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Triple killer could be free in four years

27/ 2/2008

A drunken killer who helped torch a house causing the deaths of a woman and two children could be freed on parole in 2012 following a top judge’s ruling this week.

Stephen James Daniels, 29, of Hope Street, Dukinfield was 19 in June 1997 when he and pal, Marc Lee Williams poured petrol through the letterbox of a neighbour and set fire to it following a row.

The neighbour, Linda Howells and her five-year-old son Otis and her handicapped two-year-old daughter, Victoria, were all killed in the blaze at Hope Street, Dukinfield.

Both men were convicted of three counts of murder and one of arson and jailed for life at Manchester Crown Court in 1998. Mr Justice Jack, sitting at London’s Royal Courts of Justice, has set the tariff — the amount of time Daniels must spend behind bars before he can apply for parole — at 15 years.

The court heard how Daniels and Williams clashed with their neighbour following an all-day drinking session.

"They walked some considerable distance to a garage to fill a can with petrol, returned to Hope Street, and petrol was poured through the letterbox and ignited," the judge said.

As well as the three deaths, a three-year-old girl survived but was left with permanently damaged lungs by the fire, the judge added.

The court heard at the time that Mrs Howells and her children were not the real targets for the attack — Daniels and Williams had been angered after being chased from Mrs Howells’ home earlier by a gang of men.

The minimum term on Williams’ sentence had been set at 20 years, but Mr Justice Jack ruled that Daniels should not have to wait that long before having the chance of freedom.

"Williams undoubtedly was the prime mover and Daniels went along with him to the garage at that time of night and must have known the reason for the purchase of the petrol," the judge said.

When time spent on remand is taken into account, the judge’s decision means that Daniels can ask the parole board to free him as early as May 2012.

However, he will only be released if he can convince the board he poses no serious danger to the public.

When freed, he will remain on perpetual life licence, subject to recall to prison should he put a foot wrong again.