Francis Forsyth

Francis Robert George Henry James 'Flossie' Forsyth (24 March 1942 – 10 November 1960) was a British murderer who became one of the youngest people to be executed in Britain in the 20th century. He was hanged on 10 November 1960 at Wandsworth Prison for the murder of Allan Edward John Jee.

Murder

On the evening of 25 June 1960, Forsyth, a road worker, was with unemployed driver Norman James 'Flash' Harris aged 23, coalman Christopher Louis Darby aged 20, and unemployed labourer Terence Lutt aged 17. At about 11.17 p.m. that night, on a footpath at the bottom of James Street, Hounslow, Middlesex, they set upon engineer Allan Edward John Jee aged 23, who was walking home after an evening with his fiancée, Jacqueline Herbert, to whom he had become engaged the previous day. Jee was about from his home when he was attacked. The gang kicked him unconscious and left him bleeding with a fractured skull. He died from a cerebral contusion two days later at the West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth.

At the time, Forsyth, who had a lengthy criminal history starting from when he was 11, was on bail for assaulting two police officers at Heathrow Airport, and had been detained in an Approved School.

Trial

It was found during trial at the Old Bailey that Lutt had struck the first blow upon Jee but the kicking had been administered by Forsyth. Meanwhile, Harris had held Jee down. Only Darby claimed to have used no violence and the charge against him was reduced to non-capital murder. Pathologist Dr. Donald Teare testified that Jee had been kicked five times in the head.