A woman dubbed Britain's "forgotten prisoner" who brutally stabbed a love rival to death in act of hate and jealousy could soon be released after 35 years behind bars, it is reported.
Maria Pearson, now 66, murdered her ex-partner's new girlfriend in a Hartlepool street in 1986 and is the UK's longest-serving female prisoner.
At the time aged 31, Pearson was told she had to serve a minimum of 12 years by a court - but now has been in prison almost three times that.
She had stalked building society worker Janet Newton and then shouted at her before taking a sheath knife and stabbing her 17 times.
The knife had penetrated 23-year-old Ms Newton’s heart and she was left lying in a pool of blood in Grange Road, Hartlepool.
The murder took place just two days after Ms Newton and Pearson's former lover, Malcolm Pearson, had become engaged.
Now in the next few weeks, she will learn whether she will be released, it is reported.
Pearson had a parole hearing on January 17 but an order was put in for extra checks to be made and the process was adjourned.
The reports included psychiatric checks, plans for her reintroduction into society and the opinions of her jailers.
It is a priority for officials that the conditions for her release are faultless and there is no danger posed to the community.
A Mail source said: "Maria is the prison system's forgotten inmate. When jailed, Three Men and a Baby was the biggest movie of the year and Rick Astley was Number One.
"Maria vows she is reformed, but nobody on the Parole Board wants to make a mistake. They are being extra cautious."
She has served just one year less in prison than infamous child killer Myra Hindley.
Pearson was jailed under a scheme called IPP - Imprisonment for Public Protection - which was scrapped in 2012 and gave no maximum jail length.
A Parole Board spokesperson told the Mail: "The oral hearing in the case of Maria Pearson has been adjourned. Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our number one priority."
In the past there have been repeated attempts by Pearson to be freed but all appeals and parole cases have failed.
The Criminal Cases Review Commission, which looks into potential miscarriages of justice, rejected an application to refer the conviction to the Court of Appeal.
In 2006 the then Home Secretary, John Reid, turned down a Parole Board recommendation for her to be moved to an open prison and prepared for release.
At the time, Pearson reportedly clamed the decision was “irrational” and “politically motivated” as a response to public calls for murderers to serve longer sentences.
But the judge said Pearson was still “in denial” and showed limited sympathy for her victim.
A previous stint in an open jail, in 2004, ended in failure after just three months when Pearson was accused of intimidation and bullying and sent back to a closed prison.
A further bid for freedom in 2008 was unsuccessful, despite telling a judge at the High Court "I’m not a danger to society; indeed I never have been.”
The Mirror has contacted the Parole Board for comment.
