Mum of Dublin woman killed by ex-boyfriend hits out as he's to be freed halfway through sentence

Avril Flanagan's mum has been left feeling 'sickened and cheated'

The mother of an Irishwoman murdered by her ex-boyfriend is outraged after being told he will be freed just over halfway through his 19-year prison sentence.

Alan Daulby was convicted of stabbing 20-year-old Avril Flanagan to death more than 50 times at his Costa Blanca flat.

He 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 find.

Before going on the run, he wrapped Avril’s body in an old duvet and plastic sheeting and taped her from head to toe.

Anguished mum Barbara’s only partial consolation was her belief the Liverpool -born brute would remain behind bars for nearly two decades.

But – on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Avril’s murder on May 29, 2009 – she revealed how she had been left feeling “sickened and cheated” after being told the 35-year-old was being released from prison early on licence.

Barbara, who divides her time between Spain and Swords, Co Dublin, also told how she only found out by chance last year that Daulby had been moved from a Costa Blanca prison – where he began his 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 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 emotion-charged letter to the UK Home Office “on behalf of Avril” criticising Daulby’s release and trying to get it reversed.

Sign-up for the Irish Mirror newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter today!

Simply pop your e-mail into the box at the top of this article and get all the latest news and entertainment direct to you

Every day we'll send you a roundup e-mail of all the latest news. Local Irish news, UK and international news, local and national Sport and entertainment news , all in one handy e-mail.

You can unsubscribe from this service at any time. And rest assured that your data will not be shared with any other party.

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.

Although he will be let out around eight years after he was tried and convicted at a court in Elche near Alicante.

Barbara 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.

She 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 he lied that he had confused her with an intruder after bingeing 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 Home Office letter, Barbara detailed how she and her daughter were due to head back to Ireland for a family party the day of her death.

She wrote: “My son and I went in search of her and we found her in Alan Daulby’s apartment.

“He had stabbed her over 50 times and had slit her throat. 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.

“We have been informed he will be released in October this year on a conditional release date after serving only 11 years behind bars.

“As a family we are so upset 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 handed almost the maximum 20 years he could have received under Spanish law at the time.

Life sentences now exist in Spain following a change in the legislation but were not an option when the monster was arrested and tried.

Barbara, 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.

“It may be something people don’t remember but I certainly do.

“The last I knew he was at Cardiff Prison in Wales.

“I can’t believe he’s going to be let out because I feel he definitely could do this to another family.

“Just because the law says he can’t be kept in jail 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 would still be in the dark. It feels as if Avril has no rights and she does have. In America, Daulby would have got the death penalty.

“I’m still heartbroken. We all are. 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 do is let people know that this guy who did all these horrific things to my daughter, and could do them again to another, is going to be back on the streets very soon.”