From a terrace in Grimsby to Buckingham Palace – then on to the Old Bailey and Her Majesty’s Prison. It is hardly a surprise that the story of Jane Andrews, the former dresser and right-hand woman to Sarah Ferguson who was later jailed for the murder of her boyfriend Thomas Cressman, became something of a grim cause célèbre in the early Noughties. After all, it had all the components of a very British tabloid scandal: class anxiety, mingled with royalty and shocking violence.
Headlines branded Andrews, the Lincolnshire woman who had ascended from humble beginnings to earn the nickname “Lady Jane” from her employer, a “bunny boiler” or the “Fatal Attraction” killer. She was portrayed as a callous and jealous social climber, fixated upon securing a place among the upper classes. Andrews, however, contended that she had been a victim of abuse.
