Perth killer Robbie Smullen is being considered for parole again just four months after his last bid was denied.
The family of stabbing victim Barry Dixon have been contacted by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to make representations against Smullen’s next parole bid.
The killer was last denied parole on October 2, having served just half of his eight-year sentence for culpable homicide.
A month later, despite being turned down by the parole board he was granted temporary release by SPS.
Now Barry’s family have been given a month to tell the parole board again why he should remain in prison.
No date for a decision has been set but will likely not be for many months.
‘They really don’t give victims a break’
Jade Taylor, Barry’s aunt, described a series of events that appeared never-ending.
She told The Courier: “It’s literally just been four months since his parole was denied on October 2.
“Then we had to go through weeks of dealing with the prison service considering his temporary release – which they granted around Barry’s birthday late November.
“Then it’s straight back to parole again.
“They really don’t give victims a break.”
As part of The Courier’s A Voice for Victims campaign, backed by Jade, we have been calling on the Scottish Government to make reforms to the parole system.
One of those is to reconsider violent offenders automatic parole consideration halfway through their sentence and then every year afterwards.
It is our hope that changes can be made to upcoming Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) bill to include parole.
What can have changed in four months?
Jade fears that this time Smullen will be granted parole.
She wonders what could have changed between now and four months ago to put them through this trauma again.
She told The Courier: “It’s appalling and it’s obvious he will be granted parole this time.
“It feels like they just deferred his early release when his parole was denied in October.
“It’s ridiculous to accept that anyone making a decision to release him can really believe anything has changed in the last four months.
“He should be serving his full sentence.”
Smullen was out on three different bail orders when he stabbed Barry to death.
Jade believes the career criminal has been rewarded in the past with fatal consequences.
“He continued to offend,” she told The Courier.
“Continued to hurt people, then went on to stab Barry to death.
“There’s no plausible reason he should be rewarded by having his sentence reduced.”
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