Grandson’s fight to clear Ruth Ellis

Ruth Ellis was hanged in 1955 for Blakely’s murder.

Neither did they know that 10 days before she shot Blakely, he had punched her in the stomach – causing her to miscarry their baby.

It was the culmination of years of abuse, Ms Lee said.

She added: “I have a lot of sympathy for Ruth. The relationship with Blakely was abusive, physically and mentally.

“But at the time that Ruth was tried, there was no plea of diminished responsibility. That came in as a direct result of her case.

“Had that case happened a few years later she would not have been found guilty of murder and she would not have been hanged.”

She was executed at Holloway Prison on July 13, 1955, aged 28.

Mr Beard began researching his grandmother’s case after stumbling upon a play about her life, Follow Me, at the Edinburgh Festival in 2007.

Tonight Mr Beard, from London, will complete a four-night run, directing his own version of the play.

He said: “I came to the conclusion the justice system let her down.

“Had she been given life, she would have been out today. My mum would have had a life with her and everything would’ve been different.” A spokesman for the Criminal Cases Review Commission said any evidence would have to shed “significant new light” on the case. Blakely and Ellis: An abusive relationship.

Steven Beard: Appeal.

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