Alan Reeve

Alan Patrick Reeve (born 1948) is an English murderer released from Broadmoor Hospital in 1998. He battered a 15-year-old boy to death and later strangled a fellow prisoner at Broadmoor. After escaping to Amsterdam, he killed a police officer in a gunfight and was imprisoned in the Netherlands for ten years. He then lived in the Republic of Ireland before being extradited back to the United Kingdom.

Early life Reeve's father was a military prison officer and the family moved between postings in Cyprus, Tripoli and West Germany. He came to the notice of the police at a young age, committing crimes such as theft and attempted robbery. At the age of 15, he escaped from borstal and killed the 15-year-old Roger Jackson by hitting and stabbing him. He hid the body in Castle Park, Colchester and then sent three postcards to Jackson's parents, writing on them "DOA" (dead on arrival). After the body was found, Reeve was convicted of murder and sent to Broadmoor secure psychiatric hospital in 1964, with no time limit on his sentence. Whilst regarded as highly dangerous by staff, Reeve committed no more crimes and completed a sociology degree. He drove away from Broadmoor with his girlfriend Pat Ford, to whom he had become engaged to be married. Reeve was arrested and subsequently received a 15-year sentence for manslaughter. After a foiled escape attempt, Reeve was moved to a maximum security prison at the Scheveningen branch of the Hague Penitentiary Institution. He responded by going on hunger strike for 54 days. He also worked on his thesis "The creation and preservation of consciousness" (Het ontstaan en bewaren van bewustzijn).

Reeve was released on parole in 1992 after having served ten years of his sentence. The UK government requested extradition but the Dutch courts refused to remand him, so he went into hiding in the Netherlands. The decision not to extradite was overruled a year later, but by then there was no trace of Reeve.

Joost Seelen released a documentary in 1993 entitled Jaar één, Alan Reeve na dertig jaar opsluiting (Year one: Alan Reeve after 30 years in jail) which followed Reeve after his release. Seelen had known Reeve since 1986. They were planning to marry when he was arrested in April 1997 and extradited back to the UK. The following day, Reeve decided to contest the extradition but was unsuccessful.

Having returned to the UK, Reeve was taken to Broadmoor after a hearing in Bracknell, Berkshire. Five months later he was released from Broadmoor and returned to Cork.