'Britain's youngest female double murderer' approved for open prison move

A woman believed to be Britain's youngest female double murderer should be moved to an open prison, the Parole Board has said.

But a panel blocked the release of Lorraine Thorpe, now 31, who was jailed for at least 14 years in 2010.

She was just 15 when she killed her father, Desmond Thorpe, 43, and Rosalyn Hunt within two weeks in August 2009.

Her accomplice Paul Clarke, then 41, was sentenced to a 27-year minimum term and died in prison four years later.

The pair, who were both from Ipswich, Suffolk, beat and tortured Ms Hunt over several days before smothering Mr Thorpe, and their bodies were found in separate flats.

Sentencing Thorpe at the Old Bailey, the judge Mr Justice Saunders said she could be "manipulative", and was not acting entirely under Clarke's control.

"She found violence funny and entertaining," he said.

"Far from being sorry, Lorraine appears to have gloried in it, describing to her friends at one stage how she stamped on Rosalyn's head."

But he described Thorpe's situation as "appalling" as she had been living with her father in squalid flats, and spending her time with middle-aged alcoholics, and was left with "no real understanding of what is right and what is wrong".

She and Clarke denied the charges, did not give evidence in their trial, and lost an appeal against their convictions for Mr Thorpe's murder in 2011.

Thorpe, who has accepted the first murder, but still claims her father died of natural causes, was previously refused parole in 2023.

Her case was considered again earlier this month but she was refused parole for the second time after agreeing she did not meet the test for release.

But the Parole Board panel recommended she should be moved to an open prison.

In a summary of the decision, they said: "Ms Thorpe has spent all her adult life to date in custody.

"She has little experience of independent pro-social living. The panel considered that her ability to cope with transition and the stressors in her life will be a key component of any future resettlement.

"Noting this, the panel considered it to be premature to be finalising any plans for longer term risk management. It considered that Ms Thorpe first needed to be tested in less restrictive prison conditions."

Thorpe is thought to be Britain's youngest double murderer, while Sharon Carr is believed to be the youngest British girl to have committed murder.

She was 12 when she fatally stabbed and mutilated stranger Katie Rackliff, 18, after she left a nightclub in Camberley, Surrey, in 1992, but she wasn't convicted for another five years.

Mary Bell was 11 when she was sentenced to life detention in 1968 after being found guilty of manslaughter for fatally strangling two boys, aged four and three. She was aged just 10 at the time she killed her first victim.

(c) Sky News 2026: 'Britain's youngest female double murderer' approved for open prison move