Graham Young

In 2009, a painting of the Kray twins by Young was sold at an auction in Andover for £2,700.

One of Young's fellow patients at Broadmoor was the criminal Roy Shaw. In his autobiography Pretty Boy (2003), Shaw recounted his friendship with Young.

While in prison, Young befriended Moors murderer Ian Brady, with whom he shared a fascination for Nazi Germany. Brady's 2001 book, The Gates of Janus, in which he discusses various serial killers, includes a chapter on Young. Brady wrote that Young "was genuinely asexual, finding even discussion of sexual matters not only uninteresting but also distinctly distasteful... Power and death were his aphrodisiacs and raisons d’être." Elsewhere Brady stated that "it was difficult not to empathise with Graham Young."

A 1995 film called The Young Poisoner's Handbook is loosely based on Young's life.

Young was the subject of an episode of the ITV series Crime Story, entitled "Terrible Coldness". It was broadcast on 6 October 1993. Young was portrayed by Mark Womack.

Young died in his cell at Parkhurst prison on the evening of 1 August 1990, one month before his 43rd birthday. The cause of death was listed as myocardial infarction at an inquest, after a postmortem. As Young had no history of heart disease, it has been speculated that he either committed suicide, or was murdered by prisoners or prison staff who did not feel safe around him.

Maudling ordered a review of current procedures for releasing offenders from psychiatric hospitals. The review was to be carried out by a three man committee headed by Sir Carl Aarvold, Recorder of London. Their findings were published in January 1973. Maudling also announced an inquiry to review the management of mentally ill offenders in the criminal justice system, to be chaired by Lord Butler of Saffron Walden. This led to the Butler Committee's recommendations in 1975, which resulted in the expansion in forensic mental health services with the development of regional (now referred to as medium) secure units in most of the health regions in England and Wales. Prior to that there had been only the high security hospitals of Broadmoor, Rampton and Ashworth.

Soon after Young's conviction, reports of copycat poisonings appeared in the British press. In April 1973, Howard Grodnow of Ealing, London, committed suicide. Grodnow became convinced that he had been poisoned by Young after reading about the case. For the previous 18 months he had suffered from severe chest pains, which he traced back to an encounter, in a Hemel Hempstead pub, with a young man obsessed with poisons and chemicals. In November 2005, a 16-year-old Japanese schoolgirl was arrested for poisoning her mother with thallium. She claimed to be fascinated by Young, having seen the 1995 film (see below), and kept an online blog, similar to Young's diary, recording dosage and reactions.

The Young case made headlines in Britain and led to a public debate over the release of mentally ill offenders. Within hours of his conviction, the British Government announced two inquiries into the issues it raised. The Butler Committee led to widespread reforms in mental health services. The outcry over the ease with which Young was able to obtain deadly poisons led to the passage of the 1972 Poisons Act. Young's life story inspired the 1995 film The Young Poisoner's Handbook.

Young was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, four counts of administering poison with intent to injure and four alternative counts of administering poison with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. He pleaded not guilty, which made it difficult to find a barrister willing to represent him and the trial date had to be postponed several times. Eventually, Sir Arthur Irvine QC agreed to defend him. John Leonard QC led the prosecution for the Crown. The judge was Mr Justice Eveleigh. The trial was held at St Albans Crown Court and started on 19 June 1972.

On 29 June 1972, after one hour and 38 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Young guilty of two counts of murder (Bob Egle and Fred Biggs), two counts of attempted murder (Jethro Batt and David Tilson) and two counts of administering poison with intent to injure (Diana Smart and Ronald Hewitt). He was found not guilty of administering poison to Trevor Sparkes and Peter Buck, and was acquitted on all four counts of administering poison with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. Through his counsel, Young requested that he be sent to a conventional prison rather than return to Broadmoor. His request was granted, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment, to be served at HM Prison Park Lane in Maghull later changing to Ashworth Hospital.

On 29 June 1972, the day Young's trial ended, Home Secretary Reginald Maudling gave a statement in the House of Commons about the case and the issues it raised. He confirmed that more safeguards were to be introduced governing the release of mentally ill offenders. Henceforth, no patient at a special hospital was to be discharged without two concurring recommendations from psychiatrists. Supervision of released patients was also to be improved.

In 1971, Young was deemed rehabilitated and released from Broadmoor. He found a job as a storekeeper at a factory in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, where his duties included making tea for his colleagues. Soon afterwards, Young began poisoning his workmates, resulting in two fatalities and several others left critically ill. The deaths were initially attributed to a mysterious bug, but Young's odd behaviour and his penchant for showing off his considerable knowledge of poisons aroused suspicions and he was arrested. Large quantities of poison were found in his bedsit along with a diary detailing his poisonings. In 1972, he was convicted on two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He served most of his sentence at HM Prison Parkhurst, where he died of a heart attack in 1990.

After his release from Broadmoor in February 1971, Young initially stayed with his sister Winifred and her husband in Hemel Hempstead. Within weeks he had resumed his interest in poisons. An attempt to acquire poison from John Bell & Croyden in Wigmore Street was unsuccessful, as the chemist refused to sell them without written authorization. Young duly returned with the required authorization on Bedford College headed notepaper and was sold 25 g of antimony potassium tartrate. He told the chemist that he needed it for a qualitative and quantitative analysis. He later returned to the same chemist to purchase 25 g of thallium.

Young attended a store keeping training course in Slough and stayed at a hostel in nearby Cippenham. He befriended 34-year-old Trevor Sparkes, another resident of the hostel, and the two occasionally visited the pub together or shared a bottle of wine in Sparkes' room. Young would later confess to poisoning Sparkes with antimony sodium tartrate. On the night of February 10, Sparkes was violently sick, had diarrhoea, pins and needles in his legs and pains in his testicles; earlier in the evening he had accepted a glass of water from Young. Sparkes' symptoms returned periodically over the following months. He felt so ill during a football match that he had to leave the pitch after a few minutes. Specialists were unable to pinpoint the cause, variously diagnosing it as a kidney infection, bowel infection, urinary tract infection or stomach infection. Sparkes left Slough in April 1971 and gradually recovered, though he never played football again.

59-year-old Bob Egle was storeroom manager at Hadland and Young's immediate superior. Egle was a Dunkirk veteran and Young - a Second World War enthusiast - often asked about his wartime experiences. Young began poisoning Egle in June, weeks after his arrival at the company. Egle had several days off work with diarrhoea and severe stomach pains. His health improved after a week-long holiday, but on his return Young put a lethal dose of thallium in his afternoon tea. Egle's condition deteriorated rapidly from this point. He complained of intense back pain and numbness in his fingers and feet. He was transferred to the intensive care unit at St Albans City Hospital, where paralysis set in. Young showed a strong concern for Egle, repeatedly contacting the hospital for updates on his progress. Egle finally died on 7 July 1971. A post-mortem attributed Egle's death to a rare form of polyneuritis known as Guillain–Barré syndrome. Young was chosen to accompany managing director Godfrey Foster to Egle's funeral, as a representative of the department Egle managed. Foster recalled Young remarking how sad it was that "Bob should come through the terrors of Dunkirk only to fall victim to some strange virus."

On 8 October 1971, Young put thallium acetate in David Tilson's tea. Tilson found the tea too sweet for his liking (Young had added sugar to disguise any unusual taste from the thallium) and therefore did not drink it all. Young administered a second dose of thallium a week later. Tilson was admitted to hospital with numb legs, breathing difficulties and chest pains. His skin was so tender he could not endure the weight of the bedsheets, and all his hair then fell out. Young had a back-up plan to visit Tilson in hospital and offer him a bottle of brandy laced with more thallium. Subsequently, Tilson recovered, though he was left permanently impotent by the poisoning.

Fred Biggs was a 56-year-old local councillor and part-time employee at Hadland's. Young poisoned him with antimony, prompting the typical "Bovingdon bug" symptoms. Then, on 30 October 1971, Young put three doses of thallium acetate in Biggs' tea. By the following day, Biggs had developed chest pains and had trouble walking. Within days, he was admitted to Hemel Hempstead General Hospital, then transferred to the Whittington Hospital in North London, followed by the London National Hospital for Nervous Diseases (now part of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery). His central nervous system deteriorated to the point that he could not speak and had trouble breathing. His skin also began to peel off. Young showed concern for Biggs' condition, continually telephoning Biggs' wife and the hospital directly to make enquiries. Biggs finally died on 19 November 1971.

Young was arrested at the home of his aunt and uncle in Sheerness, Kent, on 20 November 1971. Nothing incriminating was found on his person. He denied any wrongdoing, but as he was being led away his aunt overheard him ask the officers "which one is it you're doing me for?" When police searched his bedsit, they discovered a large stash of bottles containing poisons, including 434 milligrams of thallium and 32.33 grams of antimony, the latter 200 times a lethal dose. Other poisons in his possession included atropine, aconitine and digitalis. His lodgings were covered in swastikas and pictures of Hitler and other Nazis. Police also discovered a detailed diary that Young had kept, noting the doses he had administered, their effects, and whether he was going to allow each person to live or die. Upon further questioning by police, he admitted that the initials in the diary referred to his co-workers ('F' was Fred Biggs, 'D' was David Tilson and so on).

In June 1970, after Young had spent nearly eight years in Broadmoor, Edgar Udwin, the prison psychiatrist, wrote to the Home Secretary to recommend his release, announcing that Young "is no longer obsessed with poisons, violence and mischief. And he is no longer a danger to others." However, Young remarked to a Broadmoor nurse: "When I get out, I'm going to kill one person for every year I've spent in this place."

Young first applied for release from Broadmoor in 1965. His father and sister attended the tribunal and stated that if Young was released, none of his relatives would be willing to house him. Fred Young also told the hearing that his son should "never be released". Young's application was rejected.

Obsessed with poisons from an early age, Young began poisoning relatives and school friends by lacing their food and drink with thallium and antimony. He was caught when his schoolteacher became concerned by his interest in poisons and contacted the police. In 1962, at the age of 14, Young was charged with administering poison to his father, sister and schoolfriend and detained at Broadmoor Hospital. Young would later claim responsibility for the death of his stepmother, although he was never charged with this crime. The presiding judge stipulated that Young should not be released without the Home Secretary's authorization for 15 years.

On Easter Saturday, 21 April 1962, Molly Young died. Her death was attributed to a prolapsed cervical disc, which was believed to have resulted from a road accident. Much later, Young told police that he poisoned her with a lethal dose of thallium. At her wake, Young poisoned a male relative after lacing a jar of mustard pickle with antimony. Shortly afterwards his father became seriously ill and was taken to hospital where he was told that he was suffering from antimony poisoning and one more dose would have killed him. Young's aunt, who knew of his fascination with chemistry and poisons, became suspicious, as did his science teacher (Mr Hughes) who discovered several bottles of poison in Young's desk and spoke to the school's headmaster about his concerns. They arranged for Young to be interviewed by a psychiatrist, posing as a careers advisor, who contacted the police after Young revealed his extensive knowledge of poisons and toxicology.

Young was arrested on 23 May 1962 after returning home from school. Vials of thallium and antimony were found in his possession. When questioned by police, he confessed to poisoning his father, stepmother, sister and school friend Chris Williams. Psychiatrist Dr Christopher Fysh testified that Young had a psychopathic disorder rather than a mental illness, and had failed "to develop a normal moral sense." He felt it was "extremely likely" that Young would re-offend, and recounted a conversation in which Young said: "I am missing my antimony. I miss the power it gives me." Fysh recommended that Young be detained at Broadmoor Hospital, an institution for patients with mental disorders who have committed offences. Dr Donald Blair, another psychiatrist, concurred with Fysh's viewpoint.

In 1961, Young acquired antimony from a local chemist; his knowledge of chemistry and poisons convinced the chemist that he was older than he appeared. He signed the poisons register in the name "M.E. Evans". He began poisoning his stepmother, father and sister. Beginning in February, Molly Young suffered vomiting, diarrhoea and excruciating stomach pain, which she initially dismissed as bilious attacks. Before long his father was also suffering, with similar stomach cramps debilitating him for days at a time. Then Young's sister was violently ill on a couple of occasions that summer. Shortly afterwards, Young himself was violently sick at home. It even seemed as if the mystery bug had spread beyond their household: a couple of Young's school friends had also been off school ill a couple of times with similar painful symptoms.

In November 1961, Winifred Young was served a cup of tea by her brother one morning, but found its taste so sour she took only one mouthful before she threw it away. While on the train to work an hour later, she began to hallucinate, had to be helped out of the station and was eventually taken to hospital, where doctors came to the conclusion that she had somehow been exposed to the poisonous Atropa belladonna. Fred Young confronted his son, but Graham blamed Winifred, whom he claimed had been using the family's teacups to mix shampoo. Unconvinced, Fred searched Graham's room, but found nothing incriminating. Nevertheless, he warned his son to be more careful in future when "messing about with those bloody chemicals".

He was fascinated from an early age by poisons and their effects. He read extensively about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. William Palmer, the Victorian poisoner, also became a hero of Young's. In 1959 Young passed his eleven-plus, and went to grammar school. He also started to read books on advanced toxicology.

Graham Frederick Young (7 September 1947 – 1 August 1990), best known as the Teacup Poisoner and later the St Albans Poisoner, was an English serial killer who used poison to kill his victims.

Young was born in Neasden in Middlesex on 7 September 1947 to Frederick and Molly Young. He had an older sister, Winifred. Molly died of tuberculous pleurisy when Graham was 14 weeks old. He was sent by his father to live with an uncle and aunt, while his sister went to live with their grandparents. Several years later, Frederick Young remarried, to another woman named Molly, and the family were re-united.