First murderer jailed after changes to double jeopardy law says he would have killed again had victim's mother not spearheaded campaign which became ITV drama

The first murderer to be jailed after changes to the 800-year-old double jeopardy law spearheaded by his victim’s mother has said he would have killed again had she not pursued her campaign for justice.

William Dunlop, known as Billy, on Wednesday started his fourth application with the Parole Board to move him to an open prison and consider his release.

Dunlop, now 63, strangled Julie Hogg in her home in Billingham, Co Durham, in 1989 and hid her mutilated body behind a bath panel.

Miss Hogg’s mother, Ann Ming, discovered her body there more than two months after her death.

Dunlop had subjected the 22-year-old pizza delivery woman, who had a three-year-old son, Kevin, at the time, to a violent sexual assault after she rejected him when he left a rugby party.

Prosecutors called it a ‘premeditated and truly horrendous’ attack.

Dunlop was charged with her murder but two juries failed to reach a verdict in 1991 and he was then formally acquitted.

In 1998, he was jailed for seven years for inflicting grievous bodily harm on a new partner.

While serving that sentence, he confided in a prison guard that he had indeed killed Miss Hogg and later admitted lying in his earlier trial – receiving a six-year sentence.

Dunlop believed nothing could be done in relation to the murder because of the double jeopardy law in place at the time, which stopped a person being tried twice for the same offence following an acquittal.

But following a 15-year campaign led by Mrs Ming to change the legislation, in 2006 he became the first person to be tried under the new rules following his confession.

He pleaded guilty to murder and was jailed for life with a minimum term of 17 years.

Mrs Ming’s campaign for changes in the law was made into a four-part ITV drama last year, called I Fought the Law, starring Sheridan Smith.

At his parole hearing yesterday – only the 10th to be held in public – Dunlop admitted he would have killed again or committed serious violence had he not been stopped.

Asked by panel member Zaiada Bibi whether he regretted his confession, he said: ‘No, no, without a doubt, no.’

‘I think I said this at the last parole that I thanked Mrs Ming for doing it because I’ve not hurt anybody else – by me being in prison all this time I’ve not hurt anybody,’ he said.

Asked if he believes he would have gone on to commit another murder or serious violence, he added: ‘I would say yes because that’s what my life was.’

He added that he would not have confessed if the double jeopardy law was not in place.

‘I would have tried to carry on suppressing it,’ he said.

Dunlop appeared via videolink to the International Dispute and Resolution Centre in London from an unnamed prison with his back to the camera, refusing to show his face.

The Parole Board panel of three, headed by retired judge Nicholas Coleman, was meeting him in the prison. 

Dunlop told  the panel he could now ‘get’ the feelings of Miss Hogg’s family as he had recently lost his own son.

On whether he considers himself a risk to the public, he said: ‘No, I’m more frightened of them than they should be of me – I’m more concerned about people finding out where I am and causing me harm… I don’t want to cause anybody any harm.’

A prison psychologist and an independent psychologist have agreed that Dunlop should be released after finding a low risk of violence, increasing to moderate in the community.

Miss Hogg’s son, Kevin, told the hearing: ‘I can say categorically that time isn’t the great healer it’s purported to be.

‘As the years pass, the pain of losing my mother to this murder remains acute.’

The hearing continues.