Britain’s longest-serving female prisoner, 70, is back in jail just weeks after being freed for 1987 murder of her love rival
Maria Pearson, 70, from Hartlepool, was jailed for life in 1987 for killing her ex-boyfriend’s new partner. She was released in August this year after a Parole Board panel found she no longer posed a risk to the public but has now been recalled to prison
Britain’s longest-serving female prisoner is back behind bars just weeks after being released.
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Maria Pearson, 70, from Hartlepool, was jailed for life in 1987 for stabbing her ex-boyfriend’s new partner Janet Newton to death.
She was released in August this year after a Parole Board panel found she no longer posed a risk to the public.
But Pearson was recalled to prison weeks later for breaching a condition of her licence.
At the age of 31 she was found guilty of what the trial judge described as “the cruel and vicious” murder of her 23-year-old love rival.
In the Parole Board decision summary, officials said Pearson was in a bigamous relationship with her second husband at the time of the murder, remaining married to her first.
It was when her second partner met Ms Newton, and decided to annul their marriage, Pearson was left fearing that she would lose their home and custody of a child.
She tracked Ms Newton’s movements and routines, and fatally attacked her as she left her house.
Pearson tried to blame her husband at the trial but this was dismissed, with the judge finding she was “obsessive and jealous”, the summary concluded.
The mother-of-three was told she would have to serve a minimum of 12 years behind bars, a prison term she completed in October 1998.
But she has remained behind in jail since, spending two periods in an open prison before being returned to higher-security jails because of concerns about her behaviour.
This decision earlier this year was the 10th time that the Parole Board had considered her case.
Her conditions of release included living at a designated address, sticking to a curfew which will include electronic tagging for a year and to abide by restrictions put in place to avoid contact with the victim’s family.
After Pearson’s recall to prison, Ms Newton’s sister Lynn Hamilton told Teesside Live: “I hope with all my heart that she stops in prison until the day she dies, there is no place in society for her, she has proven that by being recalled only two weeks after release.”
A spokesperson for HM Prison and Probation Service said: “Prisoners released on licence are kept under tight supervision.
“As this case shows, we do not hesitate to put them straight back behind bars if they break the rules.”