Julie Govender

From The Liverpool Echo:

A LIVERPOOL grandmother today told how she will come face to face for the first time in 14 years with the bully who beat her daughter to death.

Peggy Govender, 71, from Toxteth will confront Anthony Cunningham next month.

Butcher Cunningham, known as The Beast, murdered her 30-year-old daughter Julie in front of their children in 1993. Mrs Govender will ask officials to keep Cunningham locked up during a parole board hearing at Shepton Mallet prison in Somerset.

He was jailed for life in 1994 for the murder of his former wife.

But he could be a free man in 10 weeks.

Mrs Govender brought up Julie’s three children Anthony, 24, Ashley, 23, and Emma, 20.

They have all promised to do everything in their power to keep the 49-year-old killer behind bars.

Mrs Govender said: “I owe it to Julie to fight this. I am adamant that I am going to face him – I am not frightened of that coward.

“I feel sick at the prospect of him being allowed out of prison, but I also feel very angry. What he did to my Julie in front of those three children was despicable.

“One of my fears is bumping into him one day in town.

“He could be walking the streets and could come face to face with Anthony, Ashley or Emma. That’s just not right.”

Mrs Govender is allowed to submit a statement to probation officials before the hearing although what she can say is limited.

She has already been warned she could be thrown out if she speaks out of turn.

She said: “All the rights are in favour of the criminal, not the victim and their family. The fact that he could be set free makes a mockery of a life sentence.

“It is 15 years since he killed Julie, but to me it feels like yesterday. How I feel just keeps getting worse.

“Julie’s three children are a credit to her. I am very proud of them and I know Julie would have been too. I know I am biased because she is my daughter, but she was the best and we talk about her all the time.

“I just can’t stop talking about what happened to her because she’s my girl. It is as if I have not started grieving for her yet.

“I am Catholic but I can’t go to church and say the Lord’s Prayer because I would be a hypocrite. I cannot forgive him for what he did.

“I have three great-grandchildren now and how do I explain to them that their nan was killed by their grandad?

“On October 30 it will be 15 years to the day that Cunningham battered her.”

In 2005 Peggy and her grandchildren were outraged to discover Cunningham was allowed on an escorted day out from prison.

The family have since discovered that Cunningham has been unexpectedly put back into a closed prison after a spell in an open prison.

Mrs Govender was joined by her grandchildren Anthony and Emma on a march through Liverpool earlier this month to protest at lenient sentences.

Life Should Mean Life: Merseyside Families for Justice, included friends and relatives of murdered Merseysiders angry at the system.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “The release of all lifers who have served their minimum term of imprisonment is a matter for the quasi-judicial Parole Board.

“Parole Board panels are independent and cannot direct the release of such prisoners until the panel is satisfied that any risk they present may be safely managed in the community.

“All life sentence prisoners are subject to probation supervision on release from prison.

“They will have to adhere to a set of strict conditions and are subject to recall to custody for the rest of their lives if their behaviour indicates that it is no longer safe to allow them to remain in the community.

“They may also be subject to multi-agency public protection arrangements, a statutory set of arrangements established by the police, probation and prison service in each area to assess and manage the risk posed by sexual and violent offenders.”