Andrew Aston

Andrew Simon Aston^[1](born 22 November 1972 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England) is a convicted British murderer who has the distinction of having received the longest prison sentence ever handed down in England and Wales - 26 concurrent terms of life imprisonment.^[2]

Over a period of three months in early 2001, Aston, a cocaine addict, attacked 26 elderly and disabled people in robberies at their homes in Birmingham and nearby Smethwick. Two of the victims died as a result of their injuries; 87-year-old George Dale, who died in hospital two weeks after being attacked at his Ladywood home on 16 March, and 80-year-old Frank Hobley, who was also attacked in March 2001 at his home in Stechford and died three months later as a result of his injuries.

Aston was first questioned about the attack on George Dale three days after it happened.^[3] Mr Dale's wife Betty, 86 at the time, was also injured in the attack but survived.^[4]

He was finally arrested while attacking a 92-year-old man in his home on 27 March 2001,^[5] He was charged with the murder of George Dale on 5 April 2001, and later with that of Frank Hobley following his death two months later. He was subsequent charged with attacks and robberies against 24 other people - all of them elderly or disabled.

By the time he went on trial in January 2002, six of his victims had died, while another six were too frail to give evidence against him in court.

He was found guilty of two murders and a further 24 charges of assault and robbery at Birmingham Crown Court on 20 February 2002, for which he received 26 life sentences. No recommended minimum term was reported at the time, and whether a fixed minimum term has been set by the Home Office or High Court since has not been reported, although media sources at the time suggested that Aston was unlikely to be released for a very long time, if ever.

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