Blind killer must stay in jail

The Parole Board has refused to reconsider its decision to block even a transfer to an open jail, even though she has already served more than two years longer than recommended by the judge at her trial.

The hardline stance was contrasted by an MP today with the leniency shown by the Court of Appeal to a man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted and beat a Filey woman.

John Lomas - who had previous convictions for similar offences and was on parole when he subjected the woman to a horrifying 30-hour ordeal - was told by a judge in November that he could apply for parole after serving only four years and ten months of a life sentence because he had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

But Ryedale MP John Greenway said Lomas could hardly have done anything but plead guilty. "There was DNA evidence, CCTV footage and fingerprints, and she identified him." He said the woman had been to see him and feared the man would commit a similar offence when released, but would kill the next time.

The Tory MP believed Sleightholme was being penalised because she had always refused to admit to the killing of farmer's wife Jayne Smith in a Ryedale farmyard.

Mr Greenway, a former policeman, said she had committed no offence before her conviction, her behaviour in prison had always been exemplary, and even the prosecution's case had been that the killing was a one-off.

The Parole Board wrote to the MP after he had protested to Home Secretary David Blunkett about its "unjust" decision.

It told him that it believed Sleightholme posed too great a risk of serious violence to be transferred to an open jail.

It insisted it was not refusing parole or a transfer solely on the grounds of a denial of guilt "or anything that flows from that."

One of the two campaigners who have been battling to prove Sleightholme's innocence, David Hamilton and Margaret Leonard, said today the Parole Board's letter was "typical of official whitewash."

Updated: 12:29 Monday, January 13, 2003