Terence Rooney, a 17-year-old from Wirral, was convicted of murdering one cellmate and attempting to murder another, with prosecutors establishing that his crimes were driven by a "sadistic sense of power" and the sheer enjoyment of tormenting and dominating vulnerable boys.
First murder attempt at Werrington
In March 1995, Rooney attempted to murder his cellmate, John Jones, by hanging him with torn bedsheets from a pipe. An eyewitness testified that Rooney placed the noose around Jones' neck and kicked away the chair.
Torture and murder of Christopher Greenaway
After being transferred to Stoke Heath, Rooney targeted his new, vulnerable 16-year-old cellmate, subjecting him to 12 days of physical assault, humiliation, and demands to call him "master" before Greenaway was found hanged on October 2, 1995.
Court defence and guilty verdicts
Rooney pleaded not guilty at Stafford Crown Court in February 1997, claiming both incidents were faked or genuine suicides, but the jury convicted him of both the attempted murder of Jones and the murder of Greenaway.
Life sentence and repeated appeals rejected
Despite committing the crimes as a minor, the judge cited his heartless and evil nature, handing down a life sentence with a strict minimum tariff of 18 years alongside a concurrent 12-year term. Rooney failed in a 2009 attempt to lower his minimum tariff, with judges citing his ongoing bullying and prison misconduct, and had a 2014 appeal to overturn his convictions dismissed as "unmeritorious" and a waste of the court's time.
