Why was killer rapist Leroy Campbell allowed to strike again?
The woman whose au pair was the previous victim of killer rapist Leroy Campbell told today of her shock when she learned he had been allowed to strike again and asked: “Why was this allowed to happen?”
Jane – not her real name – now 48 years old, lost the baby she was expecting and her teaching job after the attack at her home in Merridale, Wolverhampton in February 1999.
She was away for the weekend and the 20-year-old victim was sleeping on the sofa when Campbell broke in through a ground floor bathroom window before dawn.
There was an alleyway alongside the end of terraced house, just like the Mount Pleasant home of 37-year-old nurse Lisa Skidmore who was raped and murdered by him on November 24 last year.
It came just four months after Campbell was released from the life sentence imposed for the attack on the au pair and six weeks after warning his probation officer he felt like raping someone.
The Ministry of Justice have now launched an investigation into the case.
Jane, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, revealed: “Out of the blue, the police came round to see me just before Christmas to say the man had re offended. I was stunned and said ‘Is the victim OK?’ They replied; ‘No, she has been murdered.’ I suddenly felt that I was beginning to lose my grip.
“I had buried all this and suddenly it started to unrave all over again. All the things I had forgotten came racing back into my mind. I could not stop crying for days on end.
“ I didn’t cry in front of other people. My tears were not for myself. They were for Lisa because her death was so unnecessary.
“The court heard on Friday that this man is a paranoid schizophrenic. He had a string of previous convictions, had mental health issues and had been jailed for life for the attack on my au pair. Then a decision was made last July that he was fit to be released into the community. Weeks later he told his probation officer he felt like raping somebody again and four months after being set free he raped and murdered a devoted nurse.
“How can that be allowed to happen? Somebody, somewhere has got a lot to answer for. Questions have got to be asked.”
Jane, who was so distressed by news of Campbell’s latest victim that she needed counselling, has lost touch with the au pair but still has vivid memories of their conversations in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
“It was like a horror movie unfolding in front of me. I saw scratch marks on the door frame and imagined her fingernails making those, whether that was right or not.”
She told how Campbell broke in during the early hours, presumably saw the au pair sleeping on the living room sofa, took a knife from the kitchen, went up stairs to black out her bedroom by hanging a duvet over the window, put on her dressing gown and placed a pair of tights over his head to mask his appearance.
The house was under renovation and two radiators had temporarily taken off the wall.
He used one to block the front door in a bid to prevent her escaping.
The au pair woke to find him sitting beside her asking for money before he admitted this was a ruse and dragged her upstairs where he tried unsuccessfully to rape her but she fought him off.
Afterwards he took her downstairs for a bath to remove anything from her body that might link him to the crime.
The victim was held captive for around 15 minutes until he left her alone long enough for her to escape through the back door and raise the alarm with a neighbour.
Jane said she found the knife in a laundry basket a couple of days after police had completed their forensic search.
She was told there was a possibility Campbell could return to the scene and was given a panic button at the house with which to alert police.
A few weeks later she returned home from work to find the back gate had been ‘kicked in’ and the back door was unlocked.
She said: “I was terrified. I thought he had come back.” In fact the police had burst into the empty house after the panic alarm went off accidentally.
Jane lost the baby she was expecting at five months, two months after the attack and handed in her notice at work, believing the school where she taught had not offered sufficient support during the ordeal.
“I used to just walk round the streets rather than go home in case he came back. I moved house but never felt safe again and probably never will. I slept with a knife under my pillow for years,” she recalled.
Campbell had been jailed for seven years in 1983 for attempting to choke a woman he intended to sexually assault and was sent to prison for 10 years in 1992 for repeatedly raping another woman.
At Wolverhampton Crown Court in 2000 he admitted false imprisonment, burglary and indecently assaulting the au pair.
He was jailed for life on that occasion by Judge Frank Chapman who told him: “You are a danger to womenfolk and have not learned any lessons from your previous sentences.”
Campbell, now 56, of Forest Road, Moseley pleaded guilty to murder, rape, attempted murder and arson when he appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday. He was given a whole life sentence and will never be released.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "This was an appalling crime and our thoughts are with the victims and their family.
“The release of life sentenced prisoners is a matter for the independent Parole Board. Serious further offences like this are rare but each one is taken extremely seriously and investigated fully.
“A full review into this case is under way and we will consider the findings very carefully. Keeping the public safe remains our absolute priority.”
