EXCLUSIVE Double child killer Colin Pitchfork could be released from prison TOMORROW: Parole Board set to make decision on freeing the monster who raped and murdered two 15-year-old girls in the 1980s
Double child killer Colin Pitchfork could be freed from prison tomorrow, MailOnline understands.
The Parole Board is expected to make a decision on whether to keep the 63-year-old monster who raped and murdered 15-year-old schoolgirls Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in the 1980s behind bars.
He was released from jail for the first time in 33-years back in 2021 but was recalled just two months later after being caught approaching a lone female and breaching his bail conditions.
Pitchfork was almost released again in June but the decision was blocked by the government after pressure from MP Alberto Costa, who represents South Leicestershire where the victims’ families still live.
The Parole Board met in October and November to consider all the evidence and Mr Costa’s office has now indicated it expects to receive a decision within the next 24-hours about whether Pitchfork should be given his freedom.
Mr Costa has long been a vocal opponent of releasing Pitchfork and in October asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: ‘Does the Prime Minister agree with me that men who rape and brutally murder young women, as Mr Pitchfork did to Dawn Ashworth and Linda Mann in my constituency, does he agree that generally – as a point of principle – these sexual offenders should remain in prison for most of their natural lives?’
The Prime Minister replied: ‘The public should be confident that murderers and rapists will be kept behind bars for as long as is necessary to keep the public safe and that’s why we are reforming the parole system.’
Mugshot of Colin Pitchfork, the first murderer convicted and jailed using DNA evidence
Lynda Mann (pictured) who was raped and murdered by Pitchfork in 1983 when she was just 15
Pitchfork killed Lynda Mann in Narborough, Leicestershire in November 1983, and Dawn Ashworth in the nearby village of Enderby in July 1986.
He was arrested on 19 September 1987 and sentenced to life imprisonment the following January after pleading guilty to both murders, with the judge giving him a 30-year minimum term, later reduced to 28 years on appeal.
He was also convicted of sexually assaulted two more girls, including a 16-year-old who he threatened with a screwdriver and a knife.
Pitchfork, who admitted to having exposed himself to more than 1,000 girls and women, was the first man convicted using DNA evidence.
A local 17-year-old with learning difficulties was originally identified as a suspect in the murders of Lynda and Dawn but semen samples from both victims did not match the DNA from his blood sample.
Pitchfork raped and murdered Dawn Ashworth (pictured) three years after his first attack
Police then launched the world’s first mass screening for DNA, in which 5,000 men in three villages were asked to volunteer blood or saliva samples.
Pitchfork initially evaded capture by paying a colleague to take the test for him but the colleague was overheard telling someone in a pub and the killer was arrested in 1987 and his DNA linked him to both murders.
Speaking earlier this year when it looked as though Pitchfork was due to be released a second time, Dawn’s mother, Barbara Ashworth, called the Parole Board’s decision ‘diabolical’.
She told Sky News: ‘He’s obviously going to have an urge, we just don’t know what’s in his mind.
‘I don’t think there’s any way he should be walking the streets. He can’t hurt me anymore but could cause disruption.
‘He’s able to make the Parole Board believe whatever he wants to say.’
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