric hospital not a prison. Due to his intelligence and way with words he managed to wrap the police around his finger and it was decided that he would be sent to a psychiatric unit in Queensland.

The police at that time viewed Anthony's attempted murder of Judith as a ''Domestic Incident''. This was a time where domestic abuse wasn't taken seriously and authorities would often take the view point of what goes on between a husband and wife is their business and it should remain behind closed doors. They didn't deal with him as harshly as they should have.

Judith and the children wasted no time in returning to the UK, they never wanted to see Anthony again and wanted to start a new life without him and not in constant fear.

In the psychiatric unit, Anthony was the model patient who was polite with the nurses and took his medication when asked. He knew if he played by the rules the quicker he would be allowed to leave.

Sure enough, due to his good behaviour and cooperation with the staff, he was released and deemed to be not a threat to the public.

It wasn't long till Anthony discovered that his wife and children had packed up their things and returned to England. He decided that he was going to return to the UK himself and find out where they were.

Continued in part two...