What happened after Trennan walked out of HMP North Sea Camp
The Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, David Lammy, is facing mounting pressure to explain how a convicted double rapist was allowed out of an open prison without supervision, only to travel across the country and carry out a knife attack on a 19-year-old student in her own home.
Neil Trennan, 61, was already serving two life sentences for separate violent sexual assaults on women when he was granted unsupervised day release from HMP North Sea Camp, near Boston in Lincolnshire. Rather than returning, he made his way to Sheffield, followed the young woman into her home and confronted her in a spare bedroom, where he produced a kitchen knife and tried to force her to the floor.
The student managed to fight back, knocking the blade from his grip before locking herself in another room. Trennan fled and remained at large for three days until he was arrested in York. He has since been handed a third life sentence for the attack.
Speaking to police after his capture, Trennan admitted that his intention had been to inflict serious injury on the student and to carry out what he described as a “violent rape”. Prison psychologists had previously recorded that violence itself was a trigger for his sexual arousal.
In a victim impact statement, the student told the court she had feared she would be “irreparably damaged” by the incident, that her mental health had suffered profoundly, and that she had at times considered taking her own life.
Why the open prison transfer is being questioned
What has made the case politically explosive is Trennan’s extensive and unambiguous history of violent offending against women, stretching back nearly four decades.
He was first jailed for life in 1990 after breaking into the home of a young woman in Sheffield, striking her with a dumbbell and causing serious head injuries before raping her while she was unconscious. Twelve years into that sentence, in 2002, he escaped from a prison officer while on supervised day release in Norwich and attacked another young woman with a brick in a women’s lavatory. That assault earned him a second life sentence.
Despite this record — and psychological assessments suggesting he had continued to express violent sexual impulses as recently as 2024 — a parole board in 2023 concluded that he was a sufficiently low risk to be moved to open conditions. The transfer to HMP North Sea Camp was subsequently confirmed by the Ministry of Justice under the then Conservative government. Open prisons are intended for inmates considered low risk and operate with minimal supervision and limited perimeter security.
The sentencing judge, Jeremy Richardson, said he found the decision to move Trennan to an open establishment “extremely surprising” and described the further decision to permit him out on unsupervised day release as “astonishing”. “I have heard no adequate explanation why this decision was made, and this is something the Lord Chancellor will wish to investigate,” he told the court. Addressing Trennan directly, he added: “No-one is safe while you are at large in the community,” and said he could not foresee any future circumstances in which his release would be safe.
The political fallout
The Shadow Justice Secretary, Nick Timothy, has written to Mr Lammy demanding answers “as a matter of urgency”, calling the assault on the student “an entirely foreseeable and preventable attack”. He described it as “astonishing” that, given Trennan’s 40-year record of serious sexual violence, he had been moved into open conditions at all.
“What steps have you taken to investigate the decision to transfer Mr Trennan to open conditions?” Mr Timothy wrote. “Mr Trennan had escaped from supervised day release before and continued to express violent sexual impulses as recently as 2024. Will you say who authorised this decision and on what basis?” He went on: “What changes will you make to ensure it cannot happen again? The public rightly believes that dangerous criminals should be kept behind bars. That did not happen in the case of Mr Trennan, and a young woman has paid a terrible price as a result.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “These were horrendous crimes and our heartfelt sympathies remain with all the victims affected. Neil Trennan has rightly received the full weight of the law for his actions.” The spokesman added: “Protecting the public and victim safety is always our priority and transfers to open conditions are operational decisions put forward by the independent Parole Board, and after careful consideration, officials could find no clear grounds to reject this recommendation.”
The department said it had not yet received the judge’s full sentencing remarks, but would “closely review the judge’s comments to understand exactly what happened and to identify whether any procedures relating to this specific case need strengthening”.
