Colin Pitchfork: Review of decision to release child killer

Colin Pitchfork has spent 33 years in prison for the murders

The decision to release double child killer Colin Pitchfork will be reviewed, it has been confirmed.

Colin Pitchfork raped and killed 15-year-olds Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in the 1980s and was the first murderer to be convicted using DNA evidence.

Earlier this month the Parole Board said it was satisfied Pitchfork was safe for release.

Now the justice secretary has asked for the case to be looked at again, with a decision expected in about two weeks.

Robert Buckland has triggered a "reconsideration mechanism" which allows people to challenge the board's decision if they believe it to be "procedurally unfair" or "irrational".

The provisions make it clear that "being unhappy with the decision is not grounds for reconsideration".

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A Parole Board spokesman said: "An application under the reconsideration mechanism has been received from the Secretary of State for Justice for the case of Colin Pitchfork and will be now be considered."

A judge will now look at the evidence used by the board.

If he agrees with the challenge, the entire parole hearing process will begin again.

News the decision was set to be challenged was welcomed by the victims' families and Alberto Costa, Conservative MP for South Leicestershire, who has campaigned for Pitchfork to remain behind bars.

Pitchfork has spent 33 years in prison and was previously denied parole in 2018.

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 man, 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, Pitchfork 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 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