Mother outraged as daughter’s killer to be released
THE mum of an Irish woman murdered by her British ex-boyfriend has spoken of her outrage after being told he will be freed just over halfway through his 19-year sentence.
Alan Daulby was convicted of killing 20-year-old Avril Flanagan after he stabbed her more than 50 times with a kitchen knife at his flat on the Costa Blanca in Spain.
The car valeter, from Liverpool, used a mop and bleach to wipe up her blood, showered and changed clothes and tried to stuff her mutilated body into a suitcase before leaving it under his sofa for her loved ones to discover before going on the run.
He had wrapped her body in an old duvet and plastic sheeting and taped her up.
Anguished mum Barbara Flanagan’s only partial consolation was her belief that the monster who killed Avril would remain behind bars for nearly two decades.
But on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Avril’s murder on May 29, 2009, she revealed how she had been left feeling “sickened and cheated” after being told the 35-year-old was being released from prison early on licence.
Ms Flanagan, who divides her time between Spain and
Swords, Co Dublin, also told how she found out only by chance last year that Daulby had been transferred from a Costa Blanca prison, where he began his July 2012 murder sentence, to a UK jail.
“I’ve been told by a liaison officer in England that the law stipulates he serves half his sentence in prison and the other half in the community on licence, and the jail sentence imposed in Spain cannot be increased,” she said.
“Finding out a man who’s done such awful things to another human being is going to be back on the streets in October sickens and outrages me, whatever the law says.
“He’s still a young man and I definitely believe he still poses a danger to others.
“I’m speaking out now because I want people to know what sort of man is going to be let out into the community, and I am Avril’s voice.”
A spokesman for the UK Ministry of Justice said: “We understand the distress caused to victims when an offender is released and our sympathy is with the family of Avril Flanagan.
“Anyone released from prison faces strict licence conditions, such as curfews and exclusion zones, and can be returned to custody if they breach them.”