Hartlepool murderer Maria Pearson loses her ninth bid for parole

Maria Pearson, who is now 66, stabbed her ex-boyfriend's new partner, Janet Newton, to death in 1986 in Hartlepool’s Grange Road and was jailed for life for murder the following year.

Pearson plunged a sheath knife into her victim 17 times and was initially ordered to serve a minimum of 11 years behind bars.

A Parole Board panel, which sat on April 13, 2022, and January 17, 2023, decided she was not fit for release because of the nature of the murder, how she has behaved in custody and evidence at the hearing.

It also ruled Pearson is not fit to move to an open prison.

She has twice been moved to an open prison, only to be returned to a closed one.

The panel was told Pearson had been "willing to resort to violence" as a way of managing difficult situations in her life at the time of the murder.

In 2004 she was moved to an open prison but was later returned to a closed one due to concerns about her behaviour.

In 2020 she decided she would engage with support to help people with complex behavioural problems.

That year the parole board decided she could move to an open prison, which she did in June 2021, but three months later she moved back to a closed jail.

Her release plan had included a requirement to live in designated accommodation as well as strict curbs on her contacts, movements and activities, which Pearson was reported to be unhappy with.