Child killer Colin Pitchfork to stay in prison

Colin Pitchfork was jailed in 1988 for raping and strangling Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth

Double child murderer Colin Pitchfork has had his request to be released from prison turned down by the Parole Board.

Pitchfork, 65, was jailed for life in 1988 for raping and strangling 15-year-olds Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in Leicestershire.

He was released on parole in 2021 before being recalled to prison months later.

The Parole Board granted him parole again in 2023 but the decision was challenged by ministers, leading to a fresh hearing this year.

On refusing release, the Parole Board said: "After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody, and on licence, and the evidence presented at the hearing, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public.

"The panel considered [Pitchfork] to only have limited internal controls and poor insight into his risky thinking and behaviour.

"It noted a new previously unidentified risk had been observed in relation to his custodial behaviour and that this was yet to be properly explored or addressed."

Dawn and Lynda were killed by Pitchfork in the 1980s

Pitchfork was also refused a transfer to an open prison, with the Parole Board deciding he had not made "sufficient progress in addressing and reducing risk".

It added he would be eligible for another parole review "in due course".

Pitchfork was the first killer in the world to be convicted using DNA evidence. He was given a minimum term of 30 years, which was reduced to 28 at the Court of Appeal in 2009.

He was initially deemed suitable for release subject to conditions in June 2021, but was recalled to jail in November that year after he was approaching young women.

The Parole Board, however, deemed his recall "inappropriate" after it was established he had not gone anywhere he was not allowed to visit, and one condition of his release - a requirement to take polygraph tests - was, in fact, unlawful.

In 2023, the Parole Board ruled he could be released, but this was challenged by then-Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, with his application for reconsideration granted on the grounds of "irrationality", and he was denied release following further hearings.

Pitchfork successfully applied for reconsideration of this decision, but further hearings were delayed by a pending judicial review he had made against the Parole Board.

Following Pitchfork's failed legal bid, a Parole Board Panel met in May and June 2025, but adjourned after finding there was "insufficient time" to hear the evidence.

South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa has campaigned against Pitchfork's release

Following the Parole Board's decision to deny release, South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa said he was "reassured" Pitchfork was still viewed as a risk to public safety.

"At 65 years old, he still has decades of life ahead of him and the capacity to pose a real risk to the public, that is why I welcome the Parole Board's decision today," he said.

"Their job is to assess risk, and it is obvious to me that the world is a far more dangerous place if Pitchfork is released."

Colin Pitchfork: Two brutal murders

• Colin Pitchfork, 22 at the time of the first murder, was married with two sons. He was a baker who grew up in rural Leicestershire and lived in Littlethorpe

• In November 1983 he left his baby son sleeping in the back of his car and raped and strangled 15-year-old Lynda Mann in Narborough. He then drove home and put his son to bed

• Three years later, less than a mile from where Lynda died, he raped and murdered Dawn Ashworth, also 15, of Enderby. The pathologist who examined her body described it as a "brutal sexual assault"

• A police investigation initially led to the wrong person, a local 17-year-old who falsely confessed to one of the killings. After an unprecedented mass screening of 5,000 men using pioneering "DNA profiling" technology, Pitchfork was eventually caught. At first, he had evaded justice by persuading a colleague to take the test for him

• He pleaded guilty to both murders in September 1987 and was sentenced to life in January 1988. The judge said the killings were "particularly sadistic" and he doubted Pitchfork would ever be released

• In 2009, his 30-year life tariff was reduced by two years, external for "exceptional progress" - a decision that was strongly criticised by the families of his victims

• He was moved to an undisclosed open prison at some point prior to 8 January 2017, after his request for release