KIRSTY CARVER’S MURDERER COULD BE RELEASED FROM JAIL
CRAIG BELCHER BLUDGEONED 22-YEAR-OLD TO DEATH WITH A HAMMER AT A WILLERBY PETROL STATION IN 1998
HE IS the man responsible for one of East Yorkshire’s most notorious crimes of the last 20 years and now he could soon be released.
Craig Belcher bludgeoned Kirsty Carver to death with a hammer at a petrol station in Willerby in March 1998.
Detectives launched a desperate search for the 22-year-old civilian police worker, which saw more than 3,500 people involved, after she went missing.
Kirsty’s Toyota Celica was discovered, unlocked, with the keys in the ignition on a quiet farm track near Willerby.
After more than a month of searching, her body was even-
tually found in the undergrowth, off an equally quiet road near Spurn Point.
Petrol station attendant Belcher, then 24, would later go on trial and be convicted of the murder.
He was handed a life sentence with a minimum tariff of 18 years, which means he is now eligible for parole.
The Parole Board has confirmed an application has been received which, if successful, will see the brutal killer released.
A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: “We can confirm the parole review of Craig Belcher has been referred to the Parole Board and is following standard processes.
“The job of the Parole Board is to determine if someone would represent a significant risk to the public after release.
“The panel will carefully look at a whole range of evidence, including details of the original evidence and any evidence of behaviour change. We do that with great care and public safety is our number one priority.”
Kirsty, who worked at Queens Gardens police station, city centre, disappeared on March 5 after leaving a friend’s house in Wold Road at 1.40am.
She went to the petrol station in Willerby and it was there Belcher murdered her. Blood was later found in a back room.
Kirsty’s parents Vanessa and Arthur, who lived in Withernsea, made a number of emotional appeals for information and Vanessa wrote a heartfelt open letter in the Mail, calling in vain for her daughter’s safe return.
The public’s determination to help find Kirsty was never more evident than during a mass search, when about 3,500 people met at the Humber Bridge to help scour hundreds of square miles.
Police dogs and handlers discovered Kirsty’s half-buried body during a search with the Army at isolated Spurn Point just over a month after her abandoned car was found.
Belcher, who is serving a life sentence at Frankland Prison in Durham, has never given any explanation for the killing.
He has also refused to admit guilt, despite his absurd and contradictory version of events being discredited during his trial at Sheffield Crown Court.
To this day, Kirsty’s family do not know what led to her death.