The crimes of an Ipswich double murderer who was found dead in his prison cell earlier this week will be shown on national television tomorrow night.
Paul Clarke, 46, was given a life sentence for his part in the 2009 murders of Rosalyn Hunt and Desmond Thorpe, which were committed along with Desmond’s then 15-year-old daughter Lorraine, believed to be Britain’s youngest female double murderer.
The full extent of their crimes will be retold tonight with the help of interviews from police and the brother of Rosalyn, Adrian Provins, in a documentary called Killer Schoolgirl: Countdown to Murder, on Channel 5, which will mainly focus on Thorpe.
A Channel 5 spokeswoman said: “The documentary details the events in 2009 that led Lorraine Thorpe to become Britain’s youngest female double murderer at the age of 15.”
Thorpe lived in Ipswich with her father, who was an alcoholic, and it was when she got involved with her father’s lifestyle that she met Clarke, who was found dead in his cell in HMP Whitemoor, Cambridgeshire, on Monday.
Rosalyn was also part of that group.
It was on August 1, 2009, when Rosalyn was seen uncharacteristically kicking Clarke’s dog while walking it after it had lunged at a child.
Clarke and Thorpe asked her about the incident and during this, she also revealed that she was speaking to the authorities about Thorpe’s welfare.
After this revelation, the pair beat and tortured her over the course of four days. She was then taken back to her own flat and left to die but when they went back four days later, they found that she was still alive.
They then set about beating, kicking and stamping on her again, before dumping her body on the bed. Rosalyn died on August 9.
When Thorpe’s father overheard them bragging about the crime, he confronted Thorpe and threatened to go to police. On August 10, Clarke and Thorpe dragged him to the flat where he had been staying and smothered him to death.
The release of the documentary, which airs at 8pm tonight, has come just hours after Clarke was discovered dead in his prison cell at HMP Whitemoor.
Following the death, a Prison Service spokesman said: “HMP Whitemoor prisoner Paul Clarke was found unresponsive in his cell by staff on Monday. Paramedics attended but he was pronounced dead shortly before 6.30am.”
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