By VennerRoad, 15th Aug 2017
Rapist and double murderer Colin Pitchfork
The sad answer to that question is yes. The case of Colin Pitchfork was discussed here in May last year. Pitchfork has a special claim to notoriety in that he was the first murderer, the first person ever, to be convicted by DNA evidence. In February 1979, he raped and strangled Lynda Mann; three years later he raped and murdered another fifteen year old. He attacked at least two other victims, and compounded his perfidy by standing by while an innocent teenager was arrested for and charged with the second murder.
On his 1988 conviction, Pitchfork was given a thirty year tariff, but a reasonable person would have assumed that to be academic, no one who mattered could seriously consider his release, right? Sadly, that is not the case. As long ago as 2009, lawyers acting for Pitchfork were arguing his case at the Court Of Appeal, and the Lord Chief Justice no less reduced his tariff to twenty-eight years citing “exceptional progress”. But that really is not the point. There are some crimes that warrant lifelong incarceration. In 2014, triple killer Harry Roberts was released after spending forty-eight years in prison, and that after blotting his copy book during an earlier parole attempt.
Roberts was the prime mover behind the Braybrook Street Massacre. In August 1966, Roberts, John Duddy and John Witney were stopped by three plainclothes police officers in West London. Witney was the driver; Roberts and Duddy executed the three men, a crime that caused outrage. Duddy died in prison 36 years ago. When Roberts was released he was 78 years old, and hardly a risk to society. Pitchfork is 56, so has plenty of good years left in him, and could certainly kill again, but even if he were somehow deemed 100% safe, he should still not be released. To lock a man up for life or even for a month is a terrible thing, but what is the alternative in cases like this?
On August 15, Rebecca Eastwood, the sister of Lynda Mann, announced that Pitchfork had not only been transferred to an open prison but had been allowed out on day release. While no one should advocate for mob rule, when the authorities clearly get it so wrong, something should be done.
The release of Monster of Worcester David McGreavy was blocked when it was revealed he had been allowed out of prison. Recently, it was revealed that in 1985, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher blocked the release of child killer Myra Hindley. So why is no one in the Government doing the same with Pitchfork?
Actually, at least one MP is trying. Earlier this year, Laura Bates, the airhead founder of what men’s rights activist Mike Buchanan calls the Everyday Whining Project opined that Philip Davies is not fit to be an MP because he does not share her ludicrous views on so-called gender-based violence.
Yet last September, Mr Davies raised the issue of the release of Pitchfork in Parliament. He received a typically vacuous reply. If Mr Davies has not been silent, many others have. Where are Women Against Rape and Rape Crisis? These pressure groups have been campaigning for years to erode due process where sex crimes are concerned so that a man may be convicted of rape on the most tenuous of evidence or no evidence at all, yet they are strangely silent about this terrible case in which two young women were not simply raped but murdered.
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