Two people arrested on suspicion of harbouring a Wigan double killer have walked free

The unnamed pair were detained at the same time as the 40-year-old fugitive was recaptured last May, having been on the run for several days from Kirkham Open Prison.

Pilkington, jailed for the manslaughters of Paul Akister in 2000 and Carly Fairhurst in 2006, was later given an extra six months behind bars for absconding. Now, having served that time, he is awaiting a parole hearing next month.

The parents of 19-year-old Carly are all too accustomed to these events which began less than three years into his sentence and have continued regularly since, not least because on being released he has been recalled to jail several times due to licence breaches.

Recently Trevor and Sheila Fairhurst, resigned to the fact that he can’t be locked up for good, called on him to be permanently tagged in the hope of greater peace on mind once he is liberated yet again and assuming he is never going to be capable of behaving himself.

When re-captured after absconding from Kirkham, Pilkington was found at an address in the Howrich area of Bolton, only a couple of miles from the exclusion zone around Wigan which he is not allowed to enter as part of the terms of his licence.

On a previous occasion he has also been known to have entered the borough.

A spokeswoman confirmed that the man and woman in Horwich last year had since been released with no further action taken against them.