Harold Haywood Wilkins (5 March 1916 – 29 December 1999) was the last juvenile to be sentenced to the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

in the United Kingdom, on 17 November 1932 at the age of 16. The sentence was never carried out. He was convicted of the "sexually motivated murder" of Ethel Corey. He was released from prison in 1943. In 1949 he married Margaret E. Caddick. There are no known children but it is believed there is at least one child. The execution of those under the age of 16 had been banned by the

Children Act 1908 The Children Act 1908 ( 8 Edw. 7. c. 67), also known as the Children and Young Persons Act 1908, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Liberal government, as part of the British Liberal Party's liberal reforms pac ...

( 8 Edw. 7. c. 67). The age was further raised to 18 in the year after Wilkins' conviction, by the

Children and Young Persons Act 1933 The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 ( 23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 12) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It consolidated all existing child protection legislation for England and Wales into o ...

. His sentence was commuted due to his age.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkins, Harold Minors convicted of murder British prisoners sentenced to death British people convicted of murder 1916 births 1999 deaths 20th-century British murderers People convicted of murder by England and Wales Prisoners sentenced to death by England and Wales