Decision to release murderer won’t be reviewed
family photosThe decision to release a man who brutally murdered a young woman in a Cardiff apartment will not be reviewed, the Ministry of Justice has said.
Jeffrey Gafoor, 59, is set to be released on parole after a failed attempt to reverse a decision to free him.
On Valentine’s Day 1988, Ghafoor stabbed Lynette White more than 50 times in the city’s Docklands.
The Ministry of Justice said: “Regrettably, after comprehensive consideration, we found that the Lord Chancellor had no legal basis to ask the Independent Parole Board to reconsider its decision to release Geoffrey Ghafoor.”
Ghafoor was granted parole at his sixth parole board hearing in October.
He has been held in an open prison since 2020 and was granted day release in January 2023.
John Atty, one of five men wrongly accused of murder in one of Britain’s biggest miscarriages of justice, has instructed a lawyer to challenge the parole board’s decision.
He said: “I expected it, it’s not a shock. I did my best. They were always going to let him out. Nothing can shock me anymore.”
In 2003, advances in DNA technology linked Ghafoor to the murder, and Ghafoor later confessed to the murder.
He was sentenced to life in prison but was told he would have to serve 13 years before being considered for parole. He has currently served 21 years in prison.
Lynette White was a sex worker who was stabbed more than 50 times on February 14, 1988, in an apartment above a bookmaker.
An initial investigation into her death led to one of Britain’s longest-ever criminal trials, in which three men were subsequently wrongly convicted.
media walesIn 2011, a failed trial on police corruption charges resulted in the acquittal of eight former officers who denied the charges.
In 2021, then-South Wales Police Chief Constable Matt Jukes said members of the Cardiff Five who were originally charged with murder should be brought to justice. identified as a victim.
A spokesman for the Department of Justice said: “Our thoughts are with Lynette White’s family and friends as they come to terms with this difficult news.”
He added that Ghafoor would be subject to strict license conditions and strict supervision upon release, and would risk returning to prison if he breached the rules.
