The mother of a young Irishwoman murdered by her British ex-boyfriend has spoken of her outrage after being told he will be freed just over halfway through his 19-year prison sentence.
Alan Daulby, 35, was convicted of stabbing 20-year-old Avril Flanagan more than 50 times with a kitchen knife at his Costa Blanca flat in 2009.
The car valet, from Liverpool, used a mop and bleach to wipe up her blood, showered and changed clothes and tried to stuff her mutilated body into a suitcase before leaving it under his sofa for her loved ones to discover.
He had wrapped her body in an old duvet and plastic sheeting and taped her up from head to toe before going on the run.
Anguished mother Barbara Flanagan’s only partial consolation was her belief the monster who killed Avril would remain behind bars for nearly two decades.
But on Tuesday – three days before the 11th anniversary of Avril’s murder on May 29- she revealed how she had been left feeling ‘sickened and cheated’ after being told the killer was being released from prison early on licence.
Alan Daulby (left), 35, was convicted of stabbing 20-year-old Avril Flanagan (right) to death with a kitchen knife at his Costa Blanca flat in 2009. He is set to be released on licence
Anguished mother Barbara Flanagan (pictured with Avril’s father Gerry) has written to the Home Office to express her anguish at Daulby’s impending release from prison
Ms Flanagan, who divides her time between Spain and Swords, near Dublin, also told how she only found out by chance last year Daulby had been transferred from a Costa Blanca prison where he began his murder sentence in July 2012 to a UK jail.
She said: ‘I’ve been told by a liaison officer in England that the law stipulates he serves half his sentence in prison and the other half in the community on licence and the jail sentence imposed in Spain cannot be increased.
‘I only found out through a friend in March last year that he had been transferred to a UK prison around a year earlier.
‘It was news to me and Avril’s dad Gerry. We were shocked and angered we weren’t consulted or informed.
‘Finding out a man who’s done such awful things to another human being is going to be back on the streets in October, sickens and outrages me whatever the law says.
‘It’s wrong. He’s still a young man and I definitely believe he still poses a danger to others.
‘I’m speaking out now because I want people to know what sort of man is going to be let out into the community and I am Avril’s voice.’
The former receptionist, whose ex-husband Gerry still lives on the Costa Blanca with one of their two sons, has written an emotionally charged letter to the UK Home Office ‘on behalf of Avril’ criticising Daulby’s release and trying to get it reversed.
The time he spent in prison on remand has been taken into account, meaning he will have served just over 11 years of his sentence by the time he is released.
However, he will be let out just eight years after he was tried and convicted at a court in Elche near Alicante.
Barbara Flanagan moved to Spain with former bus engineer husband Gerry and their children in 2006 to open a pub in Orihuela Costa near Alicante where Avril worked as a barmaid.
The car valet, from Liverpool, used a mop and bleach to wipe up her blood, showered and changed clothes and tried to stuff her mutilated body into a suitcase before leaving it under his sofa for her loved ones to discover
The young woman broke up with Daulby around two weeks before he murdered her.
His murder trial heard how he stalked her after she ended their year-long relationship and she broke her phone SIM card to stop taking calls from him.
He confessed to killing her at the end of his trial after more than three years of silence, but falsely claimed he had confused her with an intruder after binging on drink and drugs and panicking when he woke up to find her dead.
Judges called his attack on Avril ‘brutal and barbaric.’
In her letter, Ms Flanagan details how she and her daughter were due to head back to Ireland for a family party the day of her death.
‘My son and I went in search of her and we found her in Alan Daulby’s apartment,’ she wrote.
‘She had been murdered, he had stabbed her over 50 times and had slit her throat. As you can imagine we were distraught.
‘Even worse we later found out he spent hours cleaning his apartment, had a shower and left.
‘I am telling you this because it went to court in Spain and he received a 19-year prison sentence.
‘He spent 10 years in prison there and was then transferred to England to complete his sentence as we found out to our horror.
Anguished mother Barbara Flanagan’s only partial consolation was her belief the monster who killed Avril would remain behind bars for nearly two decades
‘We have been informed he will be released in in October this year on a conditional release date after serving only 11 years behind bars.
‘As a family we are so upset that Alan Daulby will be out on the streets again and he could do the same to another family
‘Avril was our youngest child and only girl. She was only 20 years old with her whole life in front of her.
‘She had two brothers who are trying their best to carry on without their sister.
‘It can’t be right that this person can be released after such a violent crime.
I am appealing to you not to let this be the case. Surely he is a danger to society.’
Daulby was sentenced to almost the maximum 20 years in prison he could have received for his horrific crime at the time he committed under Spanish law.
Life sentences now exist in Spain following a change in the law but were not an option when Daulby was arrested and tried.
Ms Flanagan, who has now remarried, said: ‘What I didn’t put in the letter was that the judge said when she sentenced Daulby that he took pleasure in inflicting pain on Avril which is horrendous.
The former receptionist, whose ex-husband Gerry still lives on the Costa Blanca with one of their two sons, has written an emotionally charged letter to the UK Home Office ‘on behalf of Avril’ criticising Daulby’s release and trying to get it reversed
‘It may be something people don’t remember but I certainly do.
‘The last I knew he was at Cardiff Prison at Wales.
‘I can’t believe he’s going to be let out because I feel he definitely could do this to another family. He’s still a young man.
‘Just because the law says he can’t be kept in prison doesn’t mean it’s right.
‘It was only after I found out through a friend that he had been transferred from Spain and wrote to the governor in Cardiff Prison that I was contacted by a liaison officer at the UK National Probation Service.
‘If I hadn’t wrote that letter, I think we as a family would still be in the dark.
‘It feels as if Avril has no rights and she does have rights. In America Daulby would have got the death penalty.’
The mother added that she and her family are still ‘heartbroken’.
‘We talk about her and get upset. Avril will have never her babies, she’ll never have her wedding day. It’s just not right.
‘I might be doing great and then one day I’m just in tears. I might see her picture or hear a song.
‘I have a good life. But I’d give it all up just to have our Avril back.
‘That can’t obviously happen. But what I can and need to do is let people know that this guy who did all these horrific things to my daughter, and could do them again to another young woman, is going to be back on the streets very soon.’