Brutal killer free on Hastings streets

Gill Montgomery's family said yesterday they were "appalled to hear of the premature release" of "this evil man".

Hakan Yagiz was sentenced in May 1999 in an Istanbul courtroom to 36 years' hard labour for killing 53-year-old voluntary charity worker Gill at St Leonards.

But the 25-year-old former hairdresser who turned savage killer is now released - and back in Hastings.

He has been 'pardoned' and conditionally released along with all other prisoners in the Tekirdag province of Turkey by the Turkish parliament.

Elspeth Pratt, speaking on behalf of Gill's family, said yesterday: "The family is appalled to hear of Yagiz's premature release, especially after all the intensive efforts put in by Sussex Police to secure a conviction in the Turkish court.

"The release of this evil man within only a year of a sentence of 36 years with hard labour being passed on him not only puts everyone who comes into contact with him at risk but also illustrates what a low value the Turkish Government places on human life."

Mrs Pratt added: "Gill is beyond all this now but we continue to remember her with great love and respect for her kindness to all and her courage in facing all that life threw at her."

Hastings police had no idea that Hakan Yagiz , a Turkish national, was free until his name came up when they attended a domestic incident on Thursday last week. This is still under investigation.

Yagiz battered and stabbed Gill Montgomery to death at her Cloudesley Road flat in St Leonards on April 7,1995. He then fled to Turkey, leaving behind blood stained clothing in his Southwater Road flat along with an horrific stash of four knives, blackened by fire and with six-inch serrated edges.

One of them was the knife Yagiz used when he stabbed Gill in the neck which was the wound that killed her.

Gill, who suffered from MS, was a much-loved dedicated church and charity worker and her death, in the kitchen of her own home, shocked the town. She was known for her work at the Conquest Hospital and for St Luke's Church, Silverhill.

Yagiz was found guilty of the offence of killing Gill in order to commit another crime.The offence carried the death sentence but Yagiz escaped this ultimate penalty.

Chief Superintendent Dick Barton, of Hastings Police, told the Observer he made long distance calls to the Turkish consulate to find out why Yagiz was free and consulted the Crown Prosecution Service.

He said on Wednesday : "I have just heard from the Consulate that even with remission he would only have been due for release on March 6, 2003.

"However, in 1999 there was a kind of 'pardon' passed through the Turkish parliament and, I believe the direct translation of the Turkish, is that there was a conditional release. Yagiz has benefited from this pardon and we are led to believe he could have been released as early as a year ago."

Chief Supt Barton, who was in the courtroom in Istanbul with Gill's sister when Yagiz was sentenced in May 1999, said the situation was "incredibly frustrating" and the consulate had been trying to trace the information about Yagiz's freedom for them.

Chief Supt Barton was detective chief inspector working on the Gill Montgomery murder case in the latter 1990s.

It was a particularly complex police investigation involving local officers who questioned 400 people in their house to house inquiries, Interpol and the Turkish authorities. It was fingerprints he left on a glass in Gill's flat that helped nail him.

Chief Supt Barton echoed what he said when he returned from Yagiz's sentencing in Istanbul: "I would dearly like to find out his true motive for this terrible crime.