Murderers who kill again after their release from prison, do so because the penal system fails to change the way they perceive themselves, an expert criminal psychologist says.

And University of Huddersfield criminologist David Canter believes prison is the worst place for teaching serious violent offenders that behaviour is wrong.

Prof Canter’s remarks come as Huddersfield double murderer David Mitchell awaits sentence for killing paedophile Robert Hind, months after the killer was released from prison.

Mitchell, who murdered his ex-partner Kathleen McKenzie in 1990, beat and strangled Hind to death before dropping the sex offender’s body in a canal at Milnsbridge, in December last year.

Prof Canter said: “Trying to give offenders a different perspective is very difficult especially when it’s a different way of thinking about themselves.

“Prison is probably the worst place to do that where you have to be a tough guy to survive and you get a status for being a killer.

“There are programmes in Britain to help people see why they lose their rag so readily and help them understand what it is about themselves that causes them to do that.

“There’s some evidence that this can be successful and Britain is ahead of the game.”

Repeat murderers have a different mindset to those who kill once, Prof Canter says.

“A high proportion of murders happen within a particular relationship and aren’t related to an aggressive mindset.

“But there are others where physical aggression is a way of life and any threat to their self-esteem and their view of what they ought to be doing generates a violent reaction.”

Prof David Canter
Prof David Canter

Repeat violent offenders may blame others and even see themselves as heroic, says Prof Canter.

“They reinterpret what happened to fit their own view. They see themselves as heroic figures battling against the forces of evil.

“Or they see themselves as victims; it’s always someone else’s fault.”

And some may also have sadistic tendencies.

Prof Canter said: “Some of them just like to bully and control other people.”

The prospect of spending the rest of your life behind bars is no deterrent for violent repeat offenders.

Prof Canter added: “A lot of criminals act in the heat of the moment; they don’t think about the consequences...

“Some think they might get away with it...

“The degree of punishment is not a significant deterrent.”

David Mitchell freed from life sentence for murder just months before killing Robert Hind - click here

Other Huddersfield murderers who killed again on release from prison:

In August 2009 Desmond Lee, who was jailed in 1989 for killing his landlady, murdered his lover Christopher Pratt and dumped his body on Scammonden Moor in August 2009. Lee was given a whole life sentence.

Shaun Clarke, who drowned and electrocuted Quarmby mum-of-two Patricia Sykes in 1987, murdered his ex-partner Donna Wilson in Burton-on-Trent before hanging himself in 2007.

John Robinson killed nine-year-old Clive Jones in Shipley in July 1962, slitting his throat.

He was jailed for life in October 1962 but released in May 1976.

Five months later, he stabbed to death Mary Barry, a mother of a little boy, at her home in Whitacre Street, Deighton.

Robinson died in prison from cancer in April 1980.

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