A man who killed his ex-girlfriend in a frenzied knife attack has lost a Court of Appeal bid to be moved to an open prison.
Karl Oakley, who was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 15 years in 2009 after stabbing Taylor Burrows up to 40 times, challenged the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) over a refusal to transfer him to open conditions.
Lawyers for Oakley, who pleaded guilty at Luton Crown Court to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, argued at a hearing in October that the Parole Board had recommended he be transferred to an open prison because there was “no further work” for him to carry out inside a closed jail.
In a ruling on Monday, the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr, sitting alongside Dame Victoria Sharp and Lord Justice William Davis, dismissed Oakley’s appeal and said the MoJ’s decision to reject the Parole Board’s recommendation “was entirely rational”.
Baroness Carr said the MoJ had “considered the board’s advice in detail and with care” and that the department said he must undertake further courses in prison before he could be transferred.
The court heard a panel found Oakley was “suitable for open conditions” in 2021 but this was rejected by the MoJ.
Oakley launched another bid to be moved in 2023, which was again refused and, in a further judgment in February 2024, it was ruled that the department “was entitled to come to the conclusion it had reached” and dismissed the claim.
Sir James Eadie KC, representing the MoJ, said in written submissions that the department “can seek the Parole Board’s advice” on prison transfers but is “free to agree or disagree with” recommendations.
In the same ruling, the MoJ challenged a previous judge’s decision about whether the department was wrong
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