BROMLEY RAPIST DONALD ANDREWS HAS HIS WHOLE-LIFE SENTENCE QUASHED IN LANDMARK DECISION
A convicted rapist who detained his victim for a full day before pushing her off a bridge has successfully challenged the unprecedented whole-life prison sentence imposed on him by senior judges.Donald Andrews, aged 51, became the only person sentenced to life without the possibility of release for a non-murder offence in 2012, after confessing to kidnapping and multiple rapes of a woman from Croydon he met in a pub.
The woman, Victoria Legg, aged 31 and residing on Brighton Road in Purley, survived the ordeal in September 2011 but died last year due to intoxication from prescribed medication.
Andrews, originally from Bromley, appealed his whole-life order at the Court of Appeal yesterday.
While his life sentence remains, he now will be eligible to seek parole commencing in 2024 after serving a minimum of 12 years.
The judges emphasized that Andrews, who has an extensive criminal history including two manslaughter convictions and repeated violent sexual offences, is unlikely ever to be released.
Lord Justice Treacy stated: "We stress that this modified sentence does not lessen the severe danger posed by the offender or the harm caused.
There is little chance of his release." He further explained that whole-life orders should be reserved for cases of extraordinary seriousness, and while these orders are not solely for homicide offences, they have traditionally not been used for non-murder cases.
Currently, 56 inmates in the UK serve whole-life sentences, all for murder, including high-profile offenders like Levi Bellfield and Dennis Nilsen.
Andrews, sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court in May 2012, can only be freed if the parole board determines he no longer poses a risk.
The court detailed how Andrews targeted Miss Legg after they met at the Star and Garter pub in Bromley.
He lured her to his nearby flat, detained her, and subjected her to repeated sexual assaults over approximately 18 hours.
Subsequently, he led her into woodland, threatening her with a knife if she tried to escape, raped her again, and then threw her off a bridge into a stream.
The injuries she sustained have left her wheelchair-bound and reliant on medication for life.
Following the hearing, Miss Legg’s mother, Cindy, aged 50, expressed her anguish: "I hope he never walks the streets again.
It is a shock because he truly deserves nothing.
He should never be released.
Sometimes I think about harsher punishments, even lethal injections, because people like him don’t deserve rights, especially since he took away my daughter’s.
It’s hard to believe a human being could be so callous.
He doesn’t even see his actions as wrong." Andrews’ criminal record includes 18 prior convictions throughout his adult life.
His earliest was in 1984, when he served six years for manslaughter after strangling a 19-year-old.
The following year, he was imprisoned for nine years following a stabbing incident involving a pensioner during a burglary.
In 2003, he received a six-year sentence for kidnapping a woman in Croydon and violently assaulting her after dragging her into an alleyway.
Mrs.
Legg, of St Benet’s Grove in Carshalton, voiced her frustration: "They’ve repeatedly let him back on the streets.
The longest he ever served was eight years, which is horrifying to think about."
