Ministry of Justice responds to fears notorious Lancashire murderer Stuart Diamond is set for release

Fears a convicted murderer is set to be released from prison have been quashed.

The Blackpool Gazette and Lancashire Post has received calls asking for clarity on the situation surrounding Stuart Diamond, who was imprisoned in 1999 for murdering and disembodying 17-year-old Christopher Hartley, whose head has never been found.

After approaching the Parole Board and the Ministry of Justice, we have been told that Diamond will not be leaving prison any time soon, and that he is very much in the ‘closed estate’. This means that he is in a secure prison, not an open prison.

What was the case?

Stuart Diamond was 21 when he was convicted by a unanimous verdict at Preston Crown Court of killing Christopher Hartley in 1999.

The naked body of the 17-year-old from Burnley was found cut up into three pieces and dumped in a food "swill" bin at the rear of the New Central Hotel in Reads Avenue, Blackpool in December 1997. His head has never been discovered.

Jailing him for life, the judge, Mr Justice Douglas Brown told Diamond that it was clear he was a "very dangerous young man". The judge added that careful consideration would have to be given on whether it would be ever safe to release him.

The judge said: "The jury have convicted you of murder. How you came to meet your vulnerable young victim and how you killed him remains unknown. However, the evidence that you killed him and dismembered his body is quite overwhelming."

The judge said a particularly disturbing feature of the case was that he had killed a man who was a "complete stranger without any apparent motive".