THE brother of a murderer who killed his 15-year-old niece is continuing his fight to keep the killer behind bars – as the parole board prepares to consider releasing him.

Stuart Campbell, 63, was jailed for life in 2002 for murdering his niece, but is eligible for consideration for parole and could be freed within months. 

The parole board has confirmed it is assessing the case.

Campbell was convicted of the abduction and murder of Danielle Jones, who was last seen near her home in East Tilbury on June 18, 2001.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 20 years before he can be considered for parole and the time has come for the murderer to potentially be released.

The case will be one of the first to go before the parole board since the passing of Helen’s Law, which made it a legal requirement for panels to consider the non-disclosure of the location of bodies.

READ MORE: Stuart Campbell's brother 'furious' at possible release

Campbell’s brother Alix Sharkey told BBC Radio 4's Today Show: “Towards the end of 2019 I was thinking about my life and then of course I started thinking about my brother and I realised I hadn't thought about him for a long time.

“The murderer has never revealed the location of his niece's body, which will be a test for the newly introduced Helen's Law.

“The papers were full of this stuff about Helen's Law and I guess I hadn't really put the two things together, but when I sat and thought about my brother I realised: ‘oh my God, he's planning on keeping his mouth shut, keeping his nose clean, and slipping out of the gates one morning at dawn and just never ever acknowledging what he's done’.”

Echo:

Sharkey has written a book about their upbringing, and hopes it will encourage his brother to “do the right thing”.

Campbell has never confessed to Danielle’s murder and has refused to share where he hid her body.

She was set to catch a bus to St Clere’s School in Stanford-le-Hope, but her parents never saw her again.

Mr Sharkey, 64, now living in Barbados, penned the book to chronicle the violent childhood and troubled teens that shaped Campbell into a killer.

Speaking to the Sunday Times Magazine, Mr Sharkey said: “I hope it will shift something in him, to make him understand that you cannot pretend to anyone, including yourself, that this is over, that you can start again.

“You can’t do that. I won’t let you. You have to tell these people what you did with that girl’s body.”

Helen’s Law is named after Helen McCourt, who was murdered in 1988 aged 22, but her killer Ian Simms never revealed the location of her body.

Mr Sharkey said: “I realised with Ian Simms that with the way the law stands you can leave prison without confessing your crime, without expressing remorse for what you did — you can still get out of prison.

“Then I was furious. I was furious with myself for being complacent about the whole thing, and furious with him.”

Despite this, Mr Sharkey still feels Campbell is ashamed of what he did, because he never responded to letters in prison.

He added: “A response means a conversation, a conversation means being confronted with his crime. I guess he can’t handle that.”