A heartbroken father has told of his "total disgust" after a parole board decided one of his son's killers could be freed from prison. Ben Bellamy, 17, was murdered on Swansea seafront in 2005 as he walked home alone from a disco.
Joshua Declan Thomas, then aged 15, was among the youths who viciously punched, kicked, and stamped on Ben after luring him to the beach. Thomas was jailed in 2006 for a minimum of 18 years after he was convicted of murder and robbery. But in 2017 the Court of Appeal cut Thomas' term to 17 years – and the Parole Board has now directed he can be released.
Ben's father John, 53, said: "The Parole Board decided to release the animal. My reaction is of total disgust. I can't understand how you can take another life in the manner Ben's was taken and be given a chance to live your life. Ben was just starting his life and he brutally took it away. I'm sure everyone in the country feels that if you kill another human the way Ben was killed you should be locked up until you die. I wish that animal nothing but pain for the rest of his life. He's played the system and fooled the Parole Board. Let's hope that another family doesn't suffer what we have because he's a killer who has been freed."
