Double Jeopardy Killer Billy Dunlop has paid tribute to the woman who fought tirelessly to change the law that kept him in jail.
He admitted Ann Ming was "the bane of his life" and told the hearing: "I hated her."
But he said Mrs Ming's campaign - backed by the Northern Echo who he said organised petitions to change the law - "saved him" when he got a life sentence.
And the killer said: "The Northern Echo newspaper was out campaigning, getting signatures and I started to think, this could be bad for me."
A public parole hearing for Dunlop, who strangled pizza delivery woman Julie Hogg in Billingham in 1989, began today (Monday, December 16).
Dunlop told the court if he hadn't been jailed for life people would have been in danger because he was an angry violent man and not ready to be in the community.
Julie's family exchanged shocked glances as Dunlop began to talk about Mrs Ming and her grandson Kevin Hogg, Julie's son who was three when he murdered her.
Dunlop said: "Mrs Ming rightly did what she did and I used to think 'she is the bane of my life this woman.' At the time I used to hate her, I am not going to deny that.
"But looking back, who would not do that? I have a lot of respect for the lady. Same as Kevin, who would not do that? I have a lot of respect for what they have done and I bear no malice to them.
"Me getting a life sentence has saved me. If I had got out in 2003 I was not ready to come out, the man I was then."
Dunlop had earlier told of the moment when he realised he could not be tried again for the murder of Julie.
His confidence was such that he confessed to the killing to his then partner, he told his public parole hearing.
Asked when he realised he could not be prosecuted again under the double jeopardy law, he said: "It was probably when I met my solicitor when I was let out from remand at the end of 1991.
"Seven or eight years later I admitted it to a prison officer. I also admitted it to my long term partner a couple of days after I was released."
He said it was to "regain control" after he discovered she had been with another man while he was on remand up to the end of 1991 when he was acquitted of Julie's murder.
Dunlop admitted that Julie became the focus of his rage and violence.
He told the hearing: "I was having people reject me and not dealing with it in the appropriate way.
"Julie got a whole year of what was going on in my life, she got all that anger and rage. I am not making excuses, that is what I was, that horrible individual. I was a car crash waiting to happen."
He gave chilling details of previous attacks on partners to the hearing, one involving a knife and baseball bat, the other involving a pickaxe handle.
Dunlop said: "A couple of times a weapon was used, one was a pickaxe handle against my long-term partner.
"It happened when she tried to assault me with a stool when we were in the pub and I punched her and knocked her to the floor.
"She got up and went off to a nightclub and I went home to the children.
"When she came home she was wearing a different top and that is when that assault happened.
"It started downstairs and ended upstairs in the bedroom with the pickaxe handle. It was a horrendous attack, I am not trying to minimise what I have done. She was left with black eyes and bruising."
Dunlop went on to describe an attack on another ex partner which saw him jailed in 1997 for wounding.
He attacked an ex girlfriend when he found out she was with another man and went to her home.
He beat the man with the bat until it broke and then stabbed his ex nine times.
Recommended reading:
- Double Jeopardy killer Dunlop could be released despite committing more offences
- Brave mother recognised for tireless battle
- Ann Ming's fight to overturn archaic double jeopardy law
Get a full year of the Northern Echo for only £25 or try six months for just £6.
Dunlop told the hearing: "That person I was, was a violent hideous uncaring person. The only person I thought about was myself and I bitterly regret it.
"I put the family (Julie's family) through this for the rest of their lives but I was only thinking about how it affected me."
The hearing has been listed for two days and a decision is expected at a later date.
Share