Lynette White murderer ‘may soon be released’

Martin Shipton

The man who murdered Cardiff sex worker Lynette White in a case that led to Wales’ most notorious miscarriage of justice could soon be released from prison, we can reveal.

Two years ago it emerged that Jeffrey Gafoor had been allowed days out of jail in preparation for his eventual release. But his application to be set free immediately was rejected.

Now it has been confirmed that the Parole Board will consider his latest application to be set free on October 3.

Lynette, 20, was stabbed more than 60 times at her flat in the city’s dockland district of Butetown on Valentine’s Day 1988.

Police issued a photofit of a white man as the main suspect, but three black men – Tony Paris, Yusef Abdullahi and Stephen Miller – were wrongly found guilty of the murder. Their convictions were later quashed by the Court of Appeal. Eventually, after advances in DNA technology, Gafoor, a white security guard, was convicted of the murder in 2004 and jailed for life.

The sentencing judge said that he should serve a minimum of 13 years before being considered for parole. In December 2022 the Parole Board considered for the fifth time whether he should be set free. A report to the Ministry of Justice confirmed that Gafoor “had successfully undertaken temporary releases from prison”.

Psychological assessments

The report said the Parole Board panel could only direct release if it was satisfied that it was no longer necessary for the protection of the public that Gafoor remained confined in prison.

It added: ”[The] panel considered the contents of Mr Gafoor’s dossier, prepared by the Secretary of State [for Justice]. This included up-to-date reports from Mr Gafoor’s probation officer based in the community and other documentation from the establishment, including psychological assessments.

“The panel had the benefit of a victim’s personal statement. The panel considered very carefully the impact and consequences of Mr Gafoor’s crimes which had been outlined in this statement.”

Risk factors from the time of the offence included problems with self-control and the management of intense emotions leading to extreme violence and the use of weapons.

The report stated: “Mr Gafoor could ruminate and act out of a sense of grievance, not understanding the harm that his actions caused to the victim. He had also misused alcohol. His difficulties in maintaining relationships meant he experienced social isolation.

“He had previously participated in accredited programmes to address his offending risks and had worked one-to-one with prison psychological services. He had graduated to open conditions where he had successfully undertaken temporary releases from prison.

“Mr Gafoor’s custodial conduct continued to cause no concerns. Since his last parole review, Mr Gafoor had been relocated to another open prison. He was reported to have progressed and to have coped well with this development and with a change of probation officers supervising his case.

“Though Mr Gafoor’s probation officer and other key report writers suggested remaining in open conditions would provide the measured pace needed to prepare him for safe release, the panel examined an outline release plan and weighed this against assessed risks.

“The plan included a requirement to reside in designated accommodation as well as strict limitations on Mr Gafoor’s contacts, movements and activities, but the panel concluded these plans were not robust enough to manage Mr Gafoor in the community at this stage.

“After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and other evidence presented in the dossier, the panel was not satisfied that Mr Gafoor was suitable for release.

“However, on considering the criteria for recommending placement in open conditions, the panel recommended that Mr Gafoor should remain in this location.”

‘Extreme violence’

Mr Gafoor’s sixth application for release may, however, have a different outcome, according to an expert on the case.

Author Satish Sekar, who has written two books on the Lynette White murder and who campaigned for years for further DNA tests to be carried out on material from the crime scene, told Nation.Cymru: “Extreme violence was used in the murder and a further aggravating factor was Gafoor’s willingness to see innocent people be sent to prison for his crime.

“The case has been handled very badly by the judicial system from the outset. It is shocking that Gafoor’s ‘tariff’ of 13 years is below that of two of the men who were wrongly convicted.

“The Parole Board has to consider whether it is safe to release Gafoor. They will look at his behaviour when he has been on day release. But before they make their decision, they should be asking the right questions. Gafoor hasn’t offered a satisfactory explanation for why he killed Lynette in such a frenzied attack, stabbing her 20 times in the breast, for example. He has claimed he can’t remember doing so. That simply isn’t credible, especially given that he has no history of psychiatric illness, before or since the murder. If he’s not prepared to tell the truth about why he killed her, how can he be trusted about anything else, and released?

“Because of the great public interest in the case, the Ministry of Justice should also use its discretion to allow the Parole Board hearing to be held in public.”