Campbell will not be released from prison due to his continued refusal to reveal what he did with Danielle's remains and the fact he continues to pose a danger to the public
12:57, 23 Dec 2025Updated 12:57, 23 Dec 2025
The uncle convicted of murdering Danielle Jones has lost his latest bid for freedom.
Stuart Campbell was jailed for life in 2002 for abducting and killing the 15-year-old, with a recommendation he should serve at least 20 years. Campbell, now 67, continues to claim he is innocent, and despite numerous searches Danielle's body has never been found.
A summary of the Parole Board's latest decision not to release or move him to open conditions said the panel found he remained a danger. It concluded: "After considering the circumstances of Mr Campbell’s offending, his unwillingness to disclose the location of the victim’s body, the progress made while in custody and all the other evidence presented in the dossier, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public."
The case was considered by the panel on December 17 without having an oral hearing at Campbell's request, the summary said. He continues to maintain his innocence while refusing to say what he did with Danielle.
The summary said: "The panel noted that due to Mr Campbell’s maintenance of innocence, it had not been possible for professionals to work with Mr Campbell to explore the motivation for his offending and therefore risk factors were not yet fully understood." But it added that reports showed that in other matters he "had been open and honest in his dealings with professional staff in the prison".
Schoolgirl Danielle was last seen on the morning of June 18, 2001, walking to a bus stop near her home in East Tilbury, Essex. Builder Campbell, who was married to her dad's sister Debbie, bundled Danielle into a blue van and abducted her, his Chelmsford crown court trial heard.
Danielle's mum Linda, 64, who has called for him to remain behind bars until he reveals where he put her daughter's body, had prepared a statement to read at the hearing. She said previously: "Her disappearance has been a life changing event which my family and I will never really come to terms with and I doubt whether things will ever become normal for us again. When Danielle first went missing it was totally unthinkable that she was dead.
"For the first couple of weeks I couldn't go to sleep, I wouldn't leave home and we didn't lock the front door in case Danielle returned. It all seemed like a bad dream. It wasn't real, it wasn't happening to us. I think after a couple of weeks without any news I knew she wouldn't be coming home."
Campbell has had a previous parole application refused in 2023. The case was one of the first to go before the Parole Board after the Mirror-backed Helen's Law came into effect in 2021. The law requires the board to consider whether a prisoner has withheld information about the location of a victim's body but it does not necessarily bar release.
Danielle's mum and dad Tony have repeatedly appealed to Campbell, formerly of Grays, Essex, to "allow us to lay our daughter to rest". Linda said: "It's a limbo, it's just unbearable."
Campbell's brother Alix Sharkey, 66, who wrote the book My Brother the Killer, said in 2022: "I do not believe my brother should be released until he discloses what he did with Danielle's body. Her parents have been through a living hell. My brother hasn't even given them their daughter so they have a place to grieve."
Alix urged Campbell: "Stop being a monster. Why don't you act like a human being? Even murderers can say 'I'm sorry'."