Trevor Hamilton

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Trevor Hamilton (born 1982), is a Northern Irish murderer.

He abducted and murdered 65-year-old Attracta Harron, a recently-retired librarian, when she was returning from Mass in Murlog, Lifford, County Donegal on 11 December 2003. Four months earlier he had been released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent rape and other offences, including threats to kill.

Attracta Harron's body was found on 5 April 2004, four months after she was last seen alive, hidden in a river bank less than 50 yards from Hamilton's home.

Hamilton was found guilty of her murder on 12 April 2006. The trial judge, when sentencing him on 4 August 2006, recommended that he should never be released from prison. This was the first time that such a recommendation had been made in Northern Ireland, although these recommendations had been made almost 30 times previously (by both politicians and judges) in England and Wales. Such sentences could soon be outlawed depending on the outcome of a current European Court of Justice case which is determining whether lifelong imprisonment is a violation of human rights. If the court decides that lifelong sentences are a violation of human rights, then Hamilton and all other prisoners serving such sentences will have their cases recalled to court for a new minimum term to be set.

[edit] External links

• Review of how he was supervised by the statutory agencies
• Northern Ireland Office statement
• Statement by Northern Ireland Prison Service
• Northern Ireland Courts Service press release on sentencing (DOC file)
• Northern Ireland Courts Service Judge McLaughlin's Sentencing Statement - Full Version
• Family site