THIS ISN’T JUSTICE..
Widow’s anger as killer who battered her husband to death and cut off his fingers is due for release in days after serving just 9 years in prison
A TERRIFYING psychopath could kill again when freed just eight years after being sentenced for murder, fears the widow of his victim.
The Parole Board has agreed to the release of James Spencer – who was declared a “serious risk to the public” by a judge – and will be out within days.
But heartbroken Linda Green, 65, is still “tormented” by grief after her husband Peter’s slaughter, and warns “nobody is safe” from the twisted killer.
“There’s no justice,” she said. “If there was he would be in jail for ever.”
She added: “I know it is terrible detail, but people need to know what he did.
“He mutilated my husband. Peter had no face left. Every day in my nightmares I see Peter being stabbed again and again and again.”
Spencer, who was described by a psychiatrist as “highly dangerous”, was given a minimum of seven years and 148 days in prison when sentenced in May 2010.
That was on top of the 582 days he had already spent inside after the killing.
Former nurse Linda collapsed in floods of tears as she told the Mirror how she’s “haunted” by the horrifying injuries her husband suffered in 2008.
She said the only way she knew the body in the chapel of rest was her husband of 28 years was as she held his hand and spotted an old scar there.
She added: “That man totally mutilated my husband, he was stabbed and battered 32 times. He bludgeoned him over the head with a 32cm spanner then cut his fingers off.
“He knocked my husband’s eyes out, his brain out. It was so bad he had to be identified using his DNA.
“He mutilated him and he’s been released to the general public. How do you justify that ‘thing’ is safe? “He’s a psychopath. He’s evil. “I cannot comprehend how they justify allowing him to come to the next village from me, which is a mile-and-a-half away.
“I go there shopping and I can’t do that now. It’s literally just down the road.”
Mrs Green told how the night he died, her husband, 67, had agreed to house and dog sit for the killer’s mum, Margaret Wheeler, who lived round the corner from their home in
He mutilated my husband. Peter had no face left. I keep seeing it day after day
LINDA GREEN ON RELIVING HER HUSBAND’S MURDER IN NIGHTMARES
Skelmanthorpe, near Huddersfield. She was off to Spain and worried her son would steal her belongings. Peter had warned his own wife not to answer the door to alcoholic Spencer. So at 4am on October 19, 2008, when Spencer knocked at Linda’s house she did not answer. She rang Peter but his phone was off. “Police told me that warning me not to answer saved my life,” she said. The killer left Linda’s, went back to his mum’s house on Lidgett Lane, grabbed a spanner from
the car and kicked down the door. Spencer had been on a 16-hour booze binge, drinking more than 15 pints of Guinness, a cocktail and seven or eight vodkas. He went upstairs and started his deadly attack on Mr Green.
The older man fled or fell downstairs, where the attack continued as Mr Green tried to protect his head.
Spencer put his bloodied clothes in a bin bag with the knife he had used, hurling it into a neighbour’s garden.
He washed his hands, got in his car and calmly drove to his stepdad’s, telling him: “You won’t believe what I’ve done. Come over and have a look.”
Linda still can’t say Spencer’s name and refers to him as “it”. She said: “He’s destroyed my husband and he’s destroyed me. I can’t see people kiss in the street or hold hands, it breaks my heart every time.”
She even had to quit working as a nurse because she could not cope with seeing death every day.
Linda was on holiday in Spain recently when she got a text from the probation service telling her about the news of Spencer’s release. She said: “I felt sick. I just couldn’t believe it. I just sat there thinking, ‘Is this real?’”
She added: “I want to know why the parole board have released him. The judge warned he’s a danger to the public. When will they listen? The day he was murdered I stopped living. I feel I’m on death row. I’ve got the life sentence, not him.”
Earlier this year there was a public outcry when black cab rapist John Worboys, 61, was due to be released after serving less than 10 years.
He was given an “indeterminate” sentence with a minimum eight years for attacking 12 women. He is now suspected of more than 100 victims.
In a High Court battle his decision was reversed. He is now appealing.
The uproar led to ministers scrapping a rule which bans the Parole Board from disclosing why an offender should be released or kept in prison. The Mirror contacted the Parole Board about Spencer’s case yesterday, but was warned it could take weeks.
Spencer is going to be released in late August and will be tagged to live at a hostel in Leeds. At Bradford crown court he pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter through diminished responsibility.
He was given a sentence of imprisonment for the public’s protection – almost identical to a life sentence with a tariff of eight years. He suffered from Asperger syndrome, mood swings and panic attacks, the court heard.
A 2013 parole bid in failed. But this time the Parole Board said in a statement: “We can confirm a panel directed the release of Mr James Spencer, following an adjourned oral hearing in March 2018 that was completed on paper in July 2018.
“Parole Board decisions are solely focused on whether a prisoner would represent a significant risk.”
A Prison and Probation Service spokesperson said: “Life-sentenced offenders are on licence for life, and subject to supervision and a strict set of conditions. If they fail to comply, they can be recalled to prison.”
HOW long should a killer spend in jail for justice to be served?
The looming release of James Spencer after serving less than 10 years for the brutal manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility of elderly Peter Green once again raises a controversial issue.
We can only hope the Parole Board is right in judging that Spencer is safe to be returned to the community after such a horrific killing.
Planned reforms will mean that the board can say why it came to its decision, but they should go further.
Detailed assessments, including psychiatric reports, seen by the board should be released so we all know why a killer is being freed.
Mr Green’s widow Linda Green faces a life sentence of being haunted by his slaughter.
Leaving victims and the relatives of victims feeling the criminal justice system has let them down is not justice. It is criminal.