3rd December 2016

Twenty one years ago, then prostitute Jan Yorke killed lover’s estranged wife in what a detective who investigated the case described as “the most premeditated homicide I ever worked on”. It was only by a miracle that Yorke and her lover Mark Goodwin did not also cause the death of a second woman, who was not supposed to survive the staged car crash that killed Goodwin’s wife.

Now Yorke has been released, despite the Parole Board finding that she remains a medium to high risk of reoffending in the community.

“The sentence the Court hands down for murder is life imprisonment” said Sensible Sentencing Trust founder Garth McVicar.

“While everyone knows that ‘life’ means nothing of the sort, and that killers are almost always paroled, how can it be that this woman has been released when, after more than 20 years in jail, she is still seen as a significant risk to the wider community?” McVicar said.

“As those on the left like to say, this is surely wrong on so many levels. Firstly it makes a mockery of both the sentence and the Parole Act. Prisoners are supposed to be released only when they are no longer a danger to society. Secondly, it erodes confidence in the Parole Board: they are literally society’s gate keepers; we entrust to them the job of deciding whether murderers are safe to be let back among us. Thirdly, it is an insult to the victim’s loved ones. They are the ones serving a whole of life sentence; while Jan Yorke walks free, and can get on with her life, their daughter has no life. Yorke took it from her in the most callous way, something the family has to live with for the rest of their lives” said McVicar.

“We cannot make Jan Yorke and others like her remorseful for their brutal behaviour, or rehabilitate her if she does not want to be rehabilitated. Society is entitled to extract retribution from Ms. Yorke for her grievous wrong. We should also be able to be comfortable that killers like her are not released while they remain dangerous. In this case the Parole Board hasn’t done its job, and in the process let us all down – and quite possibly created another victim, if its pessimistic assessment of Yorke is correct” ENDS
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/87159774/Taranaki-killer-prostitute-Jan-Yorke-freed-from-prison-after-20-years-behind-bars

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