Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Mum’s horror as Pitchfork plans to hide identity
SCHOOLGIRL murderer Colin Pitchfork will dodge the sex offenders’ register when he is released from prison – and plans to change his name.
He will taste freedom for the first time in 33 years when he steps out of HMP Leyhill in Gloucestershire, possibly as soon as today.
But the 61-year-old, who raped and killed Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, both 15, in 1983 and 1986, won’t go on the sex offenders’ register due to a legal loophole.
The strict monitoring conditions cannot be imposed on anyone convicted of sex crimes before 1997.
Pitchfork has been using the name David Thorpe for several years, but plans to further mask his identity and sick past by getting another name change.
He is perfectly entitled to change his name again by Deed Poll, and it would cost him just £33 to do so.
But Dawn’s shocked mother Barbara Ashworth, 75, said last night: “Words fail me. A psychopath like him shouldn’t be allowed to change his name.
“He’ll be able to walk in the pub as a new man, with a new identity. It’s absolutely shocking that he can do it legally.
“He is a very dangerous man. He shouldn’t be able to hide who he is.” The Ministry of Justice, which fought against his release on parole, said Pitchfork would remain under “close probation supervision for life”. A spokesman said: “Colin Pitchfork will be on licence for life and subject to supervision and conditions that are far stricter than the sex offenders’ register.
“If he breaches these, he faces being sent back to prison.”