21st May 1979
Disco doorman is sentenced to death for murder
The Royal Court sentenced 23-year-old Nigel Hopton to hang for the murder of Judith Harris, who had been found battered in an alley. The nightclub doorman, originally from Leeds, appealed the guilty verdict.
Hopton denied killing Harris and his advocate claimed that police had presented evidence that had only been obtained because they’d used threats and intimidation.
An unsuccessful appeal
Hopton’s appeal was unsuccessful but came at a time when the House of Commons was debating the issue of capital punishment on the mainland and crown dependencies, which include Jersey and Guernsey. Although capital punishment had already been abolished on the mainland, there had been an attempt to reinstate it, debate over which was ongoing when Hopton’s appeal was being heard.
As Spanish newspaper El Pais reported, the day after Hopton’s death sentence had been confirmed, “the sharp rejection of the re-establishment of the death penalty in the United Kingdom by the House of Commons can save the life of a twenty-three-year-old man sentenced to be hanged on the small island of Jersey [after] … the House [of Commons] decided… by a majority of 119 votes, to maintain the abolition.”
Saved by a vote
In the UK, The Guardian reported that the vote “must almost certainly have saved the life of Nigel Hopton… who is under sentence of death in Jersey for killing a young Bristol girl… his fate now rests with Mr Whitelaw, the Home Secretary, who can recommend that the sentence be commuted by the Queen. But apart from Mr Whitelaw’s opposition to capital punishment and last night’s vote, there is the technical problem that there is nobody in the country who can hang Mr Hopton.”
Hopton’s sentence was commuted to life in prison two months later. He was released on licence after 12 years.
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Other events that occured in May
Jersey hosts UK’s first post-war Grand Prix
- British driver Reg Parnell won the 1947 Jersey International Road Race, considered to be the UK's first post World War II Grand Prix race.
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Traffic returns to the “right” side of the road
- Throughout the occupation, the Channel Islands moved to German time and traffic switched from the left-hand side of the road to the right.
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Arson is suspected in a long-running marital dispute
- A woman seemingly had a cast-iron alibi as she was 45 minutes away when the fire of which she was accused of starting began.
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St Brelade’s Church is consecrated
- Although the church at St Brelade was consecrated in the 12th century, evidence suggests a building had resided on that spot for some time.
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