Parole officials were warned a freed double killer would strike again before he horrifically murdered a kindly horsewoman – by his first victim’s sister.
Brian Whitelock, 57, was only released from jail in 2019 after serving 18 years of a life sentence behind bars for murder and manslaughter.
On Wednesday, he was convicted of slaying generous retired riding instructor Wendy Buckney, 71, and faces dying behind bars.
So brutal was his assault that a pathologist found her injuries were too many to count.
As Ms Buckney’s family said their lives would ‘never be the same’, the sister of Whitelock’s first victim Nicky Morgan, 27, revealed she told parole officers she would ‘categorically, 100 per cent guarantee that he’ll murder again’.
Mel Huxley said she had objected to Whitelock being freed in 2019 a year after he broke conditions when placed in an open prison, which included drinking and being in an ‘altercation’ with a shop security guard.
Mrs Huxley, 52, said the family had not objected when Whitelock – who battered Mr Morgan with a hammer then started a fire to cover his tracks, killing his own brother Glen, 35 – was initially placed in the open prison at the end of his sentence for murder and manslaughter.
But they became concerned after the incident with the security guard.
When his full release was considered in 2019, she said: ‘My last words to the parole board were that I will categorically, 100 per cent, guarantee that he’ll murder again, and that we will back here. And we were.’
A later review found ‘the likelihood of him committing further harm was assessed as low’ unless he relapsed into alcohol and drug misuse and he was released in November 2019.
Asked for her reaction to hearing Whitelock had killed for a third time, Mrs Huxley added: ‘I thought ‘I told you so’.
On his release, he moved to a house in Clydach, a village north of Swansea, where Ms Buckney, who lived across the road, who would employ him to do odd jobs in her house after telling her sister: ‘Everyone deserves a second chance’.
She would pay him in money or food for tasks such as cutting her lawn or trimming her hedges after saying ‘it was important to keep him busy.’
Whitelock repaid her kindness by brutally murdering her using a knife, table leg, and wooden shelf, as well as sexually assaulting her.
On August 23, 2022, Whitelock, wearing only inside-out boxer shorts and covered in blood, was seen leaving her home by neighbours and told them: ‘I’ve killed Wendy. I don’t know why, she was good to me.’
He denied murder but admitted manslaughter, claiming he was acting out of character due to a brain injury.
Jurors were sent out to deliberate yesterday afternoon following a two-week trial but found him guilty after just 27 minutes.
Speaking after the verdict, Ms Buckney’s sister Ann, accompanied by other family members, said: ‘We are grateful that the truth has been heard. Wendy was a very much loved, sister and aunty whose kindness, laughter, and spirit touched the lives of so many. Our lives will never be the same without her’.
Detective Chief Inspector Matt Davies, of South Wales Police, said ‘defenceless’ Ms Buckney was the victim of a ‘senseless murder’.
Raging Whitelock, who defended himself during his trial, shouted: ‘I hope you all suffer a brain injury’ and ‘I hope you all rot’ to the jury.
Prosecutor Christopher Rees KC said his previous convictions for killing Mr Morgan and his brother in 2001 showed he has a ‘propensity to use explosive and disproportionate violence’ and there were similarities between the crimes.