Fight for Collette killer's parole hearing to be held in public receives backing from Justice Secretary, as we take fight to Westminster

The man who abducted, raped and murdered Collette Gallacher in Corby in 1986 has won yet another parole hearing early next year.

The Northants Telegraph is standing alongside Collette’s family as we try to force Adam Stein’s latest attempt at freedom to be heard in public.

The brute has already been released twice but has repeatedly reoffended and been recalled to prison. Further charges against him in 2022 led to him being given a new four-year jail term.

Because of the setup of the justice system, this newspaper and Collette’s family have never been told of his pending court hearings and he has been afforded an extraordinary level of anonymity by crown court and high court judges.

This means we have never been able to report the rationale for the decisions those judges have made, or to challenge the reporting restrictions he has been granted. He has also been allowed to change his name several times meaning his court hearings are not traceable by reporters.

In July 2022 the law changed to allow some parole hearings to be held in public. Since that time, only eight hearings – including that of Charles Bronson – have been made public.

Recently, the Northants Telegraph, along with Collette’s loved ones, Corby MP Lee Barron and Corby Town Council made legal submissions to the chair of the parole board.

Minister of State for Justice, Lord James Timpson, has now written to Collette’s family to confirm that Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has made a crucial submission to the parole board to support our bid to ensure the hearing is public.

On Tuesday (December 17), Collette’s sister Claire Palmer, our reporter Kate Cronin and MP Mr Barron travelled to the House of Commons to meet Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Sentencing Nic Dakin MP and the government’s Head of Offender Management and Public Protection Gordon Davison.

Claire’s aim was to ensure that the new Labour government was aware of Stein’s monstrous crimes and his patterns of reoffending.

She was reassured during the meeting that the evidence that will go before the parole board will be reviewed at ministerial level before a recommendation is made. This happens in only the most serious of cases.

Following the meeting, Claire and her elder sister Lauren Holmes said: “We’d like to extend huge thanks to Lee Barron for arranging our latest meeting. We’d also like to say thanks to Nik and Gordon for taking the time to listen to our concerns and for the steps they are taking going forward.

"We feel our concerns were met with sincere understanding and support. While we live and breathe we will do everything in our power to make sure he doesn’t harm another person.

"We hope that the parole board decides to hold this hearing in public so that other people can learn the reasons why these decisions are made.”

Mr Barron said: “It was a positive meeting and I’m really pleased that Claire was able to be here in Westminster.

"The family have relentlessly campaigned for justice and I’m happy to be able to aid that campaign in any way I can.”

Back in 2021 this newspaper successfully campaigned to get Stein on the sex offenders’ register. He had never been subject to the requirements of the register because when he was convicted in the 1908s, the rape count was allowed to lie on file to spare Collette’s mum from having to hear the details of what he had done to her daughter. This meant he was not a registered sex offender.

Corby reporter Kate Cronin said: “This kind of campaigning shouldn’t be necessary. The justice system should be transparent and Collette’s family shouldn’t have to keep fighting for very basic information to be made public.

"I hope that the parole board will listen very carefully to the genuine submissions that we have made. They are not rooted in revenge, but rather in a will to protect women and girls from Adam Stein.

“We can’t report a lot of what we know about him but we know he is a monster.

“Collette’s family know that their local newspaper will always stand by their side and will do anything we can to support them.”