Double jeopardy killer's parole hearing to be public

A new parole hearing for a murderer jailed following a change in the double jeopardy law will be held in public, officials have confirmed.

William Dunlop strangled Julie Hogg, 22, in 1989 and hid her beneath a bath at her home in Billingham, Stockton-on-Tees, but juries twice failed to find him guilty.

He was eventually jailed for life with a minimum term of 17 years in 2006 following a successful campaign to change the law by Ms Hogg's family, allowing him to be prosecuted again despite earlier acquittal.

Dunlop, now aged 63, was previously recommended for a move to an open prison but it was blocked by the government. A hearing, at which he is seeking freedom, will be held in October.

The Parole Board said this would be the fourth review of Dunlop's case but was the "first time" Dunlop was wanting release from prison rather than a change of conditions.

After the last public hearing in December 2024, the Parole Board said he was ready to be moved to an open prison, but the then-justice secretary Shabana Mahmood rejected the recommendation.

Dunlop murdered Ms Hogg in November 1989 with her body found by her mother three months later.

He twice stood trial for murder in the 1990s but was formally acquitted after the second trial.

While in prison for other offences, he boasted to a prison guard about getting away with the killing but could not be prosecuted again for the same crime a third time.

Ms Hogg's mother Ann Ming led a successful campaign to change the so-called double jeopardy law, which resulted in Dunlop being prosecuted and admitting murder.

The Parole Board said his next hearing should be held in public after receiving submissions from Ms Hogg's mother and son as well as the media, including the BBC and Teesside Live, and the justice department.

The application for a public hearing had been opposed by Dunlop and his legal team who said his "emotional vulnerability had deteriorated" since the last hearing and he would be seeking "a direction for his release" from prison.

Peter Jones, on behalf of the Parole Board, said hearings would normally be held in private but Dunlop's case had "received considerable media interest and public attention" for almost 40 years and "continues to do so".

He said it was the "first time "Dunlop had actually applied for a release from prison, adding: "It is important in the interests of transparency and accountability that the public has the opportunity of being fully informed as to the manner in which this review is carried out and concluded."

Dunlop told the last Parole Board hearing he "deeply regrets" the killing and had changed in prison from being the "violent, hideous, uncaring person" he was when he was younger.

A key worker for him said he was a "model prisoner" and a prison offender manager said he had shown "genuine remorse" for the murder.

However, Julie Hogg's family have opposed his release and celebrated his transfer to open prison being blocked, calling it the "right decision for public safety".

Ms Ming previously told the BBC: "We as a family are doing a life sentence, we are living and breathing what he did until the day I die."

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