Killer’s sentence ruling may be overturned as MP steps in

9:10am Saturday 5th July 2008

A RULING that would have enabled a psychopathic hammer killer to apply for parole could be overturned at the Court of Appeal this month.

In May, Reg Wilson's wholelife tariff was reduced to a minimum of 18 years, meaning he could apply for release at any time.

But the High Court ruling has been challenged after Middlesbrough MP Sir Stuart Bell raised the issue with the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland.

The move has been welcomed by campaigners determined to keep convicted killers off the streets.

Wilson was jailed in 1991 for the motiveless killing of North-East consultant doctor David Birkett. He was jailed, with a judge's recommendation that he never be released.

However, the High Court ruled there was no justification for the severity of the sentence, despite the extreme violence of his crimes.

Wilson, 42, from Middlesbrough, had one aim in life - to commit the perfect murder.

In 1990, he battered Dr Birkett to death at the consultant's six-bedroomed house in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, after he posed as a motorcycle despatch rider.

Police caught him from a fingerprint left at the murder scene, and believed he planned a series of murders.

After the killing, he sent letters to detectives taunting them.

Wilson was once labelled one of Britain's most dangerous prisoners and was moved to a secure unit alongside the notorious hostage-taker Charles Bronson and serial killer Robert Maudsley.

In 1996, he tried to escape from high-security Frankland Prison, near Durham City, having started to saw through the bars of his cell. His attempt was only foiled when a homemade ladder was too heavy to carry.

The decision to alter the sentence stunned campaigners fighting to keep convicted killers off the streets.

Barbara Dunne, whose son, Robert, 31, was killed with a samurai sword yards from his home in Middlesbrough in 2003, organised a Walk for Justice march in town.

She said: "I welcome this move. There is no guarantee that this man would not commit another murder once he is released.

"This man was given life tariff for a reason, and I cannot see what has changed. He brutally murdered a man and has shown no remorse."

Editor's Choice