WATCH: Victim's family recall murderer Victor Farrant's fury and say he could kill again if freed

Iain, Katie and David Hoskins have been relentlessly campaigning to keep serial female-attacker Victor Farrant, now 74, behind bars for the rest of his life after he murdered their 45-year-old mother Glenda Hoskins at her Port Solent home on February 7, 1996.

Farrant, 46 at the time of the murder, was given a whole life term for the “ruthless, callous and evil act” in Sennen Place and told by judge Mr Justice Butterfield at the 1998 sentence: “You will never be released.”

But as revealed in The News on Wednesday last week, North End-killer Farrant could be set for an early release due to having terminal cancer. A “bolt from the blue” email from the Probation Service to the victim’s family two weeks ago asked what areas they would want Farrant excluded from in the event he was released - suggesting the wheels were in motion for him to be let out of prison and is well enough to move around. 

The Ministry of Justice played down the possible release and said prisoners are “only released on compassionate grounds in exceptional circumstances following strict risk assessments and no formal application has yet been made in this case”.

But serious concerns persist that Farrant will be let out to roam the streets - with Mrs Hoskins’ “petrified” children saying he has “nothing to lose”. A week of intensive campaigning has only strengthened their resolve that he should die in jail as the public has rallied round to support the “unanimous” view Farrant should never be released.

In the follow-up interview with The News after a whirlwind week, Iain, 47, said: “Our mother’s murder was planned, he didn’t just temporarily lose control of his mind. It was cold and calculated. Even the court trial that we lived through was hard for us to deal with because we all assumed he would be pleading guilty because the evidence was overwhelming. But he decided not to and the accusations and things he said in court were really hard for us to hear because they were lies. 

“The defence he mounted was horrific and he could have made it way easier for us so we decided to go eyeball to eyeball with him on the day of the sentencing because we wanted to see the look in his eyes. There was no remorse. He was frustrated and he hit the side of the box (dock) he was in with his handcuffs and he seemed genuinely annoyed he got that sentence. I don’t think he has any remorse. 

“I’ve got nothing to say to him but I’ve got plenty to say to the people petitioning for his release or think he should be released.”

Prior to the killing, Farrant was jailed for 12 years in 1988 for raping a woman and causing her grievous bodily harm as well as attacking another female with a bread knife. He met Mrs Hoskins on day release from prison in 1993, two years before his release from behind bars in 1995. 

Just a month after his release on December 27, 1995, Farrant went to visit sex-worker Ann Fidler in Eastleigh before attacking her with bottles and an iron. The attack was so ferocious she was left with partial brain damage and no memory of the incident. She needed a blood transfusion and was in a coma for over two weeks with doctors saying she was lucky to be alive. Farrant was handed an 18-year term for the attempted murder of Mrs Fidler on top of the whole life sentence for Mrs Hoskins’ murder.

Katie said the “serial” nature of Farrant’s offending makes him “dangerous”. She said: “The other attack he carried out on Ann six weeks earlier was horrific and people remember the extent of her injuries - which are lifelong - to this day. It was a massively violent attack. The fact he was tried for those two attacks together meant no one could think it was a crime of passion or a spur of the moment thing. You could see a true line of serial offending.”

Farrant’s deceptive personality traits were also exposed when he went on the run sparking a Europe-wide manhunt in which he evaded capture for five months and was Britain’s most wanted fugitive. Iain said: “People thought he was just a regular guy running a backpackers hostel (in France). There were pictures that surfaced at the time of him and other people having drinks. It was chilling really and (killing) is something that could quite easily happen again if he’s released.

“If he is released and he starts a normal life it’s not like he’s going to go round with a sign on his head saying he’s a killer and a rapist…people will just take him at his word. He’s a very persuasive person and it’s been seen over the years he is a master manipulator.”

And this is among the reasons why Katie said she would not waste her time trying to send a message to Farrant. She said: “There’s nothing I’d want to say to him. I’ve never thought about wanting a confrontation because there’s nothing he could say…there’s no apology or justification. He doesn’t have the usual human feelings of remorse or empathy so I know that anything I’d say to him would not have any kind of impact.” 

A public protection meeting is scheduled to take place over the next few days which could decide whether Farrant is released. But due to his ill health, Farrant will not even be subject to the usual parole hearing to determine whether his release is safe, the family have said.

Iain and Katie revealed they struggled to take in the Probation Service’s email about the possible release. “The email was very much (saying): ‘This is happening.’ We were just super-shocked. I gasped and screamed when I saw it. Then the three of us connected and thought, ‘what can we do?’,” Katie said.

But Iain said they remain in the dark over what is happening behind the scenes and who is pushing for Farrant to be released. “We don’t really know what the process is behind all of this. We’ve been given a vague timeline of how this might happen. We’ve got no experience of how the justice system works. We’re just trying to do our best to raise awareness,” he said.

“The public outcry has been pretty unanimous. I don’t think anybody has said he should be released or this is a good idea. The feedback we’ve had is that this would be a miscarriage of justice but there’s the wider issue where dangerous criminals don’t fulfil their whole prison terms which is worrying for everyone.”

Portsmouth North MP and leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt has joined the chorus of those insisting Farrant should remain behind bars until he dies and is supporting the family. The family have been writing to their MPs and to home secretary James Cleverly and justice secretary Alex Chalk expressing their objections to Farrant’s release. The Ministry of Justice said there had been no formal application for Farrant to be released at this stage and any final decision would rest with the secretary of state.