Father tells of his anguish as son's killer will be freed due to a brain tumour

Daily Mail​

8 hours ago

A killer who is seeking early release on compassionate grounds should be left to die in prison, his victim's family have said.
Alan Dewar, 35, has been diagnosed with brain and spinal cancer and is said to have 12 months left to live.
Dewar was jailed in 2008 for stabbing 17-year-old Joshua Mitchell in a random, drug-fuelled attack.
The violent thug had pounced on the teen as he walked home listening to his iPod.
He killed him by stabbing him once through the heart - then stood smoking nearby as his victim lay bleeding in the street.
At the time Dewar said he killed the teenager because 'he was in a bad mood that day' and has never publicly expressed remorse for the attack.
Joshua's father, Andy Mitchell, 58, still lives in the family home in Inverness, just yards from where his son was stabbed.
Speaking after news of Dewar's cancer battle emerged, he told the Daily Mail that his son's killer should never be released.
'He's never showed an ounce of compassion or regret for killing our Joshua, so there's no way he should be given any now,' he said.
'The spot where it happened is just yards from our house and I pass it every time I walk up the road, and if I thought Dewar was out of jail - even for the short time he says he has left, smirking as he has been all along, it would eat me up.
'There would be no justice if the parole board are so weak they let him out early.
'What I think would be justice is that this illness will see him away early, and that should happen inside the four walls of his cell.
'The parole board should take one look at his violent record and will surely see that he's not fit to be out. If he'd shown remorse or behaved in jail, found God or something I could maybe understand him getting out early. But he's a violent menace and should never be released in a million years.'
However, Mr Mitchell, now a self-employed HGV driver, says he has little faith in the parole board making the 'right' decision.
He also pointed to the case of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, who was found guilty of mass murder and imprisoned for life in Scotland.
The Scottish Government released terminally-ill Megrahi on compassionate grounds in 2009, three years before he died of cancer.
Mr Mitchell said: 'You've only got to look at how they released Megrahi when it was said he had cancer and had months to live.
'He lived for another three years. That's the Scottish justice system for you though, if he can get out then I bet Dewar can by spinning the same tale.'
The impact of Joshua's death had a long-lasting impact on his family, with Mr Mitchell saying his late wife Marilyn, who died in 2015, never got over the loss.
He said: 'She died of a broken heart. There was so much anger inside us both, we were having our trauma for breakfast dinner and tea.
'I eventually learned how to deal with it, but Marilyn never did. She even tried to commit suicide once.'
Another tragic aspect is that Joshua's girlfriend was pregnant with their son at the time of his death, meaning he never got to meet the boy, who was born the day after his killer was sentenced.
Mr Mitchell said the prison service wrote to him earlier this year to advise him Dewar's parole hearing was due on September 25, a standard process advising victims of possible release thereafter. He learned later that the killer had cancer.
Dewar's medical issues emerged at Perth Sheriff Court, where he was due to stand trial for stalking two women and making threats against them while serving time at the city's jail.
He denied stalking but admitted making a call to the pair.
Dewar's lawyer told the court he had been given just 12 months to live, after he was diagnosed with a rare form of brain and spinal cancer, called ependymoma, in January.
Originally charged with stalking the two women, he pled guilty to a reduced charge of threatening or abusive behaviour on a single day.
The court heard Dewar, now at HMP Low Moss, will ask to be released 'on compassionate grounds' at a parole hearing on September 25.
Sheriff Mark O'Hanlon told Dewar in view of his condition he would be admonished.
Dewar has now served more than the 13-year punishment element of his sentence for Joshua's murder, having now been behind bars for nearly 18 years due to committing more violent crimes while inside.
He had 32 months added to his sentence in 2010 for attacking a fellow Polmont inmate with a pool cue.
In 2022, he had his sentence extended by another eight months following a brawl in HMP Perth's C Hall.