IS MARIE’S KILLER TO BE FREED?
Family’s fears as Parole Board meets
INSPIRED by the memory of his murdered daughter David Hines has spent quarter of a century helping victims’ families fight for justice.
But the campaigner is now facing his own personal battle to keep the man who robbed him of his beautiful girl behind bars.
David set-up a charity to help the families of murder and manslaughter victims after his daughter Marie was murdered by her ex Anthony Davison in 1993.
Since then, the North East Victims Association has grown into the National Victims’ Association and helped countless families through their darkest days.
Meanwhile David has become an experienced victims’ advocate and self-taught legal expert.
But now he is facing his own fight after Davison launched a bid for freedom.
On Wednesday the 69-year-old will attend a hearing where the murderer’s fate could be determined.
And today the dad has told how he will do everything he can to keep Davison behind bars.
He said: “I don’t think it’s right that he should have a life and go on when my daughter can’t. I want life in these cases to mean life.”
Marie was just 23 when Davison strangled her with a dressing gown cord and beat her at her home in Jarrow, South Tyneside, when she ended their relationship.
David and his-then wife Kathy, who has since died, were on holiday in Turkey at the time.
Davison admitted murder and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 14 years.
As David attempted to come to terms with his loss, he realised how little support there was for the families of murder and manslaughter victims, and found himself faced with a criminal justice system that seemed to look after the needs of the offender.
The grandfather made it his mission to help other bereaved loved ones and has since worked to help give other relatives a voice.
Meanwhile the end of Davison’s minimum sentences passed with the killer making no effort to seek parole, and David began to believe he did not want to be freed. But two years ago he learned he had applied for parole.
And on Wednesday David will make an impassioned plea to keep Davison locked up.
“I don’t think he had ever applied for parole before,” David said. “It didn’t seem like he wanted to be coming out, or that he wasn’t ready for any sort of release. But a couple of years ago he made an application for parole.”
Davison’s first scheduled parole hearing, at HMP Northumberland, was called-off as David was making his way to the prison but was re-scheduled for next week.
“My opinion is the parole board is not fit for purpose for murder and manslaughter, but I’m still going to read my personal statement out on Wednesday,” he said. “It doesn’t effect me now because I’m used to it. I like to think I’m a bit more resilient than a lot of victims, but all the emotions do come back. Public speaking doesn’t bother me now, but why should a victim be put through all of that? I still cry and I still have sleepless nights, the same as everyone else. But I’m looking forwards to letting them understand how I currently feel. It’s an emotional rollercoaster all your life. It doesn’t go away.” But as he has been on other families’ behalves in the past, David is frustrated by the lack of support he has received and the lack of information he is entitled to.
“Once the trial is over and somebody is convicted all the agencies disappear,” he said. “I have been told he has refused to face me. “There can’t be any remorse. But I don’t know anything about his state of mind. Right throughout the criminal justice system the victim is not allowed to know anything.
“He’s allowed to see my statement. He can find out how I’m feeling, but I can’t find out anything about him. If I met him in the street now I wouldn’t know what he looked like.
“Why should I have to look over my should for the rest of my life. “He will come out, he will be re-housed somewhere, he’s still young enough to have a new life.
“I don’t want him anywhere near the North East. Marie would have turned 50 this year, but to me she will always be 23,” he said.
“She was just an absolute scream. She was a funny girl and she was beautiful. I miss her every day of my life.
“When I started doing this 26 years ago I sat on Marie’s bed and I got a type-writer out. I was determined to do something in her memory.
“But I’m more determined now than every because of the lack of help.”
I still cry and I still have sleepless nights, the same as everyone else David Hines