Lynette White murderer Jeffrey Gafoor's move to open prison approved

Jeffrey Gafoor led into Cardiff Crown Court for sentencing in July 2003

A recommendation to move the killer of Lynette White to an open prison has been approved.

Jeffrey Gafoor was given a life sentence in 2003 and ordered to serve a minimum of 13 years for the 1988 murder.

The Parole Board had said Gafoor was "suitable" for the move, which would prepare him for possible release.

The Ministry of Justice has confirmed to BBC Wales that it approved the recommendation.

Gafoor, now aged 55, was tracked down using new DNA techniques, 11 years after three men had murder convictions quashed.

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Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi and Stephen Miller - who became known as the Cardiff Three - were wrongly jailed for life in 1990 for Ms White's murder and freed in 1992.

Ms White, 20, a sex worker, was stabbed more than 50 times by Gafoor in a flat in the docklands area of Cardiff in 1988.

The Parole Board said earlier this year that it was "satisfied that the risk to the public has reduced sufficiently to be manageable in an open prison".

However, it was a recommendation only and the Ministry of Justice has made the final decision.

The MoJ would not give the date of the move.

Lynette White was found murdered on St Valentine's Day in 1988

According to Ministry of Justice guidelines, "as the Parole Board carries out a thorough risk assessment, it has been long-standing policy to only reject their recommendations in very limited circumstances".

The Ministry of Justice also said that the Prison Service "retains the ability to return offenders to closed prison at the first sign of any concern".

Gafoor confessed to stabbing Ms White in a row over £30 after new DNA technology led South Wales Police to him in 2003.

In sentencing Gafoor, the judge said he had "allowed innocent men to go to prison" for a crime he knew he had committed.

The murder took place in 7 James Street (end building on right) close to where the Wales Millennium Centre now stands

According to the Parole Board, the purposes of a period in open conditions are "to allow areas of concern to be tested in conditions more closely resembling those to be found in the community, to allow prisoners the opportunity to take more responsibility for their actions, and to develop or advance the release plan".

The parole board's hearing in February was the third for Gafoor, after two previous failed applications for parole.

Clockwise from top left: Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi and Stephen Miller were convicted in 1989, while John and Ronnie Actie were acquitted