Michael Smithyman
Michael Smithyman, now known as Michelle Smithyman, is a British double murderer responsible for the murders of April Sheridan and Terence Gayle.
In 1990, Smithyman shot and killed his pregnant girlfriend April Sheridan in Kent with a sawn-off shotgun. The same year, he was payed £3000 to kill a man named Terence Gayle, who had his throat slit and was dumped in Kent. Smithyman admitted to both murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty.
In 2015, it was disclosed at a parole hearing that Smithyman, now living as a woman named Michelle in prison, had confessed to 12 additional murders but had been ignored by the police. Smithyman had also admitted to having a role in the 1981 New Cross fire, an unsolved arson attack which left thirteen black teenagers dead and traumatized a fourteenth to the point that he committed suicide. According to Smithyman's confession, Smithyman and a friend had attempted to gatecrash a party in the New Cross building but had been ejected, at which point Smithyman's friend had set the building on fire. Smithyman and his friend had watched from a nearby rooftop while laughing and joking about burning black people jumping out the window. Smithyman retracted her confession, but was still denied parole.
Smithyman's confession came under new scrutiny in 2021 when it was found that a probe into it had been dropped without explanation. Survivors of the fire have called for the case to be re-opened.