Grimson timeline...

THE gruesome killing of two young men in Portsmouth shocked the city, writes Josh Bailey.

But by the time Allan Grimson confessed to those murders, most people had forgotten about the disappearance of 18-year-old Simon Parkes. Here is how the case unfolded over the years. December 12, 1986: Rating Simon Parkes, 18, vanishes on his final day of shore leave from HMS Illustrious while in Gibraltar.

December 12, 1997: Rating Nicholas Wright, 18, is beaten by a baseball bat and has his throat cut before being thrown in a bath by Royal Navy petty officer Allan Grimson after refusing sexual advances.

December 12, 1998: Barman Sion Jenkins, 20, is also beaten to death with a baseball bat by Grimson when the barman tried to leave the officer’s house in Portsmouth.

December 1999: The bodies of the two victims are found just four miles apart from each other at the side of country lanes north of Winchester.

March 27, 2001: At Winchester Crown Court Allan Grimson admits to the murder of the two men. Judge Peter Cresswell calls Grimson a ‘highly dangerous serial killer who killed two young men in horrifying and appalling circumstances’.

April 3, 2001: Police in Gibraltar begin investigating a possible link between the disappearance of Simon Parkes and recently imprisoned Allan Grimson, after it was revealed that Parkes was serving on the same ship as Grimson at the time he went missing. No concrete evidence was ever found. Grimson denied the allegations.

May 23, 2008: Grimson wins a three-year reduction in his minimal jail time. This cut it back to the original 22 years, down from 25 after it had been increased by the home secretary.