Justice Secretary set to challenge killer’s release
THE controversial decision to free double child killer Colin Pitchfork is set to be challenged by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland.
He is taking legal advice following the outrage over the Parole Board’s recommendation. The decision has yet to be ratified and Pitchfork, now 61, remains in an open prison.
Mr Buckland has 21 days to challenge the move and formally request the board to reconsider.
Pitchfork, the first killer convicted on DNA evidence, raped and strangled 15-year-olds Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in the 1980s.
Jailed for life in 1988, he was ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years reduced to 28 on appeal.
Horrendous
Earlier this month, the Parole Board announced Pitchfork was no longer a threat to women and girls and it was safe to release him.
Mr Buckland, below right, told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday: “I’ve got to put emotions aside, but I am a human being like everybody else, and that case was horrendous.”
And on Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday, he added: “I’m working my way through that very carefully. I’m taking advice on the matter and
I’ll make an announcement within that 21-day period as soon as possible.”
Former baker Pitchfork, a serial sex offender, killed Lynda as she took a short cut home from babysitting in Narborough, Leicestershire, in 1983. The teenager’s body was found after her frantic parents and family friends spent the night searching for her. Three years later Pitchfork struck again when he attacked Dawn on her way to visit a friend in Enderby, about a mile from Narborough.
There were striking similarities between the murders and police later launched the world’s first mass DNA screening of suspects.
A work colleague later revealed he had posed as Pitchfork during the screening. The killer told him he wanted to avoid it because of previous convictions for indecent exposure.
Pitchfork admitted murdering the two girls. He also pleaded guilty to rape, indecent assault and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
He was jailed for life in January 1988 at Leicester Crown Court with a minimum 30 years. Lord Lane, the Lord Chief Justice at the time, said: “I doubt if he should ever be released.”
The minimum was cut on appeal to 28 years in 2009 to take into account the “exceptional progress” Pitchfork had made in custody.
The families of his two victims lived in dread of a decision to free him from jail as he made successive appeals to the Parole Board.
Affront
Dawn’s uncle Philip Musson said: “There is no parole for Dawn or Lynda. There are some crimes so horrendous that a reprieve is not appropriate, it is an affront to natural justice.”
Dawn’s mother Barbara said: “There are still 15-year-old girls wandering around and this man could still have 20 years of his life to abuse them.”
Lynda Mann’s sister Sue Gratrick, 55, said at the time: “I don’t believe somebody guilty of acts such as those he did is capable of being rehabilitated.”
Mr Buckland said he intends to have a “root-and-branch review” of the Parole Board regardless of the final decision.