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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be absolutely disgusted that Colin Pitchfork is being released?

123 replies

MrsTrustice · 13/07/2021 16:08

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-57737050

He is 61, he easily could have 30 years left to do it again. How the hell are women ever supposed to feel safe when men like this still get a second chance? A government appeal to stop the release was rejected ffs. Who makes these decisions? I feel ill.

OP posts:
Floralnomad · 13/07/2021 20:06

@PercyPigandMe

Well, he had a right to his parole and he has served his time and has gone through the long process which leads to release. And his release will be very tightly monitored. So you either believe in rehabilitation and justice or you don't - the parole board's job isn't to look to further punish.

But having said all that, I honestly would be happy to see these evil men just locked up for life. Morally that feels very comfortable to me.

I totally agree with this . However I think it should be remembered that Colin Pitchfork is high profile because he was the first person convicted using DNA , there are loads of murderers who serve a lot less time and are out wandering about . I doubt the relatives of their victims feel any different than the relatives of Pitchforks victims but there is no great public outcry about them being released .
CorianderBee · 13/07/2021 20:10

@PercyPigandMe I believe in rehabilitation and justice for a huge number of people. Not for sadistic child murderers and rapists.

PercyPigandMe · 13/07/2021 20:13

Why would I report you? I was merely picking you up on something

PercyPigandMe · 13/07/2021 20:14

@CorianderBee and that's why you're not on the parole board and neither am I! I couldn't bear to see a man like this released

But you have to view this dispassionately if you're in the job of considering releases. Personal feelings of repulsion can't come into it

SirGawain · 13/07/2021 20:15

Pitchfork's crimes were local to where I lived at the time and I knew people who knew the victims. He had a history of indecent exposure and killed the victims after raping them in case the recognised him. As he was committing one of the crimes he had his baby son in his car. He then took the child home and put him to bed. He was only caught by the merest fluke and denied the murders. I can't see how anyone would want to take the risk of letting him out, he's liklely to kil again. Let's hope i'm wrong.

TheQueef · 13/07/2021 20:15

I'm not disagreeing, I wouldn't know if that could be prejudicial.

PercyPigandMe · 13/07/2021 20:19

For all I've said though - with my logical head on and in the knowledge he's unlikely to reoffend because he simply will be so heavily monitored if nothing else AND he's been on day release for ages without issue - I just can't get past why men like this should be able to have their relative freedom again. It is simply horrible

Fieldsoftripe9 · 13/07/2021 20:22

My dad was in the same year group as him at market Bosworth high school, my dad didn't like him back then even as a kid.

His little son (who got left in the car) was in my year at school and when it got out who he was I think he had a really terrible time from some of his peers. He was actually such a nice kid though and my heart breaks for him having to live with knowing what his dad did, cruel thing is he looks so much like him too.

This case will always haunt me, I grew up in huncote/enderby and often would go cycling down the lane where the murders took place. Its so shocking when it's your own little villages. Its such a shame this guy is just free to walk around and everyone just has to keep their fingers crossed he doesn't do it again. There is no rehabilitation for these sorts of crimes.

TheGumption · 13/07/2021 20:27

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TheGumption · 13/07/2021 20:28

*some

SpindleWhorl · 13/07/2021 20:31

The Party of 'law and order' my arse.

The Parole Board are quoting the law back at the Government. Ffs.

Johnson and Buckland and the Government have had years to prepare for this. Years. Maybe this Government is all about posturing, and don't give a shit.

The Warboys case - the CPS charged him with other offences. Why not with Pitchfork? There were/are many, many 'lesser' offences attributed to him.

Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel · 13/07/2021 20:39

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YellowBellyCat · 13/07/2021 20:45

Didn’t Carrie get personally involved with the Warboys case and campaign for him not to be released? Maybe she should have got involved with this one too?

SpindleWhorl · 13/07/2021 20:50

@YellowBellyCat

Didn’t Carrie get personally involved with the Warboys case and campaign for him not to be released? Maybe she should have got involved with this one too?
Yes, Carrie Johnson was reportedly an early victim before Warboys escalated.
SpindleWhorl · 13/07/2021 20:52

The CPS must surely be able to arrest Pitchfork for other sexual offences? I read he had a history of GUESS WHAT indecent exposure.

Or is that considered a 'non-crime' now?

Proudmumtoday · 13/07/2021 20:53

The CPS don’t arrest people.

nanbread · 13/07/2021 20:54

He was caught because he boasted about getting someone else to do it for him.

Actually I think the person he got to do it for him was overheard by a woman who reported it.

I heard he'd been accused of thousands of indecent exposure offences.

Pretty sure that's how Sarah Everard's killer started too, what might be dismissed as weirdo flasher turned rapist murderer.

The fact he killed twice 3 years apart, and tried to conceal his guilt, and allegedly committed so many other offences, suggests to me it's not safe to release him. It sounds like a compulsion he could not control and I see no evidence showing that's changed. His good behaviour seems based on his academic performance rather than meaningful contrition, self introspection or rehabilitation.

PercyPigandMe · 13/07/2021 20:56

@nanbread but why would you see 'evidence he has changed?' Why would you be privy to that, unless you're on the parole team or part of the multidisciplinary teams he will have had working with him for decades?

Proudmumtoday · 13/07/2021 20:57

@nanbread

He was caught because he boasted about getting someone else to do it for him.

Actually I think the person he got to do it for him was overheard by a woman who reported it.

I heard he'd been accused of thousands of indecent exposure offences.

Pretty sure that's how Sarah Everard's killer started too, what might be dismissed as weirdo flasher turned rapist murderer.

The fact he killed twice 3 years apart, and tried to conceal his guilt, and allegedly committed so many other offences, suggests to me it's not safe to release him. It sounds like a compulsion he could not control and I see no evidence showing that's changed. His good behaviour seems based on his academic performance rather than meaningful contrition, self introspection or rehabilitation.

But you haven’t seen what the parole board did to make their decision.
nanbread · 13/07/2021 21:16

@PercyPigandMe @Proudmumtoday

No I'm not on the parole board, however in the news when they cut his sentence it mentioned he'd been translating music into braille and studied to uni level as examples of his "exceptional progress".

Why mention these and not his progress in other areas.

SpindleWhorl · 13/07/2021 21:19

@Proudmumtoday

The CPS don’t arrest people.
You're right, they ask the police or agree with the police that the police will do so. The CPS prosecute.

Let me rephrase that as 'the criminal justice system ... '

SpindleWhorl · 13/07/2021 21:21

The Criminal Justice System must surely be able to arrest Pitchfork for other sexual offences? I read he had a history of GUESS WHAT indecent exposure.

Or is that considered a 'non-crime' now?

Wheretobuy · 13/07/2021 21:25

This is infuriating. I am with you on this OP.

Lockheart · 13/07/2021 21:25

It's also worth remembering that the original parole board decision to release him was challenged and taken to a judicial review, which would only stop the release if it was found that the parole board acted illegally, irrationally, or with procedural impropriety.

The grounds on which the judicial review was brought were irrationality. The independent QC who carried out the judicial review found no irrationality in the decision.

So the application to halt or re-evaluate the parole boards original decision was refused and the release can go ahead - this is why it's back in the news today.

It's hardly been a snap decision with no consideration.

Lockheart · 13/07/2021 21:28

@SpindleWhorl

The Criminal Justice System must surely be able to arrest Pitchfork for other sexual offences? I read he had a history of GUESS WHAT indecent exposure.

Or is that considered a 'non-crime' now?

The UK does not have a statute of limitations re: time limits on being charged, so yes in theory he could be charged if:
  • he has not already been charged with the specific crimes in question
  • there is sufficient evidence to prosecute
  • the CPS considers it in the public interest