Fulham Killer Back in Custody

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Jane Andrews found in Maidstone area

Convicted murderer Jane Andrews, a former aide of the Duchess of York, is back in police custody.

Andrews, who absconded from an open prison at the weekend, was found in the early hours of the morning in the Maidstone area, not far from East Sutton Park open prison.

A Kent police spokesman confirmed: " "Police have located missing person Jane Andrews safe and well and she has been taken into police custody."

Andrews was jailed for life in 2001 for murdering her boyfriend Thomas Cressman in the house they shared in Bagleys Lane, off Kings Road, in September 2000.

Andrews, who came originally from Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, worked as the Duchess of York's dresser from 1988 until 1997.

At her Old Bailey Trial, the jury were told that Andrews had flown into a rage when Mr Cressman, 39, a millionaire businessman, refused to marry her.

The jury heard she beat him with a cricket bat, then stabbed him with a kitchen knife.

Andrews was jailed for life, and ordered to serve a minimum of 12 years in jail.

This summer, the Parole Board approved Andrews' move to an open prison, despite objections from Mr Cressman's family. Her first move was from the secure Send Prison in Woking, Surrey to Askham Grange open prison near York.

On Wednesday last week she was transferred to East Sutton Park prison in Maidstone, Kent, and on her first night was taken to hospital suffering from what was believed to be an attempt at suicide by taking an overdose of paracetamol tablets.

It wasn't her first attempt. In 2003, Andrews was taken to intensive care after prison staff found her unconscious in her cell.

Now a spokesman for the prison service has confirmed that Andrews, 42, failed to return to East Sutton Park in Maidstone on Sunday night.

The spokesman said: "Jane Andrews is believed to have absconded from HMP East Sutton Park on November 22 2009 after being found missing at the 8pm roll-check.

"Police have been informed and are assisting with the search."

A spokeswoman for Kent Police described Andrews as being of slim build with a fair complexion and very long, straight brown hair, and said that when last seen, she was wearing a long-sleeved black and white striped top, black jeans, a black bodywarmer and black trainers.

During her time working for the Duchess of York, Fergie had given her the nickname " Lady Jane" because of her expensive tastes. At the time of the murder, she was working as a sales assistant at Theo Fennell's jewellery shop in Fulham Road.

Andrews still owns a £600,000 flat in Battersea, which is rented out and is said to earn around £30,000 a year. It has also been reported that she owns paintings by Fergie's daughters Beatrice and Eugenie which she regards as her "pension", planning to sell them when she is eventually released from jail.

 

November 23, 2009