A Ripon man serving a life sentence for murder died in prison last year of skin cancer, a report from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has revealed. 

John Hutchinson, then 57, was jailed in 2007 for the murder of father-of-six Sean Webster, of Kirkby Malzeard, in February 2006. The pair, who were good friends, had had an argument at The Unicorn pub in Ripon before going back to Hutchinson’s home in Cavendish Terrace. 

It was there that he shot Webster, 41, using a “dumdum” bullet, a prohibited type of projectile designed to fragment upon impact. 

Hutchinson pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming that the .22 rifle – which had been stolen five years earlier and that he had bought “from the back of a Land Rover” – had gone off by accident as he tried to put it in a bag to give to Webster. 

But the jury at his Leeds Crown Court trial heard that after the shooting he left his home and went to a pub for the afternoon. 

Hutchinson was sentenced to life imprisonment. In a statement released at the time, his family said: 

Hutchinson was serving his sentence at HMP Lancaster Farms when he fell ill in 2022. He was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in the summer and transferred to the healthcare unit at HMP Preston in the autumn. 

In November 2022, the prison applied for Hutchinson’s early release on compassionate grounds, but the Public Protection Casework Section (PPCS) of HM Prison and Probation Service turned it down as they were not satisfied that Hutchinson no longer posed a risk to the public. 

Hutchinson died on December 22, aged 73. At an inquest held on September 22, 2023, the coroner concluded that he died from natural causes.

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