UK's longest-serving female prisoner Maria Pearson denied parole

Maria Pearson, pictured in the 1980s, was jailed for life for the murder of Janet Newton

The UK's longest-serving female prisoner has been denied parole for the ninth time.

Maria Pearson, now 66, stabbed her ex-boyfriend's new partner Janet Newton to death in 1986 and the following year was jailed for life for the murder.

Pearson, from Hartlepool, was 31 at the time of the murder.

A Parole Board panel ruled she was not fit for release due to the nature of the murder, how she has behaved in custody and evidence at the hearing.

The panel, which sat in April 2022 and last month, also ruled Pearson was not fit to move to an open prison.

She has twice been moved to an open prison, only to be returned to a closed one.

The panel was told Pearson had been "willing to resort to violence" as a way of managing difficult situations in her life at the time of the murder.

Pearson was originally told she must serve a minimum of 11 years behind bars. She had stabbed her victim 17 times.

In 2004 she was moved to an open prison but was later returned to a closed one due to concerns about her behaviour.

Janet Newton was stabbed 17 times by Maria Pearson in 1986

In 2014 she took part in a programme to help her with her decision-making but admitted to the parole panel she had told facilitators "what she thought they wanted to hear".

She later declined to engage with some professional services which were supposed to help her, but in 2020 she decided she would engage with support to help people with complex behavioural problems.

That year the parole board decided she could move to an open prison, which she did in June 2021, but three months later she moved back to a closed jail.

Her release plan had included a requirement to live in designated accommodation as well as strict curbs on her contacts, movements and activities, which Pearson was reported to be unhappy with.