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Child Murderer Colin Pitchfork Granted New Parole Hearing

Written by HFM News on 12th February 2024

Double child killer Colin Pitchfork is to have a new parole hearing after successfully challenging a decision to keep him behind bars.

It comes after the Parole Board said in December he was too much of a risk to be released and must stay in prison.

The 63-year-old is serving life for raping and strangling 15-year-olds Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in Leicestershire in the 1980s.

Colin Pitchfork

In a statement, the Parole Board said today: “The decision refusing Mr Pitchfork’s release was eligible for reconsideration under the Parole Board Rules.

“This meant that the panel’s decision was provisional and that either Mr Pitchfork or the Secretary of State could make an application for reconsideration on the grounds that the decision not to release Mr Pitchfork had been irrational, procedurally unfair and/or there had been an error of law.

“The reason the reconsideration application was granted was that the oral hearing panel in 2023 had a duty to take the prison offender manager’s recommendation into account and to give adequate reasons for any disagreement with that recommendation. The reconsideration member concluded that the panel’s reasoned decision did not do so.

“Release can only be directed by the Parole Board if the new panel is satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public that Mr Pitchfork remain confined in prison. Mr Pitchfork has, and will continue to, remain in prison until this case has fully concluded.”