On the 18th of July, 2004, the bodies of 27-year-old Claire Sanderson and her twin sister Diane were found in a flat in Camblesforth, near Selby, North Yorkshire. Later that day, the bodies of pensioners, James and Joan Britton, were found at their home in Strensall, near York.
Crazed quadruple killer Mark Hobson had arranged a meeting with his former girlfriend Claire, who had split with him because of his violence, on the 10th of July, and, almost as soon as she arrived, he bludgeoned her to death. Home Office pathologist Professor Christopher Milroy found her head had been struck 17 times with a hammer. Hobson had wanted her out of the way because he wanted to begin a relationship with her sister. The fact that Diane despised him didn't seem to bother him much.
After he killed Claire, he repeatedly invited Diane to the flat, and, one week after her sister's death, in the hope that Hobson might tell her where she might be, Diane joined Hobson in Cambleforth.
As soon as she arrived, with Claire's body decomposing nearby, he subjected Diane to a prolonged sexual attack, tortured her, and, when he was done, strangled her to death.
In court, the Judge said that Hobson had an abusive relationship with Claire. He added: "When you tired of her, you transferred your attention to her sister, Diane. As Claire stood in your way, you murdered her. You also determined to lure Diane to your home and kill her there and then to use her for your own sexual gratification... You battered Claire with a hammer in as brutal and callous a way as is possible to imagine before placing a plastic bag over her head and you wrapped her body in a bin bag. On 17 July you succeeded in luring Diane to your home. It is plain at your hands she suffered not only terror and pain but sexual harm before she died."
Hobson went on the run after killing the girls and entered the Brittons' home on the day the girls' bodies were found. The 80-year-old former Spitfire pilot, and his 82-year-old wife, were found beaten and stabbed to death later the same day.
In May 2005 at Leeds Crown Court, The Judge Mr Justice Grigson said: while sentencing the former binman to life imprisonment "The enormity of what you have done is beyond words. The damage you've done is incalculable. You not only destroyed the lives of your victims, but you devastated the lives of those who loved them."
