Colin Pitchfork release LIVE – Schoolgirl rapist and murderer to WALK FREE 33 years after landmark DNA conviction

A NOTORIOUS criminal who raped and killed two schoolgirls in the 1980s is set to be FREED from prison, the Parole Board has said.

Colin Pitchfork was jailed for life after brutally strangling 15-year-old girls Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth to death in Leicestershire in 1983 and 1986 respectively.

A hearing took place in March this year to consider if he was suitable for release – and the decision to set him free after 33 years was published today.

Pitchfork, then in his 20s, became the first man convicted of murder on the basis of DNA evidence and was jailed for life at Leicester Crown Court in 1988, with a minimum sentence of 30 years to be served.

He was eventually caught after the world’s first mass screening for DNA, as 5,000 men in three villages were asked to volunteer blood or saliva samples.

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