A dangerous killer who has never explained why he slaughtered his wife and two children is seeking a transfer to an open prison less than two years after being refused.
Diabolical triple murderer Phillip Austin murdered his wife Claire, their children Keiran, Jade, eight and seven, and their two dogs at their family home in Northampton in 2000.
Austin pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2001 to three life terms – with a minimum of 20 years in prison.
In April 2021, the Parole Board recommended that Austin be moved from its current maximum security prison to an open Category D prison.
Evil triple murderer Phillip Austin (left) murdered his wife Claire (right), their children Keiran, Jade, eight and seven, and their two dogs at their family home in Northampton in 2000.
Austin pleaded guilty and was sentenced in 2001 to three life sentences – with a minimum of 20 years in prison (pictured: siblings Keiren and Jade Austin)
But Lord Chancellor Robert Buckland intervened and decided not to allow the transfer. It was Austin’s first parole hearing.
Austin, now 54, will have a second parole appeal next month in February and will ask to be released on license, or at least transferred to an open prison.
A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: ‘A hearing has been scheduled for Phillip Austin’s parole review and is expected to take place in February 2023.
“Parole board decisions focus solely on the risk a prisoner might pose to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.
“A panel will carefully consider a wide range of evidence, including details of the original crime and any evidence of behavior change, as well as explore the harm caused and the impact of the crime on victims.
“Members read and digest hundreds of pages of evidence and reports before an oral hearing.
“Testimony from witnesses, including probation officers, psychiatrists and psychologists, officials supervising the offender in prison, as well as personal statements from the victim are then presented at the hearing.
“The prisoner and the witnesses are then questioned at length during the hearing, which often lasts a whole day or more.
“Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority.
Austin never gave any reason why he committed the triple murder on July 10, 2000 at Standens Barn, Northampton.
He stabbed his 31-year-old wife multiple times before collecting their children and strangling them in bed in one of Britain’s most shocking murders.
The bodies were discovered by Claire’s mother Carole Quinn (left), now 73, and Claire’s stepfather Harry Quinn (right) when they became concerned
Carole begged Austin to face her in jail, but he refused to answer or speak to Ms Quinn or explain why he carried out the murders (pictured: Keiren and Jade Austin)
The bodies were discovered by Claire’s mother, Carole Quinn, now 73, and Claire’s stepfather, Harry Quinn, when they became concerned.
They broke into the family home a week after the murders and found a horrifying scene.
Carole pleaded with Austin to face her in jail but he refused to answer or speak to Mrs. Quinn or explain why he committed the murders.
Speaking to MailOnline in January 2021 ahead of her first parole hearing, she said: ‘In our minds it’s not been 20 years – it happened yesterday. That’s how it’s still fresh.
“I go through this day of discovering the bodies almost every hour and I still have nightmares.
“At first they were so bad I would jump out of bed still asleep, bang myself against the walls, hit my husband Harry and he had to wake me up.
“They were just appalling and I still get them to this day. Austin will never know how much he tortured me.
“Since he killed my family, my husband and I have become different people and it will never be fair.”
Austin, a forklift driver, murdered his family just a month after spending a family vacation overseas.
He married Claire, a nursing assistant in 1993, but seven years later, on the morning of July 10, 2000, he hit her over the head with a mallet and used a bra to strangle her before stabbing her several times and leave the body in the kitchen.
He even used the mallet to beat the family dogs, Dandy and Sooty, to death.
He then collected the children from school, bought them fish and chips, sedated them and strangled them in their beds before fleeing to Blackpool.
Austin, who was 31 at the time, was found in a car in the Lake District a week later before being jailed for 20 years in March 2001 after changing his guilty plea.
Austin, a forklift driver, murdered his family just a month after spending a family vacation overseas. He married Claire (left in the photo with her mother Carol), a nursing assistant in 1993, but seven years later, on the morning of July 10, 2000, he hit her on the head with a mallet and used a bra to strangle her before stabbing her. several times and leaving the body in the kitchen
Ms Quinn spoke of the moment her husband found Claire dead on the kitchen floor and then walked past him in the vain hope of finding his grandchildren alive. She said: “It was the worst time of my life – beyond anyone’s worst nightmare,” she said. “I feel like I find their bodies in my head all day, every day”
Ms Quinn spoke of the moment her husband found Claire dead on the kitchen floor and then walked past him in the vain hope of finding his grandchildren alive.
She said: “It was the worst time of my life – beyond anyone’s worst nightmare,” she said. “I feel like I find their bodies in my head all day, every day.
“Sometimes I think about it and cry in the shower. There are times when I can’t close my eyes without thinking of their tiny bodies left there like bags of trash. What he did was wrong.
Ms Quinn added that she fears Austin will kill again if he is released.
She added: “If he’s released he would be young enough to meet another woman and maybe get married and I’m terrified he’ll do it again.”
“The fact that he is released and that he does this to another family horrifies me. The way he killed my loved ones and left them like they were garbage bags is appalling.
“Who would want him to live next to them?” Who would want him to meet his mother and have his children around him?
“Nobody would, but the reality is that it could happen. And believe me, it will be easier for him to kill again the second time around.
A parole board document released after his first hearing said that at the time of his offenses he had relationship and financial problems, could not control his extreme emotions and had “low self-esteem”.
But he added that he had since taken courses to address his behavior and tests in different prison environments and had “made good progress”.
