Handyman who was once jailed for lifestyles over rape and homicide of 4 other people at 1986 Fordingbridge ‘mansion bloodbath’ dies in jail ages 73

A quadruple assassin who killed a circle of relatives and raped a lady at a rustic space dinner birthday celebration has died in the back of bars.

George Stephenson was once jailed for lifestyles in October 1987 elderly 36 after being convicted along two others of murdering 4 other people, raping a lady and theft a yr previous in what become referred to as the Fordingbridge bloodbath. 

The pass judgement on really useful a minimal time period of 25 years however his tariff was once later raised by means of the then house secretary to 35 years. 

He died elderly 73 on April 20 at HMP Full Sutton, a top safety jail close to York.

‘HMP Full Sutton prisoner George Stephenson died in health facility on 20 April 2025,’ a Prison Service spokesperson instructed The Sun.

‘As with all deaths in custody, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman will examine.’

According to media experiences of the case, Winchester Crown Court heard how handyman Stephenson killed husband and spouse Joseph and Hilda Cleaver, their son Tom and circle of relatives nurse Margaret Murphy at Burgate House in Hampshire. 

Stephenson killed retired writer Joseph Cleaver and his spouse Hilda (pictured in combination), each 82, and their son Tom, 47, and his spouse Wendy, 46

He and accomplices, brothers John and George Daly, had long past to the rich New Forest property the place he used to paintings to scouse borrow shotguns. 

John Daly was once additionally convicted of murdering Tom Cleaver’s 46-year-old spouse Wendy and recieved a lifestyles sentence.

George was once cleared of homicide however sentenced to 22 years for rape, theft and manslaughter.

Sentencing Stephenson, the pass judgement on reportedly instructed him the murders have been of ‘indescribable brutality, you confirmed no mercy and deserve none’.

By the time of the killings, he already had a string of convictions for violence, medication, deception, burglaries and motoring offences after spending the former 20 years committing round 70 crimes.

His dying comes much less that two years after Stephenson made a Parole Board bid to be free of prison.

Speaking after the strive was once rejected, Melissa Cleaver mentioned: ‘We can’t categorical how relieved we’re to be informed that George Stephenson’s bid for parole has been refused.

‘My mom persevered a sadistic, brutal gang rape and indescribable torture prior to in any case being strangled to dying.

‘My father, grandparents and Maggie have been certain, gagged, doused in petrol and set alight, nonetheless alive and aware.

The horrific homicide at Burgate House, a secluded mansion in Fordingbridge, Hants, at the fringe of the New Forest, happened at the night time of September 1, 1986

Sentencing Stephenson, the pass judgement on reportedly instructed him the murders have been of ‘indescribable brutality, you confirmed no mercy and deserve none’

‘They lived for a number of mins.

‘My father, his charred flesh peeling from his frame, had dragged himself into an adjoining toilet in a useless try to get away.

‘Our stunning canine was once clubbed with a pickaxe so violently that she needed to be put down.’

In a abstract of its resolution, printed on Thursday, the frame mentioned: ‘After bearing in mind the instances of his offending, the development made whilst in custody and the proof offered on the listening to, the panel was once now not glad that unlock at this level can be secure for the safety of the general public.

‘Nor did the panel counsel to the Secretary of State that Mr Stephenson must be transferred to an open jail.

‘He will probably be eligible for any other parole assessment sooner or later.’

Ms Cleaver in the past known as for Stephenson to be denied freedom, telling the Daily Mirror he must die in prison.

Describing him as ringleader in one of the vital heinous crimes in historical past’ and branding him a ‘psychopath’, Ms Cleaver mentioned in her observation that Stephenson ‘smirked remorselessly within the dock and his time in jail may not have led to a modified guy’.

‘If he’s ever launched we really feel it inevitable that one thing or somebody will in the end cause the violence we now have observed him in a position to,’ she added.