Billy Dunlop: Teesside murderer to make bid for freedom

William Dunlop, known as Billy, was eventually jailed for Julie Hogg’s brutal murder thanks to her mother’s devotion to fighting for justice.

Ann Ming, supported by a long-running The Northern Echo campaign, fought for 15 years to overturn the 800-year-old double jeopardy law, which prevented people being tried twice for the same offence.

The campaigning mother, who found her daughter’s mutilated body hidden under the bath at her Billingham home, set out on a fight to bring her daughter's killer to justice.

Julie Hogg

Dunlop twice stood trial for the killing in 1991, but two juries could not reach verdicts, and he walked free because of the "double-jeopardy" rule.

Mrs Ming’s fight for justice finally came in 2006 when Dunlop was convicted of her daughter’s murder and jailed for life – the very first case to be tried under the new legal guidance.

Dunlop had already been convicted of perjury after he admitted the murder while he was serving a prison sentence.

At the start of her campaign, Ann said: "We lost our daughter. We are the ones who have been serving a life sentence. He has made a mockery of the justice system."

Campaigning mother Ann Ming

The Teesside murderer has served almost 18 years in custody since he admitted strangling the young mother after she mocked him.

In a recorded police interview from 1999, Dunlop said: “She just started taking the mickey out of me and ridiculing me because I had a black eye and my eye was split open.

"I just lost it and got up and strangled her."

Billy Dunlop

A mandatory life sentence was imposed on October 6, 2006, and the sentencing judge set a tariff of 17 years less time spent on remand. Dunlop’s tariff expired on September 15, 2021.

Speaking in 2006, she said: "It was good to see the smile wiped off his face.

"He made a mockery of the justice system and he was laughing at everyone.

"The decision gave us closure on our ordeal and I hope he never, ever gets out of prison.

"He is clearly a dangerous man and while he is inside, he can't hurt anybody else.

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"I knew from the outset that he had done it, but to hear him finally confess in court was the most satisfying news ever."

Dunlop's public parole hearing will start tomorrow (Tuesday, June 25). The killer, now in his 60s, will not attend the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ) in person, but the hearing will be streamed at the RCJ from prison.

In 2022, the Justice Secretary blocked a bid to move Dunlop to an open prison, in the interests of public protection, despite a parole panel recommending the plan.

The hearing to listen to his latest bid for freedom is listed for two days but no decision will be made until all of the evidence has been weighed up by the panel.