A killer who was told he would “never be released” after he kicked a grandma to death has been freed after two years.
Humphrey Burke, 30, was handed an indefinite hospital order at a medium-security site in 2022 for the manslaughter of Lorraine Barwell, a prison van attendant and grandmother, in 2015.
He kicked Ms Barwell, 54, in the head as she escorted the thug to Blackfriars Crown Court – where he was to be sentenced for a claw hammer attack at a Ladbrokes bookies – which caused “catastrophic” brain injuries.
Burke pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility and was imprisoned in a secure ward from which Ms Barwell’s family believed he would never be freed.
But he was walking free just 24 months following his sentence and has been pictured in public, unsupervised.
Pictures published by The Sun showed the killer shopping in Oxford and working out at a packed boxing gym after officials deemed him fit for release in January. Under sentencing guidelines, those held at such units can be considered for release at set times if they show improvement in their mental condition. Burke’s release would have been approved by a clinician.
Burke managed to avoid a full jury and murder charges during his trial phase thanks to his plea of diminished responsibility, but Ms Burke’s family was convinced he would not be freed.
Courts found he was fit to plead his case following treatment at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital for paranoid schizophrenia, which led the killer to believe he was a robot who was “forced” to kill Ms Barwell by an “outside agency who controls his behaviour as a robot”.
Consultant forensic psychiatrist Martin Lock said Burke was “annoyed I did not accept that he wasn’t a robot”.
Speaking to the court, Ms Barwell’s daughter said his sentence would “never be enough” to compensate for her loss.
She said: “As a family, no sentence will ever be enough to compensate the loss we have suffered.
“He still took a life. He does not – and should not – be allowed to forget that as we never will.”
Burke received the same sentence as schizophrenic Nottingham attacker Valdo Calocane, who also pleaded guilty to manslaughter after he murdered 19-year-old students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley Kumar, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, on June 13, 2023.
Victims’ family members fear that Calocane’s manslaughter charge could mean that, like Burke, he will eventually be released.
Emma Webber, the mother of Barnaby, said on behalf of the families that the plea “put the fear of God into us” and that the killer “should never, never be let out”.
A spokesman for Oxford Health mental care trust told The Sun said: “Due to patient confidentiality, we do not comment on, or confirm the identities of those in our care. However, we can say that if a person is being cared for by us as a result of a placement into mental health services rather than a prison sentence, part of their therapeutic time may well be spent in the community as opposed to being on a ward all the time.”
Express.co.uk has also contacted the Oxford Health mental care trust for comment.
