June 23, 2021 5.37 pm This story is over 32 months old

Life in prison for murderer who killed two sex workers

Two murders 21 years apart

By Local Democracy Reporter

Gary Allen, 47, has been sentenced to life behind bars after being found guilty of the double murder of sex workers which spanned over two decades.

Allen was convicted of murdering sex worker Samantha Class in October 1997, a crime he had previously been acquitted of during a jury trial in 2000.

He was also convicted of the murder of Alena Grlakova in Rotherham in 2018, another sex worker, meaning his two murders were 21 years and one court trial apart.

Samantha Class (left) and Alena Grlakova (right) were murdered 21 years apart. | Photos: Humberside & South Yorkshire Police

In both instances, the bodies had been found in stretches of water, with Samantha being found by schoolchildren on the banks of the Humber Estuary and Alena in a stream in Rotherham.

Gary Allen’s eventual conviction made this the first case of double jeopardy murder in the history of the Humberside Police force.

The court had head that Allen had a deeply-rooted hatred for women, particularly sex workers, whom he called “scum” and “the lowest of the low”.

He also described women as “easy targets” and was caught on tape by an undercover police officer confessing to Samantha Class’ murder over a decade after he was first acquitted.

At his sentencing at Sheffield Crown Court on Wednesday, Justice Goose said: “You have been convicted of the murders of two women 21 years apart.

“You thought you had got away with murder, but today your past has caught up with you. This jury has, on overwhelming evidence, convicted you on both murders.

“You are an extremely dangerous man with a long-held, deep seated, warped view of women, in particular sex workers.

“It would not be an overstatement to say that what you did to those two women and the suffering to their families was wicked.”