Airline pilot who bludgeoned wife to death in Berkshire to stay behind bars
Parole board refuses to release Robert Brown for 2010 killing
Last updated 11th May 2026
A former British Airways captain who bludgeoned his wife to death at her home in Berkshire will be kept behind bars, having refused to give evidence at his own parole hearing.
Robert Brown will remain in prison after a Parole Board panel heard that he has done no risk-reduction work while in jail and refuses to accept that he poses any risk to the public.
The former pilot attacked his wife Joanna Simpson, 46, with a claw hammer in their Berkshire family home in October 2010 as their two young children cowered in a playroom.
He killed her a week before their divorce was due to be finalised and dumped her body in a makeshift coffin in Windsor Great Park.
The parole panel found that there was “no sufficient evidence that his risk had reduced since he was sentenced” and that he could not be managed in the community.
Brown was jailed for 26 years in 2011 after being cleared of murder but he admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. A psychiatric report said he suffered from an “adjustment disorder”.
Referring to prison courses designed to reduce risk, the parole panel found: “Overall it was clear that Robert Brown has not been willing to engage except on his own terms, which usually means not engaging at all.
“The panel’s conclusion was that Robert Brown does not appear to accept any element of retained culpability, although he says he accepts full responsibility for what he did.
“His expressed view is that he only offended because of a mental illness, the adjustment disorder; the adjustment disorder had passed by the time he was sentenced (which the witnesses, and the panel, accept is the case); the adjustment disorder was caused by stress; he has worked to manage stress and no longer presents anything more than a low risk of harm to the public, if that.”
Before reaching its decision, the panel carried out a fact-finding exercise which concluded that Brown had threatened his wife with a knife in July 2007, and that there were “strong indications of controlling behaviour within the marriage”.
After the exercise, Brown sacked his legal team and refused to attend the parole board hearing, instead providing a 37-page written statement.
Brown was originally due to be released in 2023 after serving half his sentence, but this was blocked by then-justice secretary Alex Chalk, who used legal powers to refer the case to the Parole Board.
Reaction
Ms Simpson’s mother, Diana Parkes, said she was “incredibly relieved” by the panel’s decision.
“We have all lived with the fear that this might not be the case but thank goodness it was unanimously agreed he should not be released,” she said.
“My daughter would have been 62 last Wednesday 6th May, and, of course, we remember her as the beautiful and vivacious woman she was at 46. That is how I will always remember her.
“Should Brown have been let out, then I am glad to have played an instrumental part in calling on the Government to introduce robust, mandatory restriction zones for perpetrators.
Ms Simpson’s best friend, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton, said: “I am profoundly relieved by the Parole Board’s decision… we have all lived under a cloud of fear, a fear that today, at last, has been lifted.
“This outcome is not accidental. It is the result of our preparedness to campaign, the extraordinary support of the public and the media, the willingness of politicians to listen, the scrutiny shown by the Ministry of Justice in their review of this case, and the independent rigour of the Parole Board’s investigation.
“We now need to ensure that rigorous, risk-based sentencing is applied at all times, and that public protection is a shared responsibility for everyone working with dangerous offenders.”
Former justice secretary Sir Robert Buckland said: “I am pleased and relieved that the Parole Board has rejected this application.
“I am glad that the legislation that I sponsored as Lord Chancellor to limit automatic release in certain serious cases has made a real difference.”