Child killer freed twice from prison must not be allowed to harm public again, Parole Board warned

A child killer who was freed twice from prison must not be allowed to endanger the public again, a judge told the Parole Board today.

Stephen Chafer, 57, had already been paroled twice when he launched a frenzied knife attack on 60-year-old Fay Mills during a row over a garden rake at her home in Peterborough, Cambs.

Chafer was first jailed when he was 17 after he raped and murdered three-year-old Lorraine Holt near her home in Derby in 1979.

He received a life sentence but was released in 2002, after 23 years, when he was granted parole.

Chafer was returned to prison in 2013 for endangering the lives of his neighbours after he torched his flat, but was released again in 2017.

He was on licence when he battered Mrs Mills, who suffers from dementia, on June 23 last year.

Last month Chafer was convicted of attempted murder and assault of Mrs Mills' neighbour Mark Patchett, who tried to help her, following a trial at Cambridge Crown Court.

The 57-year-old was sentenced today to life with a minimum term of 17 years.

Judge David Farrell QC urged the Parole Board to "consider" his sentencing remarks before any future decision to release Chafer, who appeared at court under his pseudonym Stephen Leonard.

He said: "The worrying aspect of this offence is, as with the previous murder, that you have attacked a particularly vulnerable person and the attack was with a knife with particular severity."

He said Chafer, who he described as a "serious risk to members of the public and particularly women", would be 74 years of age before he could be considered for release from prison.

Flanked by three security officers in the dock, Chafer looked downwards throughout the hearing and showed no reaction as he was led to the cells.

Mr Patchett, who previously served in the Armed Forces, said in a statement the scene was "like a house of horrors" and that there was "blood everywhere" after Mrs Mills was attacked.

Prosecutor Charles Falk said it was "frankly a miracle that (Mrs Mills) has survived".

The court heard that Mrs Mills's daughter Sheila Mills had gone away to Kent on the weekend her mother was attacked and believed her mother was in the care of a "close friend".

Mr Falk, summarising a victim impact statement from Sheila Mills, said: "She trusted Stephen with everything. He betrayed her trust. She cannot understand how wrong she could have been."

Jim Holt, the father of Lorraine Holt, has criticised the Parole Board for giving Chafer the chance to reoffend.

Speaking outside court after the sentencing, he said: "I think the Parole Board should look long and hard at some of their decisions because they were warned that he would reoffend. I warned them personally that he would reoffend."

In a statement read outside court by Detective Inspector Lucy Thomson, the Mills family said: "We'd like to say that we are very pleased with the life sentence that's been given to Stephen Leonard and we're pleased that we have some justice for our mum.

"We feel so sorry that Jim Holt's family had to relive their trauma through this case.

"Our mum continues to fight every day and we hope that one day we'll have her home so we can be a family."

Chafer admitted Lorraine Holt's murder and was granted parole, after serving 23 years, in 2002.

He was returned to prison in 2013 for torching his flat, risking the lives of the other residents in the building, but was released again in 2017.

Andrew Radcliffe QC, mitigating for Chafer, said the defendant suffers from "multiple mental disorders".

A spokeswoman for the Parole Board said in an earlier statement: "Tragically, there are rare occasions when offenders go on to commit serious further offences after being released by the Parole Board.

"Whilst this represents an extremely small proportion of cases considered, we do take each case extremely seriously and work with others in the criminal justice system to ensure that lessons are learned to help to prevent further tragedies."