Timothy Evans

Evans had an older sister, Eileen, born in 1921 and a younger half-sister, Maureen, who was born in September 1929.

Timothy John Evans (20 November 1924 – 9 March 1950) was a Welshman who was wrongfully accused of murdering his wife Beryl and infant daughter Geraldine at their residence in Notting Hill, London.

His father Daniel abandoned the family in April 1924 before Evans's birth.

Evans's mother remarried in September 1933.

As a child, Evans had difficulty learning to speak and struggled at school.

Following an accident when he was eight, Evans developed a tubercular verruca on his right foot that never completely healed and caused him to miss considerable amounts of time from school for treatments, further setting back his education.

As a result, when he reached adulthood Evans possessed low literacy skills, often needing others to read lengthy documents to him, although he did possess some ability to read simple passages such as in comics, newspaper football reports and on his wages and receipts.

He liked boxing and football, supporting Queens Park Rangers, as did Christie.

He was also prone to inventing stories about himself to boost his self-esteem, a trait that continued into adulthood and interfered with his efforts to establish credibility when dealing with the police and courts.

In 1935, his mother and her second husband moved to London, and Evans worked as a painter and decorator while attending school.

He returned to Merthyr Tydfil in 1937 and briefly worked in the coal mines but had to resign because of continuing problems with his foot.

In 1939, he returned to London to live again with his mother, and in 1946 they moved to St Mark's Road, Notting Hill.

This was just over two minutes' walk from 10 Rillington Place, his future residence after he married.

Evans was fined 60 shillings at West London Magistrates court on 25 April 1946 for stealing a car, and driving without insurance or a licence.

On 20 September 1947, Evans married Beryl Susanna Thorley, whom he had met in January 1947 on a blind date.

The couple initially lived with Evans's family at St Mark's Road but after Beryl discovered she was pregnant in 1948 they moved into the top-floor flat at 10 Rillington Place in the Ladbroke Grove area of Notting Hill.

Their neighbours in the ground-floor flat were the serial killer John Christie, then working as a post office clerk, and his wife, Ethel Christie.

Timothy's and Beryl's daughter Geraldine was born on 10 October 1948.

Their marriage was characterised by angry quarrels; Beryl was alleged to be a poor housekeeper and incapable of managing the family's finances, while Timothy misspent his wages on alcohol, and his heavy drinking at the time exacerbated his already short temper.

The arguments between Timothy and Beryl were loud enough to be heard by the neighbours and physical violence between them was witnessed on several occasions.

In 1949, Beryl revealed to Timothy that she was pregnant with their second child.

Since the family was already struggling financially, Beryl decided to have an abortion.

After some initial reluctance, Evans agreed to this course of action.

Several weeks later, on 30 November 1949, Evans informed police at Merthyr Tydfil that his wife had died in unusual circumstances.

His first confession was that he had accidentally killed her by giving her something in a bottle that a man had given him to abort the foetus; he had then disposed of her body in a sewer drain outside 10 Rillington Place.

He told the police that after arranging for Geraldine to be looked after, he had gone to Wales.

When police examined the drain outside the front of the building, however, they found nothing and, furthermore, discovered that the manhole cover required the combined strength of three officers to remove it.

When re-questioned, Evans changed his story and said that Christie had offered to perform an abortion on Beryl.

Evans stated that he had left Christie out of his first statement in order to protect him (abortion being illegal in the UK at this time).

After some deliberation between Evans and his wife, they had both agreed to take up Christie's offer.

On 8 November, Evans had returned home from work to be informed by Christie that the abortion had not worked and that Beryl was dead.

In January 1950, Evans was tried and convicted of the murder of his daughter, and on 9 March he was executed by hanging.

During his trial, Evans accused his downstairs neighbour, John Christie, who was the chief prosecution witness, of committing the murders.

Three years after Evans's execution, Christie was found to be a serial killer who had murdered several other women in the same house, including his own wife Ethel.

Christie was himself sentenced to death, and while awaiting execution, he confessed to murdering Mrs. Evans.

Along with those of Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis, the case played a major part in the removal of capital punishment for murder in 1965 and, later, its abolition for all crimes.

Evans was a native of Merthyr Tydfil in Glamorgan, Wales.

An official inquiry concluded in 1966 that Christie had murdered Evans's daughter Geraldine, and Evans was granted a posthumous pardon.

The High Court dismissed proceedings to officially quash Evans's murder conviction in 2004 on the grounds of the cost and resources that would be involved, but acknowledged that Evans did not murder his wife or his daughter, a full 54 years after his wrongful execution by the British government.

The case generated much controversy and is acknowledged to be a miscarriage of justice.