According to Letitia Fairfield in the introduction to the "Notable British Trials" series volume about Straffen, he had a "smouldering hatred" and an "intense resentment" of the police and blamed them for all his troubles from the age of eight. On the morning of Straffen's assessment, a young girl named Christine Butcher was murdered. Fairfield speculates that Straffen saw the press coverage that followed and made the connection that strangling young girls gave the maximum amount of trouble to the police.