Jane Clough suffered multiple stab wounds in the attack outside Blackpool Victoria Hospital The parents of a nurse killed by her ex-boyfriend while he was on bail for alleged rape have called for the judge who freed him to be investigated.
Jane Clough was stabbed 71 times by Jonathan Vass, several months after he was charged with raping her nine times.
John and Penny Clough said Judge Simon Newell could have prevented the 26-year-old’s death if he had remanded the former ambulance driver in custody.
“Judge Simon is responsible for our daughter’s death,” said Mrs Clough.
Vass was jailed last month for life with the judge recommending that he serve at least 30 years.
The couple claimed on BBC Radio 5 live’s Victoria Derbyshire programme that the judge had “ignored” police and prosecution objections.
Mrs Clough said: “He had the power as a judge to remand Vass in custody and keep Jane safe.
“We can’t afford as a society to let other women be in a position of risk by people who are free on bail.”
Vass was accused of raping Jane Clough when she was heavily pregnant with their child.
Vass pleaded guilty to murder on 7 October The nurse kept a diary chronicling her fears that Vass would attack her.
“I’m worried John is going to do something stupid like try and find me,” she wrote.
“Time’s running out for him. I think he’s been relying on me dropping charges and will now be realising that I’m not going to and couldn’t now even if I want to.
“What plan is he hatching? I don’t believe he will just sit back and let a jury find him guilty.
“He’s not going to let them send him back to prison and I can’t help thinking he will get his revenge on me.”
Mrs Clough said when she first read the diary, “we saw her fear, as parents. It sort of brought it all back, what she’d gone through”.
After the trial The Office for Judicial Communications said the judge had acted within the law.
The Office for Judicial Communications said the judge in the rape case had decided on bail “within the statutory framework provided by Parliament in the Bail Act 1976 (as amended).”
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