Clive Howard, now 67, was branded the “Night Stalker” after he was jailed for life for attacking at least six women over a 28-year period in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire
A rapist dubbed the “Night Stalker” after he preyed on lone women over a 28-year period could walk free – just 10 years after he was jailed for life.
Clive Howard, then 57, hunted the streets of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk for victims before attacking them in his Volvo estate car. The loner, who lived with his parents, was described as “every woman’s living nightmare” by a judge after he attacked at least six women from 1986 onwards.
After he was handed a life sentence another 15 women came forward to claim they were also targeted. Howard’s own brother said “it was terrifying to think of how many women Clive may have attacked”. He was jailed for a minimum of 10 years and three months, but the sentence was later cut by a year because it did not consider time spent on remand.
Now an official report reveals he went before a parole hearing in February last year but was denied his freedom because he still posed a danger to the public. The Parole Board review said he had undertaken training to address his use of “violence and sex offending” but “there had been some occasions when he had not obeyed the prison rules and had displayed hostility to staff”, reports the Mirror.
There are fears he will make a fresh bid for freedom within months – with insiders condemning the failure to adequately punish him for the “predatory” nature of his crimes. A source said: “It won’t be long before he’s referred to the parole board again. It’s a disgrace he could be released so soon after being jailed. His offending was horrific, predatory and targeted, so the thought he could be freed after a little more than a decade is terrifying.”
Norfolk Police confirmed the investigation into Howard’s offending was closed “a few months after the sentencing”. A spokeswoman added: “We received a number of calls from members of the public following the sentencing of Clive Howard in 2015. Each of these were thoroughly investigated and no evidence of further criminal offences was found.”
Human rights barrister Harriet Wistrich, who spearheaded the legal battle to keep the so-called black cab rapist John Worboys behind bars, said: “The level of risk for serious sexual predators is not sufficiently recognised in these types of cases.”
Howard was ultimately apprehended in 2014 when a victim assisted police in tracing his Volvo after he raped her in a car park. It subsequently emerged that his reign of terror had spanned nearly 30 years.
In 2015, Howard admitted to seven rapes and received a life sentence. Judge Stephen Holt described Howard as “every woman’s living nightmare” who waged a “campaign of sexual offences over many years”.
He told the father of six: “You did severe psychological harm to your victims. There was clearly a significant degree of planning and targeting.”
Howard – who had an 82-year-old girlfriend at the time of his arrest – pleaded guilty to seven rapes and was handed a life sentence, yet detectives believe he has targeted at least 15 further victims dating back to 1986. Following his sentencing, police revealed that more than a dozen women had come forward alleging they too had been attacked by the convicted rapist.
At the time, Howard’s brother David, 58, disclosed that it was he who had first alerted detectives to Howard, having become aware of the 1986 rape. Having been ostracised by his family for reporting Howard to the authorities, welder David said: “He’s a serial rapist, I had to go to the police, it was the right thing to do. I was so pleased when he was sentenced I celebrated in the pub.”
