Murderer Glyn Razzell is set to face a public parole hearing – despite never reavling where he hid his wife’s body.
The now 63-year-old was found guilty of murdering his estranged wife Linda in 2003. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Razzell was one of the first prisoners to be affected by Helen’s Law. The change in legislation was designed to make it harder for murderers to apply for parole if they refuse to reveal where they hid their victim’s body.
Mother-of-four Mrs Razzell disappeared on her way to work at Swindon College in Wiltshire in March 2002 and no trace of her body has ever been found.
Her husband was convicted based on bloodstains found in the boot of the car he drove the day of her disappearance but he has always maintained his innocence and even helped take part in appeals for her to go home. In October 2021, he was refused parole under the Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act 2020, which was dubbed Helen’s Law after insurance clerk Helen McCourt, who vanished on her way home from work in 1988.
Razzell has remained in an open prison, which is where the hearing will be held on Thursday, with a live stream to a public gallery at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. He opposed requests for a public hearing but the victim’s family’s wishes for proceedings not to be held in private were granted.
Razzell is set to join wife killer Russell Causley and notorious prisoner Charles Bronson as one of the first inmates in UK legal history to have their case heard in public after rules were changed last year in a bid to remove the secrecy around the proces.
The Parole Board said it received a number of representations over why the case should be heard in public – including that Razzell is one of the few prisoners to fall under Helen’s Law and the high level of public interest in the matter.
Razzell and his wife were embroiled in divorce proceedings when she went missing. His trial was told he faced a financial settlement he was not prepared to accept.
The court also heard how Mrs Razzell left her home in the village of Highworth, near Swindon, at 8.45am on March 19 with her children and boyfriend Greg Worrall. She dropped off her boyfriend in Highworth and her children at school before being seen parking for work in Alvescot Road, as usual.
She is believed to have taken her usual route down an alleyway towards the college and her phone was found in a recess of the alleyway the next day during a police search. Her boyfriend contacted police on the evening of her disappearance after she failed to pick up her children from their after-school club.
