A pilot who killed his estranged wife is set to serve his full 26-year sentence after the UK Parole Board refused his release.
Joanna Simpson, 46, who grew up in the Isle of Man, was brutally killed by her husband Robert Brown in October 2010 while their two young children were in a nearby room.
Brown hid her body in the boot of his car before ripping out CCTV and telephone cables at the family home.
He then drove the children to his pregnant girlfriend’s house before dumping Joanna’s body in a grave he had spent months digging in Windsor Great Park.
At his trial back in 2011, former British Airways pilot Brown was acquitted of murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The jury accepted the defence case that Brown had suffered from ‘adjustment disorder’, a temporary mental illness which he blamed for the attack.
He was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 26 years.
Following a campaign led by Joanna’s mother Diana Parkes CBE and other family and friends, Brown’s automatic release, due in November 2023, was blocked after he was deemed unsafe for release.
Last month, he made another bid for freedom at a Parole Board hearing. However, the panel again ruled he was not safe to be released into the community.
He will now remain in prison unless the Parole Board later decides he is safe for release or until he completes his sentence.
Diana, who lives on the Isle of Man, said: ‘I am incredibly relieved the Parole Board have decided not to release Robert Brown.
‘We have all lived with the fear that this might not be the case but thank goodness it was unanimously agreed he should not be released.
‘My daughter would have been 62 last Wednesday and, of course, we remember her as the beautiful and vivacious woman she was at 46.
‘Her children have grown to be the most wonderful young people. They have been my salvation over the years and I feel sure I have been theirs.
‘How I wished I could have told Jo, as life has continued without her, about the events that have happened in their lives.’
Diana launched the Joanna Simpson Foundation and her campaigning led to the UK Government introducing mandatory restriction zones for offenders amid fears Brown could return to the Isle of Man.
The measures were introduced to help protect victims’ families from intimidation or unwanted contact following the release of dangerous offenders.
She said: ‘I am profoundly relieved by the Parole Board’s decision. This outcome is not accidental. It is the result of our preparedness to campaign, the extraordinary support of the public and the media, the willingness of politicians to listen.
‘We now need to ensure that rigorous, risk‑based sentencing is applied at all times, and that public protection is a shared responsibility for everyone working with dangerous offenders.’