Double child killer set for open prison move
Pitchfork’s new parole hearing
CHILD killer Colin Pitchfork could be cleared for a move to an open prison within months.
His case has been referred to the Parole Board after he was sent back to jail in November after he began approaching young women. Pitchfork, 61, had been released on licence two months earlier after serving 33 years for raping and murdering two girls.
The Parole Board decided last year he should be freed despite concerns from experts about his “capacity to manipulate and deceive” and his failure to show remorse for the killings.
An attempt by the Government to block his release was rejected by a judge-led panel. His case is now back with the Parole Board, and a hearing to decide if he can be moved to open conditions is due to take place this spring.
The board said: “Protecting the public is our number one priority.”
Pitchfork was jailed in 1987 for at least 30 years for raping and strangling two 15-year-olds in
Leicestershire – Lynda Mann in 1983 and Dawn Ashworth in 1986.
The killer was denied parole in 2016 and 2018 but last year he was no longer deemed a danger.