The refusal of the justice secretary to transfer him to an open jail has been applauded by the family of a mother who was killed by her husband.
Alex Chalk rejected the Parole Board’s suggestion that Phillip Geoffrey Austin be moved to a jail with less security and supervision after he killed his wife Claire and their two small children.
It was reported that Austin, 54, who is currently serving a minimum 20-year sentence for the killings, had made progress in dealing with his “offending behaviour.”
Claire’s mother, Carol Quinn, expressed her horror at the decision earlier this month in an interview with Metro.co.uk.
She has never recovered from the trauma of the murders on July 10, 2000, when she and her husband discovered the bodies of their 31-year-daughter along with their grandchildren Jade, seven, and Keiren, eight.
Austin had been due for release on parole after being given three life sentences for the murders.
The board turned down his request to be released but recommended he be moved to open conditions, generally considered a step towards releasing an offender into the community.
The board made the decision following a hearing in February 2023 where Carol’s son Matthew Golden and his wife Vicky read impact statements.
They travelled from their home in Northamptonshire to HMP Warren Hill in Suffolk where Austin is being held.
The closed, Category C jail has the aim of supporting some of the most serious offenders in England and Wales into open conditions or release into the community.
After the hearing took further evidence on May 16, the board found that Austin had ‘undertaken extensive work, including accredited programmes, to address his offending behaviour’.
Mrs Quinn, from Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire, told Metro.co.uk: ‘When they phoned me to tell me the decision I had to ask the lady to repeat what she said, I couldn’t believe it.
‘It’s such good news, there are now two years until the next hearing where he won’t be able to hurt anyone else, and we hope justice and common sense prevails when the board considers the case again.
‘I’m so grateful for everyone who has supported us. After losing my husband recently, I thought this would be final thing, and he would have been released or been moved to an open prison.
‘As a family we strongly believe that he will murder again. He hasn’t had contact with women to form a relationship in the past 23 years, he’s not had any worries regarding children or handling money.
‘When he comes out he will have to face all of those things and if he forms another relationship, he will kill again.’
Mrs Quinn, 74, had sent a letter to Mr Chalk, pleading with him not to authorise Austin’s application. ‘The day he should be released is the day when my daughter and her children are able to walk out of their graves and continue their lives,’ she has said.
The Parole Board previously recommended that Austin be moved to an open prison after hearing his case in April 2021 — with the application also refused by the Secretary of State at the time.
The latest decision comes too late for Carol’s husband, Harry, who died on April 22 this year having never recovered from the trauma of the murders.
In its decision, the board said: ‘The Parole Board refused the release of Phillip Austin but recommended a move to an open conditions prison following an oral hearing in May 2023.
‘This was a recommendation only and the secretary of state for justice considers the advice before making the final decision on whether a prisoner is suitable for open conditions.’
Austin hit Claire over the head with a mallet before strangling her, stabbing her repeatedly, and leaving her body in the kitchen of their home.
He then used the mallet to batter the poodles, Dandy and Sooty, to death.
Turning his sights on the children, the forklift driver picked them up from school and took them for fish and chips before giving them sleeping medicine and sending them to bed.
He then went from one room to the other and strangled them in their beds.
Carol and Harry, who was Claire’s step-father, rushed to the house in Standens Barn, about 10 miles away from their home, a week later after their grandchildren’s school got in touch to ask why they had been absent with no explanation. They discovered Claire’s body on the kitchen floor before going upstairs and finding the children’s bodies in their beds.
Austin pleaded guilty to the murders and was given three concurrent life sentences with a minimum of 20 years in March 2001.
Under UK law, a life sentence must be imposed for murder, but this can mean the convicted person being released ‘on licence’.
Only whole life orders prevent an offender from ever being released, except in ‘exceptional compassionate circumstances’.
Carol and her niece Sarah Markie have launched a Change.org petition calling for life to mean life, saying that at a relatively young age, Austin should not be allowed to ‘destroy another innocent family’.
The page has attracted almost 15,000 signatures to date.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘Protecting the public is our number one priority which is why we have blocked Phillip Austin’s move to an open prison.’