Reenactment of a Killer and Serial Rapist

Cold-Eyed Mark Shirley

This is the true story of Helen Stockford. In 1987, Mark Shirley was convicted of and jailed for the ritualized murder of sixty-seven-year-old widow Mary Wainwright. After serving many years in prison, he was released on March 20, 2009. He then broke into the home of thirty-nine-year-old Helen Stockford, where he attempted to recreate the crime perpetrated on Wainwright twenty-two years before. In Reenactment of a Killer and Serial Rapist, Stockford narrates the true story of her battle against evil. She tells how she was sexually brutalized in her own home by Shirley. For more than five hours, she struggled for survival, and despite the cruelty she endured, she held on to hope that she would live. After surviving this horrific attack, Stockford kept the incident secret for several days until she broke down and reported it to the police. After nine long months of fear, Shirley was found guilty of six charges at the Bristol Crown Court and was given six life sentences with a nine-year tariff. In this memoir, Stockford shares how she has become a voice for numerous victims in the United Kingdom.