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Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast - #148: The Abuse of Jane Andrews - Part 1 (Jane's Story)

20/10/2021

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The Maltings, the former home of Tommy Cressman and Jane Andrews

Welcome to the Murder Mile UK True-Crime Podcast and audio guided walk of London's most infamous and often forgotten murder cases, all set within and beyond the West End.

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300+ infamous, untold or often forgotten true murders
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EPISODE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT:
On Sunday 17th September 2000, after a romantic break in the French Riviera, Tommy Cressman and Jane Andrews retired to bed. Their relationship was a tempestuous one, tensions were high and by the morning, Tommy would be dead. But did Jane kill him in an act of self-defence, or was this a cold-blood and brutal murder?

Date: Sunday 17th September 2000, at roughly 3am (time of death)
Location: 74 The Maltings, Fulham, SW6
Victims: 1 (Thomas Ashley Cressman)
Culprits: Jane Dawn Elizabeth Andrews

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THE LOCATION
As many photos of the case are copyright protected by greedy news organisations, to view them, take a peek at my entirely legal social media accounts - Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

The location of the home of Tommy Cressman is located with a purple cross, just near the words 'Fulham'. To use the map, click it. If you want to see the other murder maps, access them by clicking here.

Man in a Bag by Cult With No Name (Intro and interstitials)
Winsome Lose Some by Cult With No Name (credits)
Piano Piece 2 (unreleased) by Cult With No Name
A New Beginning by Esther Ambrami
Because For Everything There Is Something by Patches
True by NCTRNM
Crystalline by Amulets
Anxious by Sextile
Waiting by Peter Rudenko

UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE:

Welcome to Murder Mile. This is Maltings Place in Fulham, SW6, a series of four-storey brown-brick terraces in a curved block surrounded by industrial estates, council flats and looming cranes. Protected by roving cameras, high walls and heavy electronic gates, the security may seem like overkill, given that the houses are bog-standard and cars outside are nothing but crappy Beamers and Audis. This is far from an exclusive bolt-hole for the rich and famous, but for some, maybe this protection was vital?

74 Maltings Place Is an unremarkable building, in fact it looks like the kind of new-build you would find in any new-town; it’s tall and thin, with three-bedrooms and a car-port below. Back at the millennium’s turn, this house was owned by Tommy Cressman, an independent businessman, heir to the Bristol Street Motors fortune, and his girlfriend Jane Andrews, the former dresser to the Duchess of York.

On Sunday 17th September 2000, after a romantic break in the French Riviera, the couple retired to bed. Their relationship was a tempestuous one, tensions were high and by the morning, Tommy would be dead. But did Jane kill him in an act of self-defence, or was this a cold-blooded and brutal murder?

My name is Michael, I am your tour-guide and this is Murder Mile.

Episode 148: The Abuse of Jane Andrews – Part One. (Interstitial)

There are two sides to every story and this is Jane’s...

Jane Dawn Elizabeth Andrews was born on 1st April 1967 in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, a sea-side town in the north-east of England, with stunning scenery and a delightfully picturesque beach. As the youngest of three with two older brothers, for a working-class girl this was a good place to grow up. But with her father struggling to stay in full-time employment, the family fought to survive on the mother’s meagre income as a teaching assistant, therefore poverty was only ever a short step away.

In 1976, when Jane was eight, their financial situation forced the Andrews to move two-and-a-half miles west to Grimsby; a depressing port town on the Humber estuary, which once was home to the world’s largest fishing fleet, but was now just a gloomy rust-ridden ghost of a former industrial great.

Their home was a small townhouse with no bathroom and a toilet outside. Jane would later recall: "from an early age I was aware that things were not right. My parents were always arguing. But they were very proud. I remember one day we didn't have enough to buy a loaf of bread and mum had us looking down the sides of the settee for money to scrape together. I was brought up to keep it in the family. We didn’t let our relatives think that we're anything other than comfortably off".

The Andrews were a proud family, but any upheaval can be traumatic for young child – new school, new friends, new life – and this lack of stability in her early years greatly affected her mental health.

Close friends would later regard Jane as “bright, vivacious, a force of nature”, "she was so good to know", "you can't imagine how great it was to be with her. But she never believed that she was loved... on the outside she was bright and sunny, but on the inside, she was a fragile mess of insecurities”.

Educated at Hereford Secondary School, Jane excelled, as she had drive and intelligence. She may only have been a thin wisp of a girl with pale skin and red hair - like a little lost matchstick - but bubbling underneath was a fiery determination to achieve. As a far cry from her upbringing, Jane dreamed of a great life, an amazing career, hobnobbing with the elite and settling down with a wealthy husband.

She had the brains and guts to succeed, but she was guided by one overriding need – to be loved.

It was during those difficult teenage years that Jane was gripped with bouts of depression, anxiety and an eating disorder. In later years, many of her psychological issues would be attributed to the sexual abuse she said she suffered as a child, at the hands of one of her brothers. At one point, a lock had to be fitted to her bedroom door, as having chased his terrified little sister with a knife, he had hushed that the sex was “our little secret” and that “bad girls who tell go to prison”. And although, what happened in their family stayed in their family, her mother would dispute this ever happened.

Desperate to feel loved, but gripped with a persistent fear of rejection, as a young teen Jane used sex to get whatever she wanted or needed. She would state “I would sleep with someone, possibly on the first date, because I was frightened if I didn't, they would go. I allowed men to do anything they wanted to me". Many acts of which left this vulnerable and insecure girl feeling degraded and worthless.

Aged 15, driven by self-loathing and self-destruction, Jane swallowed every pill she could find in the bathroom cabinet in an attempt to kill herself. She was found unconscious and collapsed on her bed, "but they didn't call for help or take me to the hospital”, Jane said, “again, it was kept in the family”. Just like her abortion, aged 17, which Jane described as “the most traumatising experience of my life”.

Her world was in total chaos, but she had one thing which kept her straight and true – her dreams.
With barely three o-levels, Jane enrolled in the Grimsby College of Art studying fashion and later began designing children's clothes for the retail brand Marks & Spencer. Her life was heading in a brighter direction, but she knew that this path wouldn’t give her the exclusive life that she so badly craved.

In February 1988, 21-year-old Jane replied to an advert’ in The Lady, one of Britain’s longest running women’s magazines, in which an unnamed client with two young children sought a ‘personal dresser’.

In July, she was interviewed by the client, who was none-other than Sarah Ferguson; the Duchess of York, mother to Beatrice and Eugenie, and the wife of Prince Andrew (the fourth in line to the throne); who had homes on Eaton Square in Belgravia, Drummer in Hampshire, Sunninghill Park and the Royal Lodge in Windsor, as well as holiday retreats in the exclusive ski-resort of Verbier in Switzerland, and – of course, the most exclusive homes in our whole country – Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.

As a skinny, pale and frail working-class girl from the rusty wilds of Grimsby - who had battled poverty, sexual abuse, suicide and self-doubt - finally Jane’s dreams had been exceeded. It took guts to run, but she knew she had to. “I was running away from all the horrible things in my past. I arrived at King's Cross with a suitcase and £10 in my pocket. I got in a taxi and said 'side door of Buckingham Palace' and the driver made a joke. One of the housemaids met me and took me up to my room, and there was a little posy of flowers from Fergie and a card that read 'welcome to the team, the Boss'".

Jane Andrews had arrived.

This was her dream job with a dream boss, and - as two feisty red-heads - Fergie & Jane struck up an instant rapport. The role didn’t pay well, as she only earned £18000 a year as her dresser, accounts manager and companion, but it gave Jane access to a lifestyle she could never have reached any other way. "Suddenly I was at Balmoral mixing with the royals, having long chats with Princess Diana".

To blend in, Jane hid her northern accent. Besotted with her royal employer, Jane mimicked Fergie’s look, even to the point where she was given the nickname of ‘Lady Jane’, as people often mistook the two as old friends rather than a royal and her servant. And as an unashamed social-climber, Jane put noses out-of-joint by claiming to be Fergie’s Lady-in-Waiting, rather than just her humble dresser.

But once Jane was inside this very exclusive circle, she would do anything to remain within.

In April 1989, Jane met Christopher Dunn-Butler, a divorced IBM executive. Seeing him less as a lover and more as a step-up the social ladder, demanding his commitment, in August 1990 they married. “I so wanted to be loved”, Jane said “even though I was self-sufficient, I craved someone to take care of me". But as their love-life floundered and their intimacy withered, "I had a few flings. I'm not proud of it". Using sex as a substitute for love, Jane engaged in a string of affairs, and in 1995, they divorced.

They remained on good terms, and whenever she needed a friend, it was Christopher who she called.

For Jane, this break-up was a personal failure. She was so desperate for love and so blind-sided by the unthinkable - that if all this collapsed, the only alternative was to return to Grimsby with her face rouged in shame and her tail tucked between her legs – that she didn’t see what a good man he was.

But a fear of failure and a need to flee from the horrors of a past can be a powerful motivator, and so – taking this badly - she sank into a deep depression and was prescribed with anti-depressants.

Without a man by her side and someone to love her, Jane felt like she was nothing.

In 1996, Jane fell in love with Dimitri Horne, the son of a Greek shipping magnate. Only it wasn’t love, it was need, a desperation to not let yet another wealthy husband-to-be slip through her fingers, and this consumed her every thought. Her friends said “when things were going fine, she was lovely – prim and proper, like an English rose. But as soon as things didn’t go well, she would go absolutely crazy”.

When Dmitri ended the relationship, "I was so angry”, Jane would state “on the mantelpiece was a cup and saucer that I knew was very special to him and I smashed it. I went through his journal with a marker pen and blanked out all the references to myself. I picked up his telephone and smashed that too. I'm ashamed of what I did. I've never done that to anyone else's possessions". But with the pain of rejection being too much to bear - when her hopes of a happy life slipped away - she lashed out.

Once again, just as she had in her teenage years, Jane took an overdose and tried to end her life...

...a suicide attempt which was kept secret from the Duchess for fear of risking her dream job.

But Jane couldn’t focus if she didn’t feel loved. Several failed relationships followed; one with Fergie’s biographer Allan Starkie, who she harangued with jealous notes under his locked bedroom door and one with an unnamed man who she (allegedly) rang from an abortion clinic threatening to kill his baby if he didn’t take her back. She slept with journalists, palace courtiers and royal protection officers. Jane could be lovely and charming, but as a fragile woman, she could be deceitful and manipulative.

But love wasn’t her only desire.

In December 1995, two years earlier, Jane had attracted public notoriety when she mistakenly checked in an unlocked suitcase belonging to the Duchess of York into the baggage hold of a BA jet at Kennedy airport. Quarter of a million pounds worth of the Duchess's jewellery vanished, including a diamond-encrusted necklace and a matching bracelet gifted to Fergie as wedding presents from the Queen.

Several sources have alleged that Jane stole these expensive items and that “it became clear that for every pound she had spent on Fergie, she had spent £2 on herself”, hence on her rather modest wage she was able afford a new flat overlooking Battersea Park. But these allegations were never proven.

And then, in November 1997, Jane suffered her ultimate failure...

...as with Fergie divorced and no longer a royal, needing to make cutbacks, Jane was made redundant.

After nine years of loyal service, her exclusive life among the elite was over. Feeling worthless, she sank deeper into depression, she struggled to pay her mortgage, and forced to find a regular job – although she briefly worked at Theo Fennel, an exclusive high-end jeweller on the wealthy Fulham Road - she was little more than a sales assistant, a job she could easily have got back home in Grimsby.

Jane was back to square one....

...she was a no-one with nothing...

...and then, she met Tommy Cressman.

In August 1998, at Min’s Restaurant in Knightsbridge, a mutual friend introduced the two. Jane was instantly smitten as Tommy was fun loving, charming and gregarious. Seven years her senior, he had trained as a stockbroker but now ran his own business. He mixed in elite circles, he hobnobbed with the stars, he was the son of a multi-millionaire and he holidayed in a private villa on the French Riviera.

And best of all, he was single. That night, they drank, they ate and – getting on well – they left together.

What Jane wanted was a husband, but what Tommy didn’t want was a wife. Some said he was a little bit immature for his 37 years, he was an eternal boy and – worse still – a confirmed bachelor, who loved fast cars, speed-boats and cartoons. A friend of Jane’s later stated: “he was quite spoiled, a wilful chap who always had a laugh in his throat but was very much a little boy, who could be manipulative".

On the surface, they looked well-suited... but underneath they were not.

That same friend later stated "she was very sweet, quite shy. Jane reminded me of a delicate bird. You wanted to pick her up carefully so as not to damage her wings. But she could put on a good show - happy-go-lucky, confident, relaxed - and of course she wasn't any of those things". And although they were badly mismatched, Jane saw this man as her one chance to return to the life that she loved.

Only her happiness would only ever be fleeting.

To many, it may be unsurprising that a spoiled little man-baby with an obsession for World War Two regalia who collected Nazi uniforms, SS weaponry and whose most prized possession was an oak lump reputed to have been part of Adolf Hitler’s desk had a dark side. But he did. In court, Jane depicted Tommy as “a sexual monster, who was jealous, possessive and abusive with a violent temper”.

By the winter, the rot in the relationship had set in. He would claim “it was an accident” which had occurred while the couple were dancing, as now Jane was sporting several bruises and a broken wrist.

Jane would state: "I so wanted this relationship to work. I never knew when his moods were going to change. He could be so incredibly nice and then with absolutely no reason whatsoever he would hit me with this wooden brush. He always made me feel it was my fault. He would say I was weak".

But so desperate was Jane’s need for love, that when he asked here to move in, she said ‘yes’.

In November 1998, after just three months together, Jane moved into Tommy’s home at 74 Maltings Place, a bachelor pad purchased by his parent’s deep pockets for their little boy just one year before.

At first, he seemed like “a charming romantic”, Jane would state; he sent her roses, he left her love letters, he paid-off her debts and he always picked her up after work, but – for her – these generous gestures had a more sinister motive, “to ensure that I was never alone with anyone else but him”.

And yet, still fixated on her one overriding goal, she was determined to marry him... at all costs.

Over the next two years, the relationship began to stagnate. Jane hadn’t been her usual self since the Duchess had made her redundant, and flitting between jobs – just as her father had during the difficult childhood she had so desperately tried to flee – now she had become entirely reliant on Tommy.

Over time, Jane would often state that their relationship became increasingly volatile, characterised by physical violence, domination and his escalating sexual demands – acts that she found abhorrent.

She said the first she became aware of his sexual preferences was when she found a pair of lady’s thigh-length boots and bondage straps among his possessions. She tried to end the relationship, but he begged her to stay, and when he realised that she had given them to a charity shop, he hit her.

In his bedside cabinet, she found two fetish magazines – Desire and Stiletto Heel – dedicated to S&M, for sexual sadists who get their thrills by inflicting pain, humiliation and domination on a subordinate. And when Jane – his fragile little bird, trapped in a cage – couldn’t fulfil his immediate needs, from the back pages (it is said) he would call the private numbers of sex-workers for “instant sexual relief”.

It is said that Tommy took her to the London Erotica Show, an expo for the sexually adventurous which was described by a journalist as being “about as erotic as a paperclip convention”, but it was here that rubber garments were purchased for Jane to wear during sex - the kind worn by a sexual submissive.

In one role-play session, with Tommy dressed-up like an old school-master in a mortarboard and cloak, he had Jane dress as a schoolgirl, in a short-pleated skirt and one of his old school ties. And what began as an innocent adventure into kinky foreplay, she said, often descended into violence and rape.

"He was shouting at me in this stupid German voice. He was wielding this knife. What he meant to do was spread my legs by touching them with this knife, but I struggled and he caught the back of my right leg and cut me. It wasn't deep but it was sore. I was so frightened that I spread my legs”.

For sexual sadists, humiliation and domination is part of the thrill, but Tommy also had a preference for anal sex – something Jane found abhorrent. “He buggered me. I didn't resist because if I did it hurt like hell. Nine times out of ten he used to come inside me, which really disturbed me, or he would ejaculate over me and rub it all over me, even my hair. On one occasion, I was having problems and I couldn't go to the loo. He'd had anal sex with me and when he came out, he'd got excrement on his penis. He grabbed hold of my hair and screamed at me and yanked me down and made me lick it off".

She never told anyone about the abuse, and she never called the Police. As a family friend once said "she spent ten years with the royal family, she was intensely loyal, but trusted no-one". And just like when she was abused as a little girl back in Grimsby, what happened in the family, stayed in the family.

In the months leading up to Tommy’s death, their arguments grew more volatile. In December 1999, Jane ended up at Charing Cross Hospital, later stating that Tommy had thrown her down the stairs. And in June 2000, after an argument in which he (allegedly) accused her of flirting with another man “I got hit from behind and I went flying. He started kicking me round the kitchen. I was covered in cuts and bruises. I had to go into work the next day. I said to Tom: 'What am I going to tell them?' and he laughed and said 'Tell them you fell off your bike, you stupid cow'. Why didn't I say anything to anybody? For the simple reason I didn't think I'd be believed. I was ashamed. I felt a failure. People at work would laugh and say 'Tommy picks Jane up from work every night, isn't it sweet?' No, it wasn't”.

That month, once again, she attempted suicide.

But – as Jane would state in a court of law – sex and violence weren’t Tommy’s only weapon. He knew her strengths, he knew her weaknesses and he knew exactly which buttons to push and when.

For Jane, marriage was everything. "It was such a complex relationship that we had. I was the ultimate in insecurity. He was the ultimate in commitment-phobia. I would threaten to leave. He would tell me to leave. Then he would reel me back in. He knew which carrots to dangle and which strings to pull".

In the summer of 2000, Jane & Tommy went house-hunting in the Cotswolds. The arguments had lessened, the relationship was better, and she believed that a marriage proposal was on the horizon.

From 1st to 15th September 2000, Jane & Tommy holidayed in the French and Italian rivieras, cruising to a boat-show in his mahogany Riva, a stylish elegant speedboat, and staying at his mother’s opulent villa, drinking fine wines and relaxing to stunning sunsets which glistened over a clear-blue sea. Once again, Jane was back in the lifestyle she craved so much, forgetting her past, as this was her future.

Only Tommy had absolutely no intention of marrying Jane... ever.

Heard bitterly quarrelling at Nice Airport and sat in stony silence for the flight back, having returned to Maltings Place, Jane later said “Tommy wanted me out", a fight ensued and he tried to throttle her.

Their fight escalated through the next day, becoming so venomous that at 11.35am, Tommy called the Police, informing the operator "we are rowing and someone is going to get hurt". Upstairs, Jane could be heard screaming, and although he was asked “is anyone injured?” replying – almost prophetically - “not yet, but if you don’t get here soon, someone is going to get hurt”, as this was a domestic and no crime was committed, they were asked to resolved it themselves. At the same time, Jane called her ex-husband Christopher to tell him “Tommy is attacking me”, but no-one came to her aid. (End)

At 12pm, moments after the call ended, according to Jane, he tied her to the bed with the cord of her dressing gown and anally-raped her, saying, "I'm really going to hurt you and nobody will believe you". She never mentioned it to the police or friends “as I was so ashamed, I just couldn't talk about it", but fearing for her life – being trapped with a sexual sadist - she placed a cricket bat and knife by the bed.

Violated, bleeding and confused - having been made to feel worthless - later that night, Jane returned to their bedroom and asked "where do you want me to sleep?", at which he replied "with me, of course", as again he tried to penetrate her anus, shouting "you know you like it, you know you do".

And although she would ultimately find some peace in her sleep, the violence didn’t stop. During the night, she awoke to find him punching her hard in the face, screaming “I’m going to f**king kill you”.

Panicked, she grabbed the cricket bat and swung, hitting him across the head, but only stunned him. And as this wild-eyed sadist loomed over the petrified lady, yanking her back to the bed by her hair, "I was holding the knife as he came towards me. I don't know, it just went into him. It must have done".

Petrified beyond belief, Jane fled, and tied the door handle to the banister using her bathrobe’s cord, so that the monster inside – who had repeatedly beaten and rape her – could never hurt her again.

Moments later, Jane got into her car and drove fast, fearing what he would do if he ever caught her. But he never would, as - in order to protect herself from danger - she had killed him. Tommy was dead.

In court, Jane would plead self-defence. It was clear to anyone that she was an abused woman who had defended herself from a violent and dangerous partner, who had tried to murder her. Everything you have heard in this episode – so far - is entirely true... but only if you believe Jane’s version.

OUTRO: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to Murder Mile.

As always, if you can’t get enough of a wobbly pointless loser waffling on about tea, cake and coots, stay tuned till after the break for more info on this case, a little quiz and a treat in Extra Mile. But before that here’s a little promo.

A big thank you to my new Patreon supporters who are Kerry Forrest and Kerry Perkins, two Kerry’s in one go, the plural of which (I’m guessing) is The Kerri, as Kerryses sounds weird. Thank you for supporting the show, it’s very much appreciated. Plus, a thank you to Mark Dunstan, Mark Gibson and Dawn Smith for your kind donations via the Murder Mile merch shop. I thank you all.

Murder Mile was researched, written and performed by myself, with the main musical themes written and performed by Erik Stein & Jon Boux of Cult With No Name.

Thank you for listening and sleep well.

*** LEGAL DISCLAIMER
The Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast has been researched using the original declassified police investigation files, court records, press reports and as many authentic sources as possible, which are freely available in the public domain, including eye-witness testimony, confessions, autopsy reports, first-hand accounts and independent investigation, where possible. But these documents are only as accurate as those recounting them and recording them, and are always incomplete or full of opinion rather than fact, therefore mistakes and misrepresentations can be made. As stated at the beginning of each episode (and as is clear by the way it is presented) Murder Mile UK True Crime Podcast is a 'dramatisation' of the events and not a documentary, therefore a certain amount of dramatic licence, selective characterisation and story-telling (within logical reason and based on extensive research) has been taken to create a fuller picture. It is not a full and complete representation of the case, the people or the investigation, and therefore should not be taken as such. It is also often (for the sake of clarity, speed and the drama) presented from a single person's perspective, usually (but not exclusively) the victim's, and therefore it will contain a certain level of bias and opinion to get across this single perspective, which may not be the overall opinion of those involved or associated. Murder Mile is just one possible retelling of each case. Murder Mile does not set out to cause any harm or distress to those involved, and those who listen to the podcast or read the transcripts provided should be aware that by accessing anything created by Murder Mile (or any source related to any each) that they may discover some details about a person, an incident or the police investigation itself, that they were unaware of.
*** LEGAL DISCLAIMER

Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian, podcaster and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten curious, quirky, unusual and different things to do in London”, nominated "one of the best true-crime podcasts at the British Podcast Awards", one of The Telegraph's top five true-crime podcasts and featuring 12 murderers, including 3 serial killers, across 15 locations, totalling 50 deaths, over just a one mile walk

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