Parents' 'disgust' as Wigan double killer set to be released from prison again this week

Trevor and Sheila Fairhurst have received the news that Darren Pilkington will be released from prison again this week.

The Hindley couple have been in a seemingly endless cycle of legal bids to keep him behind bars, since their 19-year-old daughter Carly was left for dead by her then boyfriend in January 2006.

First Pilkington – now 41 and calling himself Darren Carr – was given a sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP), which meant he only had to serve a minimum sentence of little more than three years before he could start repeatedly trying to prove he was fit for release.

This meant the Fairhursts having to attend hearings or submit victim impact statements on a yearly basis.

Then when he was finally released, he repeatedly breached his licence, meaning he was re-jailed and the couple would face yet more hearings aimed at keeping him incarcerated.

Most recently, Pilkington – who was jailed for both Carly’s manslaughter 18 years ago and previously for the killing of friend Paul Akister in 2000 – absconded from an open prison and was on the run for several days before being captured in Horwich, close to an exclusion zone he is forbidden from entering which surrounds Wigan borough.

A parole hearing held earlier this year decided that he should be released on licence, subject to strict conditions including residing at a designated address, keeping away from the exclusion zone, staying on the right side of the law and submitting to enhanced supervision, including a curfew and electronic tracking.

Against him it was said there were a number of risk factors from his past, which included his attitudes towards violence and crime, his choice of a negative peer group, misuse of both alcohol and drugs, communication difficulties and a generally unstable lifestyle. A poor response to supervision had been a persistent problem.

In favour was evidence that since his latest reincarceration his behaviour had been “generally good, that he had a trusted prison job and had obtained a vocational qualification. There had been no evidence of any violent behaviour.”

He had also completed work on alcohol, relapse prevention and managing boredom and stress. He had remained on a specialist unit for those committed to recovering from their addictions and was considered to have developed a good level of insight into the risks associated with his drug use.

Mr Fairhurst said: “We were asked if we wanted to write a reconsideration letter again.

"We had discussions with the police and between ourselves and we weren’t going to do one, but everybody around me was saying your voice needs to be heard.

"The parole board has made a bad decision seven times.

"He’s being released one day this week, we’re absolutely disgusted.

"He’s still under the same licence conditions, he’ll be monitored at a bail hostel and tagged as well.

"But he was before, he’s no respect for the justice system at all.

"We can’t settle because every time he does something wrong or absconds, it breaks it all up for us.”

Under the scrapping of IPP, Pilkington must now only behave himself for three years rather than 10 before he can no longer be recalled to prison on licence, but the Fairhursts have said he has not managed to get anywhere near that three-year marker, let alone a decade, before doing something to warrant further jail time.