Pictured out on parole after just seven years, the rapist policeman sentenced to ‘life’
‘He is a monster and will do it again’
A RAPIST policeman who attacked up to 30 women has been let out of prison after serving just seven years of a double life sentence.
victims reacted with fury yesterday after it emerged the Parole Board had freed serial sex attacker stephen Mitchell, even though a trial judge said he was such a ruthless predator he may never be safe to be released.
the depraved officer, 50, preyed on vulnerable women he met on duty with northumbria Police, telling them: ‘I am the law, I can do anything I want’.
He was considered such a risk to women that psychiatric reports recommended he be locked up for life.
But in recent days Mitchell was pictured looking relaxed and happy as he hopped onto a £500 mountain bike for a ride in the sunshine near his family home in Glasgow after it emerged that he had been released early at his first parole hearing.
the shocking secret decision last year was made just months before the Parole Board provoked fury by freeing black cab rapist John Worboys after he served just ten years for attacks on 12 victims, which was later overturned by the High Court.
Yesterday MPs and victims demanded a similar inquiry into Mitchell’s case amid
fears he could strike again. the first woman to report Mitchell to police told how she felt ‘ sick to the stomach’ and ‘terrified’ upon hearing of his release.
Yvette Cooper, chairman of the home affairs select committee, said: ‘ this case is disturbing and incomprehensible.
‘We urgently need to know what the Parole Board’s reasons were because to most people this really does not look like justice for victims.’
the married PC – dubbed ‘ Jekyll and Hyde’ by victims – had just finished his police training when he began targeting women in the course of his duty.
During a five-year reign of terror, the former soldier assaulted drug addicts, shoplifters and a disabled teenager after offering them help in custody.
the attacks took place in the cells and interview rooms of a city centre police station in newcastle-upon-tyne.
One PhD student, who was a 19-year-old drug addict when he first struck, estimated she had been abused 100 times as he kept track of her using the police computer. some victims were driven to the brink of suicide and one woman was handcuffed and raped after Mitchell promised he would help her regain custody of her children in return for sex.
Yet his colleagues ignored a series of warnings about his behaviour, even from his own wife. nicknamed ‘Pervy steve’, he quit the army after allegations he tried to rape male soldiers while serving with the 1st Battalion Queen’s Own Highlanders in the 1990s.
a trial against him collapsed in 1997 but the allegations alone should have been enough to prevent him joining the police. However, the following year he was recruited by northumbria Police.
His ex-wife Julie vacher warned his superiors he had made advances towards a 17-year- old girl with a mental age of 12. But he was not sacked until 2007 when he had sex with a woman he was escorting home after she was arrested for being drunk. eight months later on appeal Mitchell was reinstated to the rank of PC but officers continued to investigate him and he was suspended in March 2009. a senior detective with northumbria Police offered him ‘a get out of jail free card’ if he resigned.
He refused and in 2010 was found guilty at newcastle Crown Court of two rapes, three indecent assaults and six charges of misconduct in a public office, involving seven women – although 30 made complaints about him. Mitchell was handed two life sentences with a minimum term of seven-and-a-half years.
But trial judge Mr Justice Wilkie said he may never be considered safe for release. Last night the first woman to report Mitchell to police told of her horror at his release. the 60-year-old, who was suffering with cancer when she claims Mitchell raped her in 2006, warned: ‘He is a monster, he is addicted to sex and he will do this again. I’m absolutely terrified.’
another victim, who was arrested by Mitchell for shoplifting, said: ‘I have never, ever heard of anyone getting parole first time around for such a serious offence.’ the violence against Women Coalition called for an ‘urgent review of how rape and sexual violence is handled by the justice system.’
Yesterday a Parole Board spokesman said the panel that approved Mitchell’s release ‘will have carefully looked at a whole range of evidence’ over whether he still posed a threat, adding: ‘We do that with great care and public safety is our number one priority.’