Murderer 'must remain in prison'

Trevor Hamilton, 23, murdered Strabane woman Attracta Harron

The woman raped by Trevor Hamilton before he went on to murder Tyrone pensioner Attracta Harron has said the killer should never get out of jail.

She said when the 23-year-old raped her, he partially strangled her and she believed her life was in danger.

Hamilton served three and a half years for the rape and killed Attracta Harron just months after he was released on probation in 2003.

His victim said she always believed he would kill.

"Why would he have done it to someone innocently coming home from chapel?" she asked.

"How could he have done it? Where were the police - why did this get to happen? Why did he get to wander about for three months?

HAMILTON'S DARK PAST February 2000: Aged 17, Hamilton rapes 29-year-old woman - sent to a young offenders centre for seven years December 2003: Just four months after he is released, Attracta Harron goes missing March 2004: Hamilton charged with Mrs Harron's murder. Days later, Mrs Harron's body found in makeshift grave near Hamilton's home April 2006: Hamilton found guilty of Mrs Harron's murder

"They can't have known about his whereabouts whatsoever, when he was allowed to go - out of the blue - this one day and spot a woman and take her life.

"If it hadn't have been her, it was going to be somebody."

Earlier, Mrs Harron's son called for a full public inquiry into why her killer was not monitored properly by the authorities.

Micheal Harron said his family have a right to know why Hamilton, known to the authorities as a high risk to women, was allowed to remain at large.

'Most closely monitored'

He said it posed serious questions as to what went wrong with the system.

"If it's true that he was the most visited sex offender then there's great failings in the system," Mr Harron said.

"In my opinion there needs to be an inquiry, a public inquiry, to find out what went wrong with the supervision, why he was allowed to continue his very serious sexual crimes and, eventually, why he was allowed to murder my mother."

Hamilton, of Concess Road, Sion Mills, was one of the most closely monitored sex offenders in Northern Ireland.

He was told by a judge on Wednesday that he may serve the longest jail term ever passed in Northern Ireland.

Mrs Harron, 65, was killed in 2003, less than four months after Hamilton had completed a rape sentence.

She was last seen walking home from morning Mass near Murlog in County Donegal in December 2003.

The body of the mother of five was found months later in a makeshift grave near Hamilton's home. She had been battered to death.