Alice Ruggles: Parents fear killer could be transferred to India

Police failed to properly investigate Alice Ruggles' concerns for her safety, a review found

The family of a woman murdered by her stalker are worried he could be released early if allowed to complete his sentence in his native India.

Soldier Trimaan Dhillon, then 26, was jailed for a minimum term of 22 years in 2017 for killing Alice Ruggles.

Her parents fear the minimum term will be interpreted as his full sentence.

Clive Ruggles said if Dhillon stayed in the UK, the family's views and judge's "pretty severe" remarks would be taken into account before any release.

"If someone on that sort of sentence is transferred abroad you lose all those reassurances and you could find yourself in a situation where you don't know if they have been released and all the stress that causes," he said.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said the prisons minister had spoken to the Ruggles family "to discuss their understandable concerns".

Alice Ruggles' parents want to be warned if Dhillon is released

Miss Ruggles, originally from near Market Harborough in Leicestershire, had reported her ex-boyfriend Dhillon to the police a number of times before he cut the 24-year-old's throat in October 2016.

At his trial at Newcastle Crown Court Dhillon admitted being at her Gateshead flat but claimed she had inflicted the injuries upon herself.

The judge described the murder as an act of "utter barbarism".

Miss Ruggles' mother Sue Hills said they "want to know where he is and whether we are in danger if he's been released".

"He's made threats against the family," she said.

"If he goes back to his home country, then that would mean that we wouldn't know where he is, we wouldn't be given information every year like we are now, we would just be constantly worried that he'd been released without our knowledge."

Trimaan Dhillon, known as Harry, had been subject to a restraining order after attacking a previous partner

Dr Hills also says the fact Dhillon had attacked another ex-partner and showed no remorse for her daughter's death suggested he would "just go straight back out and do exactly the same thing again" if released.

A review last year found Northumbria Police and the British Army had failed to recognise and act upon the former soldier's jealous and obsessive behaviour.

Dr Hills said if Dhillon goes back to India, "Alice will be being let down again".

The MoJ spokesman said: "While we are determined to punish and deport foreign national offenders, this would only happen where an appropriate sentence is guaranteed to be served overseas."