Philip Smith

Philip John Smith (born 10 July 1965) is an English spree killer serving a life sentence for the murders of three women in Birmingham in November 2000. A former fairground worker employed at the Rainbow pub in Digbeth, Smith killed his victims over a four-day period. All three victims were mutilated almost beyond recognition, but Smith was quickly identified as the killer on the strength of overwhelming evidence.

Smith's first victim was Jodie Hyde, a recovering butane gas addict whom he met at the Rainbow before killing her hours later. He is thought to have strangled her before setting her body on fire near a recreation ground. Three days later, he met mother-of-three Rosemary Corcoran at the same public house and drove her to a rural location, where he bludgeoned her to death and drove over the body. Then, as he drove home, he hit care worker Carol Jordan with his car and, fearing capture, beat her to death. All three bodies were discovered soon after the murders were carried out.

Smith was apprehended after he contacted West Midlands Police saying that he wished to make a statement about Corcoran's disappearance. At the time, however, her body had not been positively identified, and inquiries quickly established that some aspects of his account were false. The murder inquiry, named Operation Green, uncovered a large quantity of strong evidence incriminating Smith, but at first he denied responsibility. He maintained his innocence as his trial began in July 2001, but later in the proceedings changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment. The motive for his crimes was unclear, but police who arrested him believed that a "lack of permanent sexual relations" was a contributing factor.

Detectives also investigated the death of a woman who had been a colleague of Smith at the Rainbow. Patricia Lynott, a divorced mother of two from Ireland who had moved to Birmingham, had been found dead in her flat in October 2000. Police had not treated the death as suspicious, but after they discovered her connection to Smith, her body was exhumed for a second post mortem. This proved to be inconclusive, and in January 2003 a coroner's jury in Birmingham recorded an open verdict after hearing that the cause of her death could not be determined.

Background Philip John Smith was born at the City Maternity Hospital in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, on 10 July 1965. He was the oldest of five children to sawmill labourer Henry John Smith and his wife, Rose Smith (née Luckins).

Smith's family initially lived in Midland Road, where they were neighbours of serial killers Fred and Rose West, before moving to Hailes Road on the Coney Hill council estate in 1971. At and weighing 22 stone, with a dishevelled appearance and a soft West Country accent, Smith was considered gentle by those he met. In an interview with the Birmingham Evening Mail following Smith's trial in July 2001, Jim Smith, proprietor of the Shamrock Cafe, said, "He was a gentle giant who we named 'Bigfoot' because his boots always used to leave black marks on the floor. Ninety-nine per cent of the time he had a dirty appearance and looked like he had been working on a car." and later killed her. Prosecutors believed that he strangled her at his flat Smith's third victim was Carol Jordan, a 39-year-old care home worker and mother of six from Balsall Heath, The body was discovered at 8:50 am on 12 November on parkland next to Bell Barn Road, Lee Bank.

Although Smith maintained his innocence, detectives quickly gathered evidence linking him to Corcoran's death and those of the other two women. Witnesses had seen him leaving the Rainbow with both Corcoran and Hyde, and he was the last person to see them both alive. CCTV footage from around Birmingham showed his distinctive car visiting key locations linked to the investigation, and even captured Hyde getting out at one point to visit a chemist. Smith was seen buying petrol from a filling station and driving near the area where Hyde's body was later discovered. Corcoran was seen on camera struggling with Smith outside Monte Carlo's. CCTV footage showed him driving around Bromsgrove, a town close to Droitwich, after killing Corcoran, and later footage showed him returning to Birmingham. At least two witnesses recalled seeing Smith with blood on him: a motorist who saw him buying petrol, and another who spoke with Smith about his appearance. Smith told the latter that he had been in a fight, although he had no visible signs of injury. By this time her death had been linked to the killing of Hyde. Police interviewed Smith in connection with the deaths of Hyde and Jordan on 28 November and charged him with their murders two days later.

Trial and sentence Smith's trial was held at Leicester Crown Court in July 2001.

Smith's trial began at Leicester Crown Court on 3 July 2001, where he pleaded not guilty to the three murder charges.

On 17 July, Smith complained of feeling unwell with chest and eye pain while under cross-examination, In January 2005, Birmingham's Sunday Mercury newspaper reported that Smith had decided to change his plea after police agreed to return £400 confiscated from him during a raid on his flat after his arrest, and that he wanted the money to buy Mars bars in prison.

Passing sentence, Rafferty said: "You robbed three innocent ladies of their lives. I suspect that their families will suffer the more as they simply don't understand why you did. The brutality of these ladies' deaths, designed by you to evade discovery, showing the coldness with which you dispatched them, is appalling. You should clearly have faced up like a man at the overwhelming nature of the Crown's case against you but you chose to put the victims' families through misery which you compounded by this trial." The motive for Smith's actions remained unclear after the trial, but police believed a "lack of permanent sexual relations" had been a contributing factor.

Further inquiries As a result of their inquiries into Smith's background, police launched an investigation into the death of a fourth woman who was discovered to have had links to him. Patricia Lynott, a 47-year-old divorced mother of two, had moved to Birmingham from Athlone during the mid-1990s. On 23 October 2000, while she was employed at the Rainbow pub as a cleaner and to look after the licensee's children, However, the results of this autopsy also proved inconclusive.

Police also conducted a routine re-examination of other unsolved murder cases dating back 20 years in areas where Smith had lived. Detectives interviewed Smith three times, but he refused to answer their questions, and no further charges were brought.