Family mourns in court as girl’s killer released on parole after attack on another woman

Leary could have remained in prison until 2028, but after that there would be no legal way to monitor him, Judge Geoffrey Bellew, chairman of the state’s parole board, said Thursday.

“The release of the offender is inevitable,” Bellew said, adding that Leary would be released on the strictest of conditions. “The alternative is to keep the offender in custody and release him at a later date, either on a shorter period of probation or at the end of his sentence without any period of probation.”

Hoson’s family told the Herald They understood the authorities’ decision, but believed that Leary would relapse.

“It’s no use continuing to fight for the community, but we know that someone else is going through what we went through,” Hoson’s sister Fiona Walker said on Thursday. “For us, it’s no ifs and buts. [Leary’s reoffends] but a when.

“It’s just disappointing that someone who is a medium to high-risk offender is going to be out in society where he poses a danger to even more young girls. He would be better off dying in prison and that would solve all the problems,” Walker said.

Leary dialed into his parole hearing from a green-and-gray room at the minimum-security Kirkconnell prison. He spent most of the time rustling papers, only his shiny bald head and bushy gray eyebrows visible.

Members of Hoson’s family cried and consoled each other when he appeared on screen and again when authorities mentioned the details of her death.

The agency says Leary will be under 24-hour electronic monitoring, subject to schedules and will live in a supervised facility with a curfew.

Judge Bellew on Thursday rejected the suggestion that Leary was at large. “The reality is far from that and the suggestion that he is at large is nothing more than a misunderstanding of the process,” he said.

Leary’s total sentence ends June 18, 2028.

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