Daily Mail

Vicious pair who formed chilling bond in prison

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STEPHEN Unwin and William John McFall met in prison after being jailed for life for the separate murders of elderly people in their own homes.

Last night relatives asked how, as murderers released on life licence and supposedly being monitored by the authoritie­s, the former cellmates were allowed to reunite on the outside.

It was on Christmas Day 1998 that Unwin, then 21, broke into the County Durham bungalow of retired Boots pharmacist John Greenwell, who had terminal cancer, to steal the TV and video recorder.

Finding Mr Greenwell in bed, he battered the pensioner over the head then stabbed him in the chest.

As many as five fires were then started around the house, including on Mr Greenwell’s bed, in an attempt by Unwin to cover his tracks.

At the time Unwin had only just been released from a young offenders’ institutio­n after burgling the home of a 72year-old family friend and setting that house on fire. He also has a previous conviction for dishonesty.

Mr Greenwell’s niece Brenda Corcoran, 70, a retired English teacher, said: ‘To find out that he [Unwin] had been released and killed this poor, innocent girl was so shocking. These two met in prison and were somehow allowed to meet up outside, carry on their lives as normal and eventually kill someone again. You have to wonder, where was the monitoring?’

Unwin went to the Royal Courts of Justice in 2007 to seek a parole date. Mr Justice Owen ruled he could apply after 12 years, due to ‘mitigating factors’ including lack of premeditat­ion and the killer’s ‘deep remorse’. He was freed in 2012.

McFall was jailed for life in 1997 for the ‘vicious and cruel’ murder of Martha Gilmore, 86, in May the previous year. But he was released in 2010.

Belfast Crown Court heard he had bludgeoned her to death with a hammer after she confronted him burgling her house in County Antrim.

While on remand McFall told another prisoner he had killed Mrs Gilmore, who had mobility problems, and had hidden the hammer in a cemetery. He later denied saying it but the graveyard was searched and the hammer found.

McFall, who had previous conviction­s for assaults, burglary, robbery and carrying a firearm with intent, admitted murder at his trial.

 ??  ?? McFall: Killed pensioner with hammer
McFall: Killed pensioner with hammer
 ??  ?? Unwin: Set fire to his victim’s bed
Unwin: Set fire to his victim’s bed

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