‘Do not free my brother who killed our mother’
Sibling demands judicial review as killer set for day release
ASADISTIC thug who killed his mother and left her body in her bedroom for weeks is set to enjoy day release from prison.
Darren Hammond could now be freed early from his 12-year sentence for the sickening death of mum Beryl Hammond, 81.
But the news has been greeted with fury by his brother Dean Hammond, 49, who has vowed to block the release.
He has contacted his local MP, Jess Phillips, to demand the killer stays behind bars – and claims police never fully looked into or charged his brother with ‘financially abusing’ their mother.
Dean, from Birmingham, said: “I want a judicial review – he isn’t coming out of prison.
“The police did a poor investigation because they didn’t look at financial abuse.”
Hammond was acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter of his elderly mother in February 2018. The then 41-year-old was jailed for 12 years.
Beryl’s body was discovered at their home in Ebrook Road, Sutton Coldfield, on August 12 in 2017.
Hammond, who was unemployed, answered the door to police after neighbours requested a wellness check on Beryl who hadn’t been seen for some time. They also reported a pungent smell emanating from her home.
The killer told officers that his mother was upstairs sleeping, but they went to check and made the grim discovery; Beryl’s body was found severely decomposed on her bedroom floor.
A post-mortem was inconclusive
due to the level of decomposition. Yet tests showed Beryl had ten broken ribs which were not explained by the position of her body.
The court heard how Hammond had no income and had been living on her pension. He had been arrested on three previous occasions after Beryl reported that he had assaulted her or was behaving violently.
But she would always retract her complaints and take her son back in to live with her. Yet she had also told neighbours and her bank manager that he would assault her and that she was scared of him, West Midlands
Police said.
Dean said since the conviction, his brother had been a Category B prisoner at Blakenhurst but has now been moved to a Category D area – which will entitle him to day release.
He criticised the probation service over the decision and its previous handling of his brother.
“He will now be allowed out for day visits and things like that, he’ll be able to go out and about in the community. He’ll be able to go to Birmingham,” he said. “There are a lot of issues with what probation has already done in this case.”
Dean says he has also been told his brother could be released by August 2023, having served half of his 12 years sentence. He plans to oppose the bid for freedom.
He said: “My aim is to get a judicial review, to put enough pressure on the Ministry of Justice and embarrass them for all of the failings and get him locked up for longer.
“I’ve spoken to Jess Phillips about this, I’ve spoken to the Ministry of Justice, I’ve spoken to my advocate about this. I’ve spoken to Victim Support, the Parole Board, Probation.”
Dean claimed police had been alerted to concerns about his mother weeks before her death.
“The neighbours reported that they hadn’t seen her for a few weeks but when they had, she had lost a lot of weight so police and social services went to the house,” he said.
“They knocked at the door and she looked out from her bedroom window. She said she hadn’t got the keys to her own front door. They both noted that she looked frail. The police then walked away.
“If you can’t present properly, when a woman can’t even have the keys to her own front door, and you sign her off... then six weeks later you come back because the neighbours report the smell of her dead body.”
He also claims the full scale of the financial abuse by his brother was never revealed at court - and that separate charges were not pursued by police.
My aim is to get a judicial review, to put pressure on the Ministry of Justice and embarrass them for the failings and get him locked up for longer. Dean