Killer jailed for murdering South Yorkshire mum to appeal sentence and conviction

A man jailed for murdering a South Yorkshire mum is to appeal his conviction and sentence.

By Claire Lewis

Published 28th Apr 2022, 10:05 BST

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Gary Allen, aged 48, is due to have his case heard at the Court of Appeal in London today.

Gary Allen: Wicked killer who ‘liked blood’ jailed for life in Sheffield after m...

He is serving a life sentence behind bars for the murder of two women two decades apart.

Gary Allen was jailed for life for killing mother-of-three Samantha Class in Hull in 1997 and mother-of-four Alena Grlakova in Rotherham in 2018.

Gary Allen was jailed for life for killing mother-of-three Samantha Class in Hull in 1997 and mother-of-four Alena Grlakova in Rotherham in 2018.

Allen was sentenced in June last year following a trial at Sheffield Crown Court which made legal history.

In 2000 he stood trial over the murder of 29-year-old Samantha Class in Hull, but was found not guilty and left court a free man.

MORE: Police react after killer 'with warped view of women' is jailed for life in Sheffield

Samantha had been strangled, stamped on and run over by a car before her body was dumped in the River Humber and eventually washed up on a riverbank.

He was identified as a suspect when he was arrested for drink driving a few months later and a routine DNA swab matched traces of semen found when Miss Class’ body was examined.

He admitted paying Ms Class £30 for sex but denied any part in her murder and was found not guilty by jurors.

Eighteen years after that trial he came to the attention of South Yorkshire Police as a suspect in a missing person enquiry when Alena Grlakova, 38, disappeared.

Phone records proved Allen, who lived close to where mum-of-four Alena was last seen alive, was an acquaintance of the prostitute.

Detectives then discovered chilling voice recordings made by Allen in which he threatened to harm Alena on the night she was last seen alive.

Her naked body was found in a stream four months later.

Detectives in South Yorkshire and Humberside applied for the original murder trial verdict to be quashed and were granted permission to charge him with the original murder again as well as the more recent killing.

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Oughton, of South Yorkshire Police, described Allen’s offending as ‘despicable’ and described him as a ‘very dangerous individual’.

Sentencing Allen, the judge, Mr Justice Goose, said: “It would not be an overstatement to say that what you did to those two women, and the loss and suffering to their families, was wicked.”

MORE: Gary Allen: Killer who ‘hated sex workers’ branded ‘danger to women’ after Sheffield trial