Colin Pitchfork

Colin Pitchfork is a British double child-murderer and rapist. He was the first person convicted of rape and murder using DNA profiling after he murdered two girls in neighbouring Leicestershire villages: Lynda Mann in Narborough in November 1983, and Dawn Ashworth in Enderby in July 1986. He was arrested on 19 September 1987 and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 January 1988 after pleading guilty to both murders, with the judge giving him a 30-year minimum term (reduced to 28 years on appeal).

He was granted parole in June 2021, and was released on licence on 1 September that year. On 19 November the same year, he was recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions. Pitchfork was granted parole a second time in June 2023, but after intervention from the Lord Chancellor Alex Chalk the Parole Board reviewed its decision and decided not to release him.

Life
Pitchfork lived at 6 Brascote Lane in Newbold Verdon, attending school in Market Bosworth and Bosworth College in Desford. He was in the 1st Newbold Verdon Scout Group, gaining the Chief Scout's Award in September 1976. He was one of four scouts chosen in Leicestershire to go to the 14th World Scout Jamboree in Norway in August 1975, amongst 1,600 scouts from the UK. Molly Pitchfork, his mother, was the Group Scout Leader.

He married in 1981 to a social worker and moved to the Leicestershire village of Littlethorpe. Before his marriage, Pitchfork had been convicted of indecent exposure and had been referred for therapy to the Carlton Hayes Hospital, Narborough.

Pitchfork had obtained work in Hampshire's Bakery in Leicester, in 1976, as an apprentice. He continued to work there until his arrest for the murders. He became particularly skilled as a sculptor of cake decorations and had hoped, eventually, to start his own cake decorating business. According to his supervisor, he was "a good worker and time-keeper, but he was moody... and he couldn't leave women employees alone. He was always chatting them up."

Crimes
In October 1977, he was fined £30 by Market Bosworth magistrates for exposing himself to a schoolgirl, pleading guilty, when aged 17.

In 1979, Pitchfork forced a 16-year-old girl into a field and sexually assaulted her.

On 14 February 1980, when aged 20, he exposed himself to two teenage girls in Earl Shilton, and was given a year's probation by Hinckley magistrates.

On 21 November 1983, 15-year-old Lynda Mann took a shortcut on her way home from babysitting instead of taking her normal route home. She did not return and her parents and neighbours spent the night searching for her. The next morning, she was found raped and strangled on a deserted footpath known locally as the Black Pad. Using forensic science techniques available at the time, police linked a semen sample taken from her body to a person with type A blood and an enzyme profile that matched only 10% of males. With no other leads or evidence, the case was left open.

In October 1985, Pitchfork sexually assaulted another 16-year-old girl, threatening her with a screwdriver and with a knife at her throat.

Liz Knight was picked up by Pitchfork on a Saturday in June 1986 and driven for 40 minutes from Wigston towards Great Glen. When she grabbed the steering wheel, Pitchfork's demeanour suddenly changed, and he decided to drive to her house, and not attack. Pitchfork put his hand on her knee, saying: "I haven't hurt you yet." Pitchfork dropped Knight at her house, asking, "How about a goodnight kiss?" which she refused. Pitchfork said, "I bet you would never accept a lift from a stranger again."

On 31 July 1986, 15-year-old Dawn Ashworth left her home to visit a friend's house. Her parents expected her to return at 9:30 pm; when she failed to do so they called police to report her missing. Two days later, her body was found in a wooded area near a footpath called Ten Pound Lane. She had been beaten, savagely raped, and strangled. The modus operandi matched that of the first attack, and semen samples revealed the same blood type. Both girls had attended Brockington High School. Dawn's mother worked at Next plc in Enderby; George Davies offered a £10,000 reward.

An initial suspect was Richard Buckland, a local 17-year-old with learning difficulties who, while innocent of both murders, revealed knowledge of Ashworth's body and admitted to the Ashworth crime under questioning, denying the first murder.

Arrest and conviction
In early 1987, police asked every local male between the ages of 16 and 34 to voluntarily give blood samples for DNA testing. By the end of January, a thousand men had been tested. Men who declined to give blood samples found themselves under scrutiny by police.

According to 1988 news reports, one of Pitchfork's colleagues at the bakery, 23-year-old Ian Kelly, was overheard in a pub discussing how he had provided a fake blood sample for Pitchfork (using a fake passport) as he lived outside the area. He had agreed to do this in exchange for £200, and he then took the test on 29 January 1987. The conversation, during the lunchtime of Saturday, 1 August 1987, was overheard by other bakery colleagues, and 28-year-old Jackie Foggin (Tyson), of Fleckney, reported it to the police. This vital tip-off was later credited with enabling Pitchfork to be caught. Pitchfork had told Kelly that he wanted to avoid being harassed by police because of his prior convictions for indecent exposure. Kelly was arrested at 31 Stuart Street in Leicester on Friday, 18 September.

On Saturday, 19 September 1987, Pitchfork was arrested at 32 Haybarn Close, in Littlethorpe, by Detective Inspector Mick Thomas. Pitchfork's wife tried to attack him, when he told her that he had killed two girls.

During questioning, Pitchfork admitted to exposing himself to more than 1,000 women, a compulsion that began in his early teens. He later progressed to sexual assault and then to strangling his victims. Pitchfork said this was in order to protect his identity. Investigators rejected this, viewing the motivation for the strangulations as "perverted sadism". During his interviews with the police he admitted his crimes, but lied about the level and nature of the violence he had inflicted on his victims.

At his trial at Leicester Crown Court, Pitchfork pleaded guilty to the two rapes and murders, in addition to sexual assault of two other girls, and conspiring to pervert the course of justice. In January 1988 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the two murders and 10 years for raping the victims; he was also sentenced to three years for each count of sexual assault and three years for perverting the course of justice, with all sentences to run concurrently. A psychiatric report prepared for the court described Pitchfork as possessing a psychopathic personality disorder accompanied with a serious psychosexual pathology. The Lord Chief Justice at the time of his sentencing said: "From the point of view of the safety of the public I doubt if he should ever be released." The Secretary of State set a minimum term of 30 years; in 2009, Pitchfork's minimum term sentence was reduced on appeal to 28 years.

Parole reviews
On 22 April 2016, the Parole Board for England and Wales heard Pitchfork's case for early release on parole. Pitchfork's advocates presented evidence of his improved character, noting that Pitchfork had furthered his education to degree level and had become expert at the transcription of printed music into braille, for the benefit of blind people. The families of victims Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth opposed his release on parole.

On 29 April 2016, the board announced that Pitchfork's application for release on licence had been refused, but recommended that he be moved to an open prison. In June 2016, Michael Gove, then Justice Secretary, agreed with the board's recommendation, and at some point prior to 8 January 2017, Pitchfork was moved to an undisclosed open prison.

In November 2017, Pitchfork was seen walking around Bristol, so it was assumed that he had been moved to HM Prison Leyhill in Gloucestershire.

On 3 May 2018, Pitchfork was refused release on licence. The Parole Board said Pitchfork would be eligible for a further review within two years. Lynda's mother said the board had "listened to us before the murderer". In 2017, it emerged Pitchfork would be released from open prison on unsupervised days out.

2021: release and recall
On 7 June 2021, Pitchfork was granted release on conditional licence. The Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland, applied for a review of the decision under the terms of the Parole Board Reconsideration Mechanism, introduced in 2019, and Pitchfork remained in custody pending the outcome. On 13 July 2021, it was reported that the review had been refused and that Pitchfork would therefore be released. He was released on 1 September 2021.

In November 2021, Pitchfork was recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions by "approaching young women" while on walks from his bail hostel. His second victim's mother, Barbara Ashworth, told BBC News that she was pleased "he's been put away and women and girls are safe and protected from him now". There are complaints that the Parole Board was insufficiently cautious in allowing Pitchfork's release. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab promised a Parole Board review. David Baker, a former police detective who helped capture Pitchfork, believes Pitchfork could deceive the Parole Board and pretend it was safe to release him. Baker maintains Pitchfork is a psychopath and it will never be safe to release him.

2023: consideration for release
The Parole Board's hearing to consider releasing Pitchfork again was postponed to 2023. His potential release was opposed by MP Alberto Costa.

In June 2023 it was announced that Pitchfork would again be released under parole. The decision was widely criticised. In July 2023, the Lord Chancellor intervened and ordered that the board reconsider their decision after a huge public outcry, particularly since Pitchfork breached his licence conditions within weeks of his initial release. Pitchfork's new parole hearing took place on 2 and 3 October 2023. In December 2023, parole was denied, meaning that Pitchfork would remain in prison.

2024 review
Pitchfork challenged the Parole Board's decision on procedural grounds, and in February 2024 the Board agreed to schedule another hearing before a different panel to consider his potential release. In May 2024, the parole board confirmed that Pitchfork's next parole hearing would take place on 8 July, with members of the public allowed to attend.

Artwork
In April 2009, a sculpture that Pitchfork had created in prison and which was exhibited at the Royal Festival Hall, Bringing the Music to Life, depicted an orchestra and choir. The sculpture was exhibited as part of a venture by the Koestler Trust, having been purchased by the Festival Hall for £600. Following outrage in the media and from victim-advocate groups, it was removed from display.

In popular culture
Pitchfork’s crimes were originally chronicled in the 1989 book The Blooding by Joseph Wambaugh.

Pitchfork's crimes were aired on the American true crime series Forensic Files in October 1996.

The killings featured in a 2002 episode of Real Crime "Cracking the Killer's Code". Pitchfork was played by John Duttine.

In 2014, ITV commissioned a two-part television drama, Code of a Killer, based on Pitchfork's crimes and the creation of DNA profiling. It starred John Simm as researcher Alec Jeffreys and David Threlfall as David Baker, the lead police detective. Pitchfork was played by Nathan Wright. The drama was the first broadcast in two 90-minute episodes, on 6 and 13 April 2015. It was subsequently reformatted as three episodes and released on DVD.

Pitchfork's crimes are also the focus of an episode of the Sky series How I Caught the Killer.