Killer Jane Andrews goes on run from jail
A FORMER aide to the Duchess of York who murdered her Birmingham businessman boyfriend remained at large today after absconding from an open prison.
Jane Andrews, 40, who was sentenced to life for bludgeoning with a cricket bat and then stabbing Tom Cressman to death after he refused to marry her, failed to return to East Sutton Park Prison in Kent on Sunday night.
Her disappearance came just days after an apparent suicide attempt and police have described her as “vulnerable”.
Kent Police said they were looking in the East Sutton area for Andrews, adding: “We are working with the Prison Service to locate this lady.”
She was discovered missing at the prison’s 8pm roll-check on Sunday.
The force said she was wearing a black and white striped top, black jeans, a black body warmer and black trainers when last seen.
Andrews, who worked for the Duchess of York as a dresser for nine years until 1997, was convicted in 2001 of murdering wealthy businessman Mr Cressman at the house they shared in Fulham, south-west London.
Mr Cressman was the son of former Bristol Street Motors boss Harry Cressman and the brother of hotelier Rick Cressman, who owns Nailcote Hall Hotel at Berkswell, near Solihull.
Andrews was eventually ordered to serve a minimum of 12 years in jail after a jury at the Old Bailey accepted the prosecution case that she killed him in revenge because he refused to marry her.
Sources said Andrews had just been moved to the Kent prison and took a paracetamol overdose last week, for which she needed hospital treatment.
She has been in open prison since July this year, and is eligible for release on parole in 2012.
Mr Cressman’s brother Rick said Andrews was “devious and manipulative” and that he felt her move to an open prison was inappropriate.
“As a family we felt the sentence was far too lenient in the first place,” he told the BBC. “We feel she is a devious and manipulative character and I don’t think anything has changed.”
He added: “The whole service is geared up to paying lip service to the victims of crime but it seems to me the process of going there and saying something is of pretty zero consequence.”
