A cross-dressing serial rapist who one victim pleaded “must never be released” is set to walk free from jail in the coming weeks. A Parole Board panel has directed that sex predator Alan Blackwell should be freed, despite hearing chilling details about his sickening behaviour and attitudes to violence and sex.
Blackwell, who dressed as a woman to commit offences, was jailed for life in 2004 after being convicted of three horrific sex crimes carried out years apart against young victims. He got away with two of the twisted and terrifying attacks for years before cold case detectives were able to link him to the offences through DNA. The pensioner paedophile has previously applied for parole five times since his minimum jail term came to an end in March 2014. But each attempt was blocked after the Parole Board heard of risk factors that made it more likely he would offend again. However, at a hearing earlier last month, panel members decided he should be freed.
The board’s decision has been eligible for reconsideration by the Justice Secretary; however, no application was made, and Blackwell, now aged 76, will be freed in the coming weeks.
A Parole Board spokesman said: “We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board has directed the release of Alan Blackwell following an oral hearing. Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community. A panel will carefully examine a huge range of evidence, including details of the original crime, and any evidence of behaviour change, as well as explore the harm done and the impact the crime has had on the victims.
“Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.”
In 1994, Blackwell subjected a 19-year-old woman to a terrifying ordeal when he targeted her in South Shields. The victim was walking home when she suddenly felt someone grab her from behind. She was dragged down an embankment by the man, who then started ripping her clothes off.
Blackwell attempted to rape the woman before disappearing into the night. She made her way to a nearby phone box, where a taxi driver found her sobbing and took her home to her mother’s house. The woman contacted police straight away, and a manhunt was launched for her attacker. But Blackwell appeared to have got away with his horrendous crime until he was arrested after carrying out another attack several years later.
The sex monster was jailed for 14 years for raping a schoolgirl in a secret lair he had built in the undergrowth in Washington. Blackwell bound and gagged the 12-year-old and wore women’s clothes during the nightmare attack in 1997.
Officers from Northumbria Police’s Operation Phoenix cold case team looked again at the attack in South Shields, they were able to use advances in DNA testing techniques to link Blackwell to the crime.
Blackwell, then 48, and formerly of Jarrow, was jailed for life with a minimum of nine years and 10 months in 2004. Then two years later, he was back in court after being linked to the rape of a 15-year-old girl in July 1989. She was attacked as she camped with two friends on the grassland in Jarrow.
He crept into their tent, once again wearing women’s clothing, and held a knife to the victim’s throat, threatening to kill all three teenagers. Blackwell was handed a second life sentence for this attack and told he must serve eight years before being considered for parole.
The parole panel identified a series of risk factors that might make it more likely that Blackwell would re-offend. They said that at the time of his offending, the risk factors had included “Blackwell finding children sexually attractive, thinking it is okay to sexually abuse children, preferring sex to include violence, thinking about sex a lot and thinking he had the right to have sex as and when he wanted.”
However, the panel also heard evidence of the progress he had made in prison.
A summary of the hearing says: “He had undertaken a large number of accredited programmes to address sexual offending, decision making and better ways of thinking. He had also engaged in significant work to make sure he remembered all the work he had previously done and that he was still using all the skills and strategies he had learned. He had been in open conditions and completed a number of releases on temporary licence.”
The woman Blackwell attacked in South Shields previously told of her fear at the thought of him being freed.
The mum said: “When he got the life sentence, I thought it meant life. This man should never be released.”