Family meet minister over killer's transfer plans

Relatives of a woman whose killer may serve the rest of his prison sentence in his home country said they felt listened to by a government minister.

In 2022, Antanas Jankauskas was jailed for a minimum 14 years for murdering mother-of-two Sarah Ashwell at her home in Wells, Somerset.

Sarah's mother Lynne Joice and 18-year-old son Harrison met Justice Minister Jake Richards to raise concerns about Jankauskas being sent home to Lithuania, which would prevent them from influencing future parole hearings.

Tessa Munt, MP Wells and Mendip Hills, said the meeting was constructive. The government said it was focused on "removing foreign national offenders who have no right to stay in the UK".

Foreign national offenders can be transferred to serve their sentence in their home country if it has a prisoner transfer agreement with the UK.

As of 2024, the UK has 110 prisoner transfer agreements in place and removed 945 prisoners under these agreements from 2010 to 2023.

In every case, the receiving country has to agree to enforce the UK sentence and the views of victims and their families are supposed to be taken into account.

In response to a question about prisoner transfer agreements, Richards said: "This government are focused on removing foreign national offenders so that they are no longer a burden on the taxpayer.

"Strengthening prisoner transfer arrangements is a priority and we are actively engaging with a number of countries to do that, so that more offenders can be removed and serve their sentences in their home countries."

But Ashwell's family said they were encouraged after meeting Richards, with her son Harrison saying "overall the meeting went very well".

"There was no outcome so far but questions were definitely answered and questions that weren't answered will be shortly," he said.

"It was very shocking because you don't think that something that happened quite a while ago is coming back up now and I feel it should have been dealt with already, but it hasn't.

"He let us know that things might not go the way we want it to go, but there's a chance it can."

Munt, who has raised the issue in parliament, said the family were given the opportunity to explain to the minister how they felt as victims.

"The minister is very alive to what happens to victims and that's the most important thing here in that both Harrison and Lynne, and Harrison's younger brother are the victims in all of this and need to be listened to," Munt added.

She said Richards promised to check the detail of the deal with Lithuania and at least explain to the family what the situation is.

"He is ready to try and make changes so that victims are heard," she said.

"I understand that it's a cost-saving measure, but actually how on earth can you possibly measure the damage done to this family?"

The Ministry of Justice said Ashwell's murder was a "horrific crime" and its thoughts remained with her family.

"Transferred prisoners must serve their sentences in their home country and are barred from returning to the UK, which helps protect the public," a spokesperson added.

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