Mother of murder victim: 'I needed to speak for my son'

An investigation has been launched after the parents of a murder victim heard a judge questioning the significance of personal statements made by bereaved families.

Geraldine and Peter McGinty said it was "sickening" to overhear the remarks after giving a statement via video link - during a parole hearing to decide if one of their son's killers should be moved to an open prison.

In a separate case, Wendy Crompton's 18-year-old son William and his girlfriend were murdered in 1996.

The killer was convicted the following year and given two life sentences and Mrs Crompton gave a statement to his parole hearing in February.

She told the BBC she felt it was important to speak out as "his voice was silenced and I felt I needed to be his voice".