William Dunlop, the first killer imprisoned after a landmark change to the 800-year-old double jeopardy rule, has acknowledged that he might have killed or seriously injured someone else if his victim’s mother had not fought to reopen the case.
Known as Billy, the 63-year-old began his fourth parole application on Wednesday, seeking a transfer to an open prison and eventual consideration for release.
Dunlop strangled Julie Hogg at her home in Billingham, County Durham, in 1989 before concealing her mutilated remains behind a bath panel.
Her mother, Ann Ming, found the body more than two months after the 22-year-old’s death.
Miss Hogg, a pizza delivery driver and mother to three-year-old Kevin, had rejected Dunlop after he left a rugby party. Prosecutors said he then subjected her to a violent sexual assault before killing her.
The prosecution described the attack as “premeditated and truly horrendous”.
Dunlop was charged with murder, but two juries were unable to reach a verdict in 1991. He was subsequently acquitted under the double jeopardy rules then in force.
Seven years later, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for causing grievous bodily harm to another partner.
During that sentence, Dunlop told a prison officer that he had killed Miss Hogg. He later admitted that he had lied during his original trial and received an additional six-year sentence.
Billy Dunlop received a life sentence with a minimum term of 17 years in 2006 for Julie Hogg’s 1989 murder
Julie Hogg was 22 when she was killed, and her body was concealed behind a bath panel
At the time, Dunlop assumed he could not face a second prosecution because double jeopardy prevented anyone acquitted of an offence from being tried again for the same crime.
That changed after Mrs Ming spent 15 years campaigning for reform. Following Dunlop’s confession, he became the first person prosecuted under the new legislation in 2006.
He pleaded guilty to murder and was given a life sentence, with a minimum of 17 years behind bars.
Mrs Ming’s fight to change the law was later dramatised in the four-part ITV series I Fought the Law, which starred Sheridan Smith.
DON’T MISS: Aussie NBA Star’s Neighbour Says Basketball Dispute Is Taking a Toll
During his parole hearing yesterday, just the 10th such hearing to be held in public, Dunlop admitted that he might have gone on to kill again or commit serious violence had he not been stopped.
Panel member Zaiada Bibi asked whether he regretted confessing. Dunlop replied: “No, no, without a doubt, no.”
He said he had previously thanked Mrs Ming for pursuing the legal campaign, adding: “I’ve not hurt anybody else – by me being in prison all this time I’ve not hurt anybody.”
Asked whether he believed he would have committed another murder or serious act of violence, Dunlop said: “I would say yes because that’s what my life was.”
He also told the hearing that he would never have admitted killing Miss Hogg had the double jeopardy law remained unchanged.
Actress Sheridan Smith, who played Miss Hogg’s mother Ann Ming in the ITV drama I Fought the Law
‘I would have tried to carry on suppressing it,’ he said.
Dunlop appeared via videolink to the International Dispute and Resolution Centre in London from an unnamed prison with his back to the camera, refusing to show his face.
The Parole Board panel of three, headed by retired judge Nicholas Coleman, was meeting him in the prison.
Dunlop told the panel he could now ‘get’ the feelings of Miss Hogg’s family as he had recently lost his own son.
On whether he considers himself a risk to the public, he said: ‘No, I’m more frightened of them than they should be of me – I’m more concerned about people finding out where I am and causing me harm… I don’t want to cause anybody any harm.’
A prison psychologist and an independent psychologist have agreed that Dunlop should be released after finding a low risk of violence, increasing to moderate in the community.
Miss Hogg’s son, Kevin, told the hearing: ‘I can say categorically that time isn’t the great healer it’s purported to be.
‘As the years pass, the pain of losing my mother to this murder remains acute.’
The hearing continues.