Who were Lorraine Thorpe and Paul Clarke?
Lorraine Thorpe was 15 when she tortured and murdered a mother-of-two in Ipswich before killing her disabled father after he threatened to report her actions. The crimes were committed alongside Paul Clarke, a street drinking associate, in August 2009. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment a year later.
Thorpe was ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years and remains incarcerated, having been denied parole twice due to being considered too high a risk. On 24 February, she was informed she could be transferred to an open prison. But how did a schoolgirl become the UK’s youngest female double murderer?
Thorpe was known to local authorities from an early age, growing up in poverty in Ipswich with her father, Desmond Thorpe, living in poor conditions including flats and occasionally tents. During her 2010 trial at Ipswich Crown Court, defence barrister Graham Parkins KC described her association with street drinkers and a chaotic lifestyle since age 12.
"[Thorpe] was quite cunning and quite manipulative - but that's hardly surprising given her background and how she grew up. That goes nowhere near excusing what she ended up doing, but she probably didn't have that much of a chance."
Colin Adwent, a crime reporter who covered the case, noted Thorpe’s manipulative nature but emphasized her difficult upbringing. One of her associates was Paul Clarke, aged 41 at the time, known for being aggressive, bullying, and violent. Clarke was a drug addict and had previously been in a relationship with Rosalyn Hunt, the woman they later tortured and murdered.
Why did the pair kill Rosalyn Hunt?
Rosalyn Hunt, also part of the same drinking community, was killed between 1 and 10 August 2009. The court heard that Thorpe and Clarke held Hunt captive in her flat on Victoria Street, Ipswich, torturing her over several days using a cheese grater, a fan, and dog lead chains, rubbing salt into her wounds before beating her to death.
Police found Hunt’s body after a concerned member of the public reported her missing on 9 August. The abuse was reportedly motivated by Clarke’s anger over Hunt allowing his dog to attack a child.
After several days, Thorpe’s father confronted her and Clarke about their actions and threatened to report them. In response, the pair attacked and smothered him. Forensic evidence included the footprint of Thorpe’s trainer on his head.
Desmond Thorpe was described as a kind man but a street drinker in poor health. Adwent recalled:
"Desmond was apparently quite a sweet man, but he was a street drinker and in extremely poor health."
"Thorpe was described to me by someone who knew her as a daddy's girl, and she tried to look after him and do the best she could for him – but there were two sides to her.
What she did was absolutely horrendous and terrible and there is no amount of mitigation that minimises what she did."
What happened at the pair's trial?
Thorpe and Clarke were arrested and charged with the murders in 2009. Their trial at Ipswich Crown Court in 2010 lasted seven weeks. Neither gave evidence during the proceedings. After over 17 hours of jury deliberation, both were found guilty.
Clarke received a minimum 27-year sentence in August 2010, while Thorpe was sentenced a month later at the Old Bailey in London to a minimum of 14 years. Suffolk Police described the killings as brutal and tragic.
What turned Thorpe into a double murderer?
Thorpe was characterized as a "product of social care" with very low values but also described as bright and talented. At sentencing, Mr Justice Saunders detailed her troubled childhood, noting her involvement in her father’s world of street drinking after her parents separated.
Desmond Thorpe had become a hopeless alcoholic unable to care for himself, forcing Lorraine to take on increasing responsibilities. The judge stated:
"She did the most intimate things for him that no child should ever have to do, and all evidence shows they loved each other very much."
During this time, she moved between squalid flats where violence was common, leaving her with little understanding of right and wrong. The judge added:
"She was capable of being highly manipulative, wilful and stubborn and she found violence funny and entertaining."
What happened to Clarke?
In April 2011, less than a year after sentencing, Clarke and Thorpe appealed their convictions for Desmond Thorpe’s murder, but both appeals were dismissed. Clarke died in 2014 at HM Prison Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire.
Thorpe completed her minimum term in August 2023, having been held at HMP Foston Hall, a women’s closed category prison in Derbyshire, since 2019. She became eligible for parole but was denied release in October 2023 after declining to engage with the Parole Board. She was refused release again in early 2024, though the board agreed she could be moved to an open prison to test her in a less restrictive environment.
The Parole Board stated:
"After considering the circumstances of her offending, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented at the hearing, the panel agreed that Ms Thorpe should not be released."
"The panel noted Thorpe's general maturation and the fact that she had not evidenced violence or aggression for many years, adding that her risk of violence towards others had reduced by her own actions in custody."
David Shipley, a prison reform campaigner jailed for fraud in 2020, shared his perspective on open prisons with BBC Suffolk’s Sarah Lilley:
"The most important thing about an open prison is it allows the authorities to test how prisoners respond to having more freedom."
"If someone is locked in a normal, closed prison with walls and bars and gates, exactly how sure can we be that they have changed and are trustworthy and safe?
Mostly when people on life sentences get to open sentences, they are reliable because they've had to prove their progress over many years to get to that point.
But sometimes people will arrive and behave very strangely and that's them saying, in a sub-conscious way, they don't feel ready to be released."
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