"How I felt watching murderer Gary Allen leave Sheffield Crown Court a free man fearing he'd strike again"
“My blood ran cold with the feeling of ‘oh God, he’s done it again’.”
Court reporter Lisa Welton was left aghast as she watched “emotionless” Gary Allen walk free from Sheffield Crown Court having got away with the murder of 29-year-old Samantha Class.
As the sound of the “not guilty” verdict being read out hung in the air, Lisa squeezed the hand of a detective in the case, wondering how it could have been allowed to happen. Wondering what exactly it was that led the jury of 12 men and women to acquit him.
Lisa knew more than the jury did, after the judge ruled that certain pieces of evidence relating to violence Allen previously inflicted on his mother and others should be inadmissible - withheld from jurors.
She also knew he had a “deep-seated hatred of women,” and feared it was not a case of if - but when - Allen would strike again.
Lisa saw that fear realised just six weeks later when a detective in the case phoned her to tell her that Allen had attacked two sex workers in a different part of the country.
On that occasion, a passing police officer intervened and managed to bring Allen’s violence to an end.
Despite spending several of the years that followed behind bars, Allen’s rampage against women did not end there.
More than two decades on from the shocking, fatal attack on mother-of-three Samantha in North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, Allen was charged with the murder of a second woman, Alena Grlakova, in Rotherham.
Describing the moment she learned of the second murder charge, Lisa said: “It was that mugshot picture that I was so familiar with that we'd used for his trial in 2000.
“And that picture just flashed up straight in front of me. And I just remember…it sounds drastic doesn’t it, but my blood ran cold with the feeling of ‘oh God he's done it again’.”
“We all left the court in Sheffield that day (after the first trial) thinking ‘this isn't the last time he's going to be in a courtroom. This isn't the last time that he's going to be the last time he’s wanted by the police’.
“I think we all knew he would offend again.”
She was proved right.
Allen stood trial for Alena’s murder and after a change in the law was also able to be tried again for the one he had got away with 20 years earlier.
The two murder convictions, the large-scale investigations across two police forces responsible for bringing him to justice, and the changes to double jeopardy laws which meant he could stand trial for Samantha’s murder for a second time are the subject of a recent Amazon Prime documentary.
Lisa was one of the people interviewed for the documentary, entitled Chasing A Killer: Gary Allen.
She told The Star that even though she moved on from her role as crime reporter for the Hull Daily Mail a few weeks after Allen was acquitted of Samantha’s murder, it was a case that always stayed with her.
“I covered quite a lot of murders. And this stayed with me, particularly because it was the only one that was not guilty. And you know Sam's killer was still on the loose and I think it was because I always wanted justice for her,” said Lisa.
Detectives from South Yorkshire Police worked side-by-side with Humberside Police, who carried out the initial investigation into Samantha’s murder to piece together the evidence that would finally see Allen put behind bars for decades.
It included an eerie number of similarities.
Both women were strangled and submerged in water after being killed. Both women were vulnerable and are believed to have spent time earning money through sex work.
Lisa said of Allen’s demeanour during his first murder trial: “Smug, arrogant, showed no emotion while he was in the dock. I remember one particular piece of his evidence where when he said did he feel any emotion for the fact that Sam had died and that her children had been left with no mother.
“And his response was quite chilling. ‘Well, no, she deserved it cos she was a sex worker’.”
“There was no emotion.”
“It doesn't matter who you are, what job you do, you're still a person, you're still a mother, you're still a daughter. Whatever job you do you don't deserve to ever go out to work and not come back.”
Lisa, who works in Sheffield, followed coverage of Allen’s Sheffield Crown Court trial for Alena and Samantha’s murder closely.
“There was always a degree of wanting closure for Sam’s family. Her daughters are adults now. They've grown up without a mum, and I’ve always felt somebody needs to be held responsible for her death.”
Lisa says she was relieved when Allen was finally brought to justice and jailed for life, making the streets safer for women everywhere.
She also says she “would not be surprised at all” if Allen was linked to other, historic attacks on women.
Chilling recording made by Allen linked him to Alena’s murder
When 38-year-old Alena Grlakova was first reported missing, South Yorkshire Police (SYP) categorised it as a high-risk missing person case. Alena was originally from Slovakia and settled in Rotherham after moving to the UK in 2008. Around the time of her disappearance, Alena had spoken to her ex-husband about wanting to return to Slovakia and be reunited with her family.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Oughton says officers had “lots of lots of avenues to go down” as the search to find Alena, a mother-of-four, continued.
The first breakthrough in the investigation came when officers discovered that Alena and Allen were known to each other.
“Really early on Gary Allen featured within the investigation because he'd had contact around some critical times,” explained DCI Oughton.
The next, and most significant, breakthrough emerged when officers searched Allen’s home and found an incriminating recording on a MP3 player, with audio of an argument he had with Alena on the last night she was seen alive.
In it, Allen threatened to beat the “living s***” out of Alena.
“I'll always remember the day that the officer came in and played that recording. And it kind of tipped the balance for me.
“We've been looking at missing from home, and…we were trying to find her hopefully safe and alive.
“But unfortunately we didn't. That recording really showed that something had gone on that night. There'd been a big argument and I do believe that's the night that Gary Allen unfortunately killed Alena.”
After the discovery of the shocking recording Allen made of his aggressive altercation with Alena, detectives began building up a case to charge him without a body, as they reviewed searches already conducted.
It was then that they found Alena’s body, submerged in a Rotherham stream.
Allen was charged with Alena’s murder, and officers from SYP began working with Humberside Police to build up the strongest possible case against him.
DCI Oughton admits there was some pressure on both forces to secure a conviction, the second time around.
“There was obviously a lot of pressure on both forces. But what was at the forefront of our minds throughout was the two victims in this case and their families. Our family in the end had to wait for two-and-a-half years for justice. Samanatha Class’ family had to wait for over 20 years. That was always at the forefront of our mind,” he said.
The hard work paid off, when jurors found Allen guilty of both murders.
DCI Oughton added: “I'm extremely proud of the officers from both forces who worked tirelessly together.
“What this and the documentary demonstrates is the lengths we will go to in the police and criminal justice system to bring perpetrators to justice.”
SYP has reviewed cold cases and contacted other police forces with a view to linking Allen to other crimes.
While those enquiries have not yet yielded any additional investigations, DCI Oughton says they “will never stop looking.”
The change to double jeopardy laws which helped to snare Allen
During the 21 years between the two murders committed by Gary Allen in 1997 and 2018, the centuries-old double jeopardy law was changed.
It meant the restrictions previously in place, preventing prosecutors from retrying a defendant for a crime he or she had been convicted of, were changed allowing defendants to be retried in certain cases where “new and compelling evidence” has come to light.
In the case of Allen, the circumstantial case detectives with South Yorkshire Police were building up against him - using the MP3 player recording, mobile phone location data and video showing Alena arriving at his property - was done in tandem with Humberside Police.
The joint investigation was also able to rely upon two crucial pieces of evidence gathered against him, both whilst he was locked up and whilst he was a free man.
The first piece related to shocking disclosures Allen made to a probation worker, whilst he was in custody for attacks on Plymouth sex workers.
Allen admitted to harbouring a hatred for sex workers, and claimed the “pleasure was in the planning.”
He added: "I like to frighten them... I like to cause pain... I like to make them cry... I like blood... I like to hurt them. I enjoy it... It makes me feel good."
The second piece, under Operation Misty, involved a killer confession Allen made to an undercover officer tasked with befriending him, in which he admitted to Samantha’s murder.
Allen told the officer: “I killed her and I dumped her in the Humber."
The painstaking work of the two police forces, along with evidence gathered by the probation worker and undercover officer, ultimately led to Allen finally being punished for his wicked murders.
Jurors found him guilty of the murders of Samantha and Alena at the conclusion of a seven-week Sheffield Crown Court trial in 2021. Later that year, he was jailed for life, to serve a minimum of 37 years in prison.
Allen cannot be considered for parole until June 2057, by which time he will be aged 74-years-old.