Female double murderer could be moved to open jail

A woman who was once Britain's youngest female double murderer will not be released from prison but could instead be moved to an open jail.

Lorraine Thorpe was 15 when she murdered her father, Desmond, and a woman called Rosalyn Hunt in August 2009.

Thorpe, from Ipswich, was convicted of the killings in 2010, and was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of at least 14 years in prison.

The Parole Board said Thorpe, now 31, should not be released but could be transferred to an open facility.

In 2023 she was refused parole as, at that stage, she was deemed to be too great a risk to be released or moved to an open prison.

Thorpe and her accomplice, 41-year-old Paul Clarke, who died in prison in 2014, repeatedly beat and tortured Rosalyn, before smothering Desmond, 43, a vulnerable alcoholic.

The two bodies were discovered at separate flats.

Thorpe became Britain's youngest convicted female double murderer after the pair's trial at Ipswich Crown Court.

In a decision released on Tuesday, the Parole Board said Thorpe, who has spent all her adult life in prison, needed to be tested in less restrictive prison conditions before she could be considered for release.

"After considering the circumstances of her offending, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented at the hearing, the panel agreed that Ms Thorpe should not be released," the board said.

When Thorpe was jailed the sentencing judge, Mr Justice Saunders, said she could be "manipulative" and was not acting entirely under Clarke's control, adding: "She found violence funny and entertaining."

He acknowledged her "appalling" circumstances, with Thorpe and her father living in "squalid" flats, and sometimes in tents, and spending all her time with middle-aged alcoholics.

The panel's ruling noted Thorpe's "general maturation" and "the fact that she had not evidenced violence or aggression for many years", adding that her "risk of violence towards others had reduced by her own actions in custody."

She will be eligible for another parole review in the future.

Mary Bell, detained at the age of 11 in 1968 for the manslaughter of two boys aged three and four, remains the youngest female killer.

In April 2016 Kim Edwards and her boyfriend Lucas Markham murdered Edwards' mother Elizabeth, 49, and her younger sister Katie, 13, at their home in Spalding, Lincolnshire.

The killers were 14 at the time and were both sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 20 years - later reduced to 17-and-a-half following a later ruling.

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