Relatives of Ruth Ellis urge justice secretary to pardon her, citing evidence of domestic abuse
Nearly seventy years after Ruth Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in Britain, her grandchildren are demanding that her conviction be posthumously overturned. They argue that Ellis, long painted as a “cold-blooded killer” was in fact a victim of sustained emotional and physical abuse at the hands of her lover, evidence of which was ignored during her trial.
Ellis was executed in 1955 after shooting her partner, David Blakely, outside a pub in Hampstead, north London. She met the 25-year-old racing driver two years earlier while managing a nightclub. Their relationship quickly descended into violence, yet the brutality she endured was dismissed in court. The judge instructed the jury to disregard the fact that she had been “badly treated by her lover”, effectively silencing her experience of domestic abuse.
Now, her descendants are asking justice secretary David Lammy to issue a posthumous conditional pardon, arguing that if Ellis were tried today, she would not have faced the death penalty. Modern legal principles such as diminished responsibility and loss of control, introduced in 1957, might have seen her convicted of manslaughter instead of murder.
Ellis’s granddaughter Laura Enston said the family had lived for decades with the trauma caused by her execution. “Ruth’s death has had a devastating impact on our family,” she said. “My mother and uncle suffered from trauma from which neither of them were able to recover, and as grandchildren we have felt these ripple effects. The punishment simply did not fit the crime. We are determined to right this historic injustice and honour not only Ruth but all victims of domestic abuse failed by the system.”
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Enston described the lasting scars of that trauma. Her mother, she said, lived a “chaotic” life shaped by grief and stigma, while her uncle — diagnosed with schizophrenia — later took his own life. “As children, we were bullied at school because of Ruth’s story,” Enston said. “For years, I wanted nothing to do with it. She was cast as a heartless killer, and I felt I had a target on my back.”
Her view changed after watching the ITV drama A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, which aired in March. “That series showed Ruth as a modern woman living in postwar Britain, challenging what society expected of women. She wasn’t just on trial for murder — she was on trial for being different.”
Accounts from Ellis’s friends, doctors and witnesses paint a grim picture of her relationship with Blakely. She was reportedly pushed down stairs, beaten in public, struck so hard she temporarily lost hearing, and once punched in the stomach, causing a miscarriage. Despite this, the court refused to consider her abuse as a mitigating factor.
Her execution at Holloway Prison, at just 28, sparked public outrage and remains one of the most infamous miscarriages of justice in modern British history. An appeal lodged in 2003 was rejected because the law required the court to judge her case according to the standards of the 1950s. But campaigners believe the justice secretary now has the power to reconsider, taking into account how the legal understanding of coercive control and domestic violence has evolved.
Grace Houghton, a solicitor at Mishcon de Reya, said Ellis’s case reflects “a perfect moment” for justice reform. “We’re now seeing courts acknowledge the psychological toll of abuse,” she said. “Ruth’s story shows how some men acted with impunity, convinced they held all the power and that women would never be believed. Sadly, even today, many survivors are still treated without compassion in court.”
She added: “We’ve come a long way in recognising the effects of abuse, but not far enough. This case could be a stepping stone towards change.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The justice secretary considers all applications for royal pardons in line with the longstanding conventions which govern use of the prerogative.”
For Ellis’s family, a pardon would not erase her death — but it could finally rewrite the story of a woman condemned not just for a crime, but for living in a world that refused to understand her suffering.