Robert Brown (left) plead guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility after killing estranged wife Joanna Simpson (right) with 14 blows of a claw hammer to her head (Picture: PA)
A British Airways captain who bludgeoned his estranged wife to death 13 years ago will not be freed from prison after losing a High Court battle.
Robert Brown, 60, beat Joanna Simpson, 46, to death with 14 blows of a claw hammer to the head in their family home in Windsor on Halloween 2010.
Their two children, including then nine-year-old Katie, could hear ‘banging’ from their playroom during the attack.
He bundled the B&B owner’s body into the boot of his car and drove her to a pre-dug grave in Windsor Great Park.
The pilot then returned to the house, disconnected the phone, removed the CCTV and loaded his kids into the car for the drive to his new partner’s house.
His son asked if he was ‘taking Mummy to hospital’ during the drive.
B&B owner and mother-of-two Joanna Simpson died at the hands of her estranged husband (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
Brown pled guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility, avoiding a murder conviction in 2011 having claimed he suffered from a stress-related ‘adjustment disorder’.
In a letter to the trial judge, Katie said: ‘My father killed my Mummy and I’m scared if he comes out of jail too soon he might come back and hurt me because I heard him killing my Mummy.
‘He is the most evilest man I have ever known and I wish he wasn’t my father.’
The killing was the subject of the two-part ITV documentary The British Airways Killer
The disgraced former pilot was due to be released from prison in November 2023, halfway through his 26-year sentence.
But Justice Secretary Alex Chalk blocked Brown’s automatic release, instead referring his case to the Parole Board.
Joanna’s boyfriend Andy Wilson at Reading Crown Court during Robert Brown’s trial in 2011 (Picture: David Parker/ANL/REX/Shutterstock)
Brown launched legal action against the government, claiming this move to block his release was ‘unreasonable’.
Lawyers acting on his behalf claimed the Justice Secretary’s intervention was unlawful and politically motivated due to the Joanna family’s high-profile media campaign.
The prisoner argued he’d been ‘cured’ of the adjustment disorder he blamed for Joanna’s death.
He claimed the disorder was sparked in part by his bitter divorce and he poses no risk to anyone.
Joanna’s family and friends were appalled by the judicial decision not to convict Brown of murder at his trial in 2011.
They’ve continued opposing his release from prison.
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Diana Parkes, Joanna’s 84-year-old mother, previously warned that Brown would be a danger to other women if he was released as scheduled in November.
She said: ‘I am very concerned about his release because he will seek revenge. He will blame everybody else but himself for what he did.
‘Jo’s friends, my family and women in general will be in general because he has lost everything that he had – he’s been stripped of it all.
‘He’s lost his job as a British Airways air captain, he’s lost his home, he’s lost his status, he’s lost his high earning, but most of all he’s lost his children because they never want to see him again.’
The High Court dismissed Brown’s legal challenge against the government’s decision to block his automatic release on Wednesday.
Joanna’s body was not found until five days later.
The Joanna Simpson Foundation was set up in her name to support and protect children who are affected by domestic abuse, violence and homicide.
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