his wife but not his daughter Geraldine, for whose death Christie was responsible. Christie's likely motive was that her presence would have drawn attention to Beryl's disappearance, which Christie would have been averse to as it increased the risk that his own murders would be discovered. Brabin also noted that the uncertainty involved in the case would have prevented a jury from being satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of Evans' guilt had he been re-tried. These conclusions were used by the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins, to recommend a posthumous pardon for Evans, which was granted, as he had been tried and executed for the murder of his daughter. Jenkins announced the granting of Evans' pardon to the House of Commons on 18 October 1966. Evans' remains were subsequently exhumed and returned to his family, who arranged for him to be reburied in a private grave. There was already debate in the United Kingdom over the judicial killing. Evans' execution and other controversial cases contributed to the 1965 suspension, and subsequent abolition, of capital punishment in the United Kingdom. In January 2003, the Home Office awarded Evans' half-sister, Mary Westlake, and his sister, Eileen Ashby, ex-gratia payments as compensation for the miscarriage of justice in his trial. The independent assessor for the Home Office, Lord Brennan QC, accepted that "the conviction and execution of Timothy Evans for the murder of his child was wrongful and a miscarriage of justice" and that "there is no evidence to implicate Timothy Evans in the murder of his wife. She was most probably murdered by Christie". Lord Brennan believed that the Brabin Report's conclusion that Evans probably murdered his wife should be rejected given Christie's confessions and conviction. Media In September 1969, the play Christie in Love by Howard Brenton premiered. The play relates Christie's murders and psychological abnormality to violence and sadistic personality disorder in society as a whole. It has been revived several times. Christie's murders were dramatised in the film 10 Rillington Place (1971), in which he was portrayed by Richard Attenborough, who spoke of his ambivalence concerning the role: "I do not like playing the part, but I accepted it at once without seeing the script. I have never felt so totally involved in any part as this. It is a most devastating statement on capital punishment." A three-part BBC biographical crime drama focused on the Christie murders. This series, Rillington Place,