Mother of Joanna Simpson who was beaten to death by BA pilot husband reveals she’s meeting new Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to urge him to block killer’s release – amid fears Dominic Raab’s resignation will derail bid to keep him locked up
- READ MORE: Killer blocked from open prison because he ‘poses serious threat’
The mother of a woman bludgeoned to death by her husband today revealed she’s meeting with the new Justice Secretary to urge him to block his early release – amid fears Dominic Raab’s resignation could derail her family’s bid to keep him locked up.
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British Airways captain Robert Brown killed Joanna Simpson, 46, in their family home in October 2010 as their two young children cowered in a playroom, before dumping her body in a makeshift coffin in Windsor Great Park.
He was acquitted of murder by a jury at Reading Crown Court the following year, having admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Brown, who believed he was ‘stitched up’ by a prenuptial agreement, is due to be released on licence in November after serving 13 years of a 26-year sentence because the lesser charge means he will not face a Parole Board.
However, new Justice Secretary Alex Chalk could use his powers to refer the case to the board to consider whether it is safe to release him.
Joanna Simpson, 46, had filed for divorce from Brown after enduring years of abuse, harassment and intimidation
Just months ago, Brown was still deemed to pose a serious threat to the public, and was kept confined in a category C prison. He was jailed for using a hammer to beat Joanna Simpson to death – before then burying her body in a grave he had dug himself
Joanna’s mother, Diana Parks, said she was ‘very grateful’ new Justice Secretary Alex Chalk had agreed to meet her
Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain today, Joanna’s mother, Diana Parks, said: ‘I’m very grateful that he’s agreed to meet us and I just really hope that we can get through to him that Brown is not fit to be released, and that he should stay in prison for as long as possible.’
‘He was given a 26-year sentence, which I told my grandchildren about. I didn’t say he could come out after 13 years.
‘I didn’t want to spoil their schooling until he was old enough to understand. He should stay in prison for 26 years.’
READ MORE – ‘He’s going to seek revenge’: Joanna Simpson’s mother warns
If Brown had been convicted of murder he would have been handed a minimum sentence. But because he was found guilty of manslaughter this meant he was automatically slated for release at the half-way point.
Automatic release for violent or sexual offences now occurs at two-thirds through the sentence after a recent change in the law, but this came too late to affect Brown’s case.
‘It’s so crazy. I’m afraid I knew nothing about the law until Jo was killed,’ Mrs Parkes said.
‘I am very concerned about his release because he will seek revenge. He will blame everybody else but himself for what he did.
‘Jo’s friends, my family and women in general will be in general because he has lost everything that he had – he’s been stripped of it all.
‘He’s lost his job as a British Airways air captain, he’s lost his home, he’s lost his status, he’s lost his high earning, but most of all he’s lost his children because they never want to see him again.’
Brown has been classed as a ‘critical public protection case’, meaning he has been assessed as posing a very high risk of serious harm. Such offenders require high levels of monitoring after their release.
Mrs Parkes said this was proof he should not be released early.
Before his resignation, Mr Raab had promised a complete risk assessment of Brown’s release – raising the possibility he could remain in jail
Ms Simpson’s friend, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, who is also chairwoman of Refuge, the largest domestic abuse charity in the UK, said that Mr Chalk was the ‘one man on the planet’ who can stop her friend’s killer from being released
‘Brown is already regarded as a critical public protection place so he hasn’t been allowed to go into an open prison, he was refused in June and refused in December,’ she said.
‘He won’t be going into an open prison but he’ll be released into society in November. It’s crazy.’
Under legislation passed last year, the Justice Secretary can refer cases to the Parole Board if he feels prisoners due for release could pose a risk to the public, or to national security.
Before his resignation, Mr Raab had promised a complete risk assessment of Brown’s release – raising the possibility he could remain in jail.
Ms Simpson’s friend, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, who is also chairwoman of Refuge, the largest domestic abuse charity in the UK, said that Mr Chalk was the ‘one man on the planet’ who can stop her friend’s killer from being released.
‘With manslaughter in the determinate sentence, which is what Robert Brown got, they get given a sentence but they are entitled to be let out halfway through – now two thirds of the way through.
‘And that’s the problem, there is no protection for the public.
Brown, a former British Airways pilot, is pictured on a long-distance run in BA-branded kit
‘And what we’re trying to do is leverage the changes that came in last year, which gives one man on this planet the ability to stop this from happening and that is Alex (Chalk).’
Ms Simpson, 46, had filed for divorce from Brown after enduring years of abuse, harassment and intimidation.
On the day of her death, Brown had driven to her home in Ascot before beating her 14 times with a hammer.
He was charged with murder and prosecutors argued the killing was a premeditated attack, but Brown said he had been suffering from ‘severe stress’ and ‘abnormality of mental function’ which had impaired his self-control.
The jury at Reading Crown Court acquitted him of murder and he was given a 26-year sentence for manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, which he had already admitted.
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