Public, Politicians, and the Law: The Long Shadow and Modern Thrall of Myra Hindley

To understand the adamant defence of whole life orders by the British government to the perceived intrusion of the European Court of Human Rights, it is pertinent to re-examine the case which settled their appropriateness in domestic sentencing: that of Myra Hindley. Political defiance and public appetite for whole life sentences were born of Hindley's case, which settled any doubt as to the order's justifiability. European human rights proponents, already struggling to negate hostility towards the Court based on what Britain has viewed as unfavourable decisions regarding prisoner voting rights and offender extradition, have not yet been able to counteract the hardened opinion on whole life orders stemming from the case of Myra Hindley.

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