A weekly newspaper has returned to Westminster in its campaign to thwart a child rapist and killer’s bid for secrecy.

Northamptonshire Telegraph reporter Kate Cronin met with Minister for Sentencing Nic Dakin as part of the Kettering-based weekly’s campaign for Adam Stein’s latest parole hearing to be heard in public.

Stein raped and killed Collette Gallagher in 1986 and the Telegraph has made repeated attempts to reveal the murderer’s new identity.

HTFP reported in January 2023 how the paper had even been refused the right to identify Stein despite him being returned to prison for four years for an unknown offence in an undisclosed part of the country.

Kate, pictured, was accompanied on her visit to Westminster by Collette’s sister Claire Palmer.

They had previously travelled to London to meet the then-Minister of State for Prisons, Parole and Probation Damian Hinds about their bid to give victims of crime a greater say in criminal justice decisions that affect them.

Kate said: “This kind of campaigning shouldn’t be necessary. The justice system should be transparent and Collette’s family shouldn’t have to keep fighting for very basic information to be made public.

“I hope that the parole board will listen very carefully to the genuine submissions that we have made. They are not rooted in revenge, but rather in a will to protect women and girls from Adam Stein.

“We can’t report a lot of what we know about him but we know he is a monster.

“Collette’s family know that their local newspaper will always stand by their side and will do anything we can to support them.”