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The gruelling years spent in prison

Wells Journal

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May 08, 2025

MS Hyde, who passed away from bulimia nervosa at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro in April last year, was originally convicted at Bristol Crown Court in 2010 of killing Mr Francis, 34, when she was 17 during an incident at the flat he shared with her friend, Holly Banwell.

Ms Hyde, who was 32 at the time of her death, originally denied murder, saying she had been in fear for her life. The original jury disagreed and she was sentenced to a minimum of nine years in prison by Mr Justice Field.

The appeal court said the conviction had been unsafe after new medical evidence showed Ms Hyde had a mental disorder when she killed Mr Francis in 2009.

In November 2014, the Court of Appeal overturned the murder conviction and Lord Justice Laws ordered a retrial which was held at Winchester Crown Court. After being acquitted in May 2015, Ms Hyde, who also went by the name Anastasia Darlison, was freed, having spent five years in prison.

The retrial heard that Ms Hyde, a waitress at the time of the stabbing and originally from Bristol, had gone back to Ms Banwell's flat in Wells on September 4, 2009, after a night out.

Ms Banwell called 999 after Mr Francis attacked her and Ms Hyde, and she was still on the phone when Ms Hyde picked up a 10-inch carving knife and stabbed Mr Francis 17 times in the back and chest.

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