Ruth Ellis's grandson speaks out on GB News after grandmother handed conditional pardon

Ruth Ellis's grandson has sat down with GB News after the last woman hanged was handed a conditional pardon yesterday.

Born in Wales, Ellis was a Soho nightclub hostess, who was in a relationship with an abusive partner, David Blakely.

On April 10 1955, Ellis shot Blakely dead outside The Magdala public house in Hampstead, London and was later arrested.

And, just two months later, Ellis was found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death, and was hanged at Holloway Prison on July 13.

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Yesterday, the King issued the conditional pardon to Ellis, changing the sentence from execution to life imprisonment instead following an extensive campaign by her family.

Now, her grandson, Stephen Beard, has spoken out about what he thinks of the "monumental" breakthrough for his grandmother.

"It's huge," Mr Beard started. "It was a monumental day yesterday. In essence, it's the removal of a negative blotch in our family history."

He added: "We have effectively rewritten history because ultimately, for the last 70 odd years, the truth hasn't been known.

"But the truth has now been raised and accepted. And it was massive for the Government and the King yesterday to recognise that so hugely for us."

He discussed the "significant" abuse endured by his grandmother, who was just 28 at the time of her death, where she suffered both mentally and phsycially.

Back in the 1950s, there was no ability for Ellis to fight against the charges with evidence of the abuse.

Instead, it was "one of the fastest cases undertaken", Mr Beard added.

He admitted to the People's Channel that he felt "passionately" against the death penalty and added that it was an "overly harsh sentence".

"I think to take somebody's life where there is always a chance that the full truth hasn't come out," he explained.

"And of course, I'm slightly biased because I've been through that process before.

"But I do feel passionate that the death sentence is a step too far in most instances."

Solicitor Grace Horton explained that a "fundamental misunderstanding of abuse pushed women to a breaking point" back in 1955 and today.

"Sometimes it's often cumulative abuse," she started. "Sometimes it's not a final trigger moment that you can say, 'okay, that was the exact moment and that's why you did it when you did it'"

The solicitor added: "We say that she shouldn't have been executed. And that's exactly the application that we applied for.

"We applied for a conditional pardon which commuted the sentence.

"And it was an acknowledgement that the the punishment didn't fit the crime.

"And in relation to the premeditated point we often see with particularly women killers, they are always determined to have been convicted of a premeditated crime, because they often tend to use a weapon, and that the very fact of using a weapon is deemed to be premeditated due to their stature and physical attributes."

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