Carrie Johnson pleads for Joanna Simpson's killer husband to be kept behind bars trends now
Carrie Johnson last night pleaded for a wife killer to be kept behind bars.
In an emotional statement, she said that freeing Robert Brown halfway through a 26-year sentence would signal ‘a real failure in our system’.
The 34-year-old wife of ex-PM Boris Johnson also spoke of her battle for black cab rapist John Worboys to remain in prison. He drugged her when she was just 19.
Mrs Johnson was at the Westminster launch of a campaign – backed by the Mail – urging Justice Secretary Dominic Raab to keep Brown in jail for the brutal killing of his estranged wife Joanna Simpson.
She drew parallels between the Brown and Worboys cases, saying that in both ‘the law was badly letting victims down and failing to do its job to protect women’.
Speaking out: Carrie Johnson last night with Diana Parkes, whose daughter Joanna was bludgeoned to death
Robert Brown, pictured, 59, bludgeoned Joanna to death with a claw hammer within earshot of their two young children
Mrs Johnson was joined in her call by politicians including former home secretary Priti Patel and former justice secretary Robert Buckland.
Brown, 59, bludgeoned Joanna to death with a claw hammer within earshot of their two young children. The former British Airways pilot is due for automatic release in November.
His victim’s mother Diana Parkes and domestic violence campaigners have called on Mr Raab to block the release by using his powers to refer the case to the Parole Board.
Mrs Johnson said she had been ‘horrified’ to hear of the proposed release just as she had felt ‘totally powerless’ on learning in 2018 that Worboys could be freed.
He drugged her after he picked her up following a night out with friends. She blacked out and does not know what happened, although she does not believe she was assaulted.
One of 14 women to give evidence against him in court, she later waived her right to anonymity to campaign against his proposed release.
Worboys is still in prison and
