Victims do not have a say in parole hearings

SOUTH Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa deserves full public support for his untiring efforts to achieve justice for the families of the two teenage victims of the rapist and murderer, Colin Pitchfork, who is currently scheduled to appear yet again before a Parole Board in a bid for release from prison.

The MP’s campaign to reverse the Parole Board’s ruling that the hearing will be held in private -featured in the Hinckley Times, 20th Marchbegs the question as to why this important aspect of our justice system should ever be conducted without the opportunity for public scrutiny of the evidence heard and the conclusions reached.

It is likely that much of the evidence presented to the hearing will be testimony from prison staff, probation officers and social workers and based on their assessment of the criminal under the totally artificial circumstances of prison life.

The system makes no provision for any representation of the victims’ views or the judgement of the police or criminal psychologists involved at the time of the original investigations and court proceedings.

Pitchfork is not only an evil sex predator and merciless killer but has shown himself to be devious and manipulative - as demonstrated by his persuading a gullible work colleague to assume his identity and provide a blood sample in his name during the original search for the culprit by DNA screening. Since then he has had ample opportunity to rehearse his ability to provide the answers he feels the probation service want to hear from him and masquerade as a reformed character.

Given the general reluctance of the Parole Board to conduct their proceedings in public and their insistence on privacy in this particular case, one is bound to ask just whose interests are they safeguarding? As Mr Costa rightly says, without transparency there can be little public confidence in the outcome of the Parole Board’s deliberations. A.Y., Burbage.