Killer of UK school principal freed from prison

Learco Chindamo, who made headlines in 1995 for stabbing a headteacher to death, has been released from prison. The 29-year-old insists that he has reformed.

Chindamo killed Philip Lawrence outside of St. George’s Roman Catholic School in Maida Vale, west London, after the headteacher attempted to help a pupil being attacked by a gang. Chindamo was one of the members of the gang. According to The Echo, Chindamo, who was 15 years old at the time, bragged about the murder hours later. In October 1996 he was convicted of the murder, jailed indefinitely and ordered to serve at least 12 years. The Telegraph reported that a year ago Chindamo was described as a "genuine and present risk" to the public at an Immigration and Asylum Tribunal held to decide whether he should be forced to leave the country when freed. Chindamo was born in Italy, but a judge ruled he could not be deported to that country because it would breach his human rights, as he has spent most of his life in the UK. Chindamo recently insisted that he was “no longer dangerous” and that he wants to live “quietly and decently,” according to a London Evening Standard article. “On 8 December 1995 I did a terrible thing when I killed Mr Lawrence,” the article quotes him as saying. “I have been rightly punished and I have always understood that I should not be released until I had changed and was no longer dangerous.” The Parole Board accepted that he was no longer a risk to the public. Chindamo, who had been in Hollesley Bay open prison in Suffolk, has been moved to a secure probation hostel in London. Philip Lawrence was 48 when he was killed. He was married and had four children. His widow, Frances Lawrence, was presented with an MBE in 2009 for the work she does to help young people.