Jane Andrews, who was one of Sarah Ferguson’s most trusted advisors, is the subject of a brand new ITV drama series, which tells the shocking story of how she murdered her boyfriend and fled, before eventually going to jail
She was the royal dresser who earned the trust of Sarah Ferguson and had the world at her feet. But after Jane Andrews’ boyfriend was brutally killed sparking almost a week-long manhunt for his killer, she was eventually convicted of his murder and ended up in jail – but not before making a daring prison escape.
And now, seven years after her prison release, her story has been turned into an ITV drama series, which hits screens tonight. Called The Lady, the partly fictionalised show will recount Andrews’ rise from a ordinary art college student to working at Buckingham Palace for the former Duchess of York and to her being convicted of the murder of Thomas Cressman, the man she thought she was going to marry. Here we look at her dramatic downfall….
Royal rise
After growing up in Lincolnshire, Andrews attended art college and worked for Marks and Spencer before managing to secure her prestigious royal job as a personal dresser to Sarah Ferguson, who was then known as the Duchess of York, in 1988. It came after she responded to a job advert posted anonymously in The Lady magazine.
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The two women quickly formed a deep friendship, and it was believed that Fergie even affectionately dubbed her new employee “Lady Jane” during the course of their connection.
Despite being on a modest salary of just £18,000 a year, the royal job opened the door to an elite world beyond Andrews’ imagination. She started mixing in sophisticated circles and reportedly became obsessed with Fergie, even going so far as to copy her accent, clothes and hairstyle.
After Fergie’s split from Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and with her number of staff dwindling, the dresser took on extra responsibilities as one of her few remaining aides. In the introduction to one of her travel books, the former Duchess included a warm thanks to her assistant “whose loyalty and kindness knows no bounds”. However, during her trial, Andrews was described as being ‘obsessed’ with her boss, with the dresser reportedly trying to imitate every aspect of her life.
Whirlwind romance
By 1997, Andrews was made redundant from her role, reportedly leaving her devastated. However just one year later, she struck up a relationship with successful businessman Thomas Cressman.
She had a whirlwind romance with the former stockbroker, which brought her closer to the high-society world she used to live in when working for Fergie. She moved into his flat and expressed her desire for them to marry and start a family.
However in September 2000 during a trip to Italy, instead of proposing, Cressman actually told her he had no intention of marrying her. They had a huge row when they returned to their London home and Cressman even called the police, warning them “somebody is going to get hurt”. Later that night, while Cressman was asleep in bed, Andrews murdered her boyfriend in cold blood.
She bludgeoned her sleeping partner with a cricket bat then stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife. Following the horrific attack, Andrews fled the scene and vanished for four days.
On the run
After Cressman’s violent death, Andrews sent text messages to her friends inquiring about her partner’s whereabouts and wellbeing in an attempt to cover her tracks. During her time on the run, Fergie herself also left two voicemails for her former employee pleading with her to turn herself in to the police.
After several days in hiding, she was eventually apprehended in a “distressed” state in her car in Cornwall. During her trial at the Old Bailey in April 2001, Andrews tried to claim that Cressman had abused her and even suggested he “must have come forward on to the knife in the dark”.
Superintendent Jim Dickie, who led the murder inquiry, said: “She murdered [Tom] in life and murdered him again in death by trying to ruin his reputation.” Despite her claims of domestic abuse, it took a jury just 12 hours to convict Andrews of Cressman’s murder. She was sentenced to serve a minimum of 12 years of a life sentence.
Daring escape
Andrews served nine years at a jail in Yorkshire before being moved to East Sutton Park Prison in Kent. But she walked out of the open prison, causing the police to launch a manhunt to bring her back.
After three days on the run, Andrews was captured in a hotel room on the outskirts of Maidstone after a tip off from the taxi driver who took her there. She was put back behind bars and moved back to a more secure facility to continue serving her the rest of her sentence.
She was considered for early release several times but was repeatedly adjudged as a ‘danger to the public’. In June 2015, Andrews was released on license, but just three years later, she was jailed once again after being accused of breaching the terms of her release by harassing a married man. The claims were investigated but no further action was taken and Andrews was freed again in 2019.
