The mother of murderer George Naylor's two children today said Maureen Stepan would never have died if judges had listened to her pleas to keep him in jail.

Veronica Delahunty, 59, lived with the double killer for six years and had his son and daughter.

She said she had written to MPs and appeal Court judges warning them Naylor would kill again if he was ever allowed free.

"I was so angry when I heard about Maureen Stepan's death because it was so needless," she said.

"When his life sentence for the killing of Deborah Kershaw was slashed to 11 years in 1987, I wrote to the appeal court judges countless times begging them not to let him out as he would kill again. Unfortunately, I was proved right."

Naylor was convicted of the murder of Maureen Stepan on Monday at Sheffield Crown Court and ordered to serve at least 20 years. It had been the second time he was convicted - he won an appeal for a re-trial for his second killing.

Mrs Delahunty said she suffered years of abuse and violence at the hands of Naylor whom she claimed had a pathological hatred of women. She said he tried to strangle her and broke into her house several times. She said that she has had to have continuous police protection every time Naylor was released from jail.

"I sat through the Deborah Kershaw trial and heard George say on the night he killed her that he had waited outside my house for an hour looking for me. If I had been in that night I'm sure it would have been me.

"George is a psychopath and is very clever. I met him in a pub in Bradford and I completely fell for him. He could charm the birds from the trees."

Mrs Delahunty, who is a psychiatric nurse in Bradford, finally left Naylor in 1973 after six years of physical and sexual attacks. Less than a year later he raped and assaulted a spinster who lived in the flat below him.

"As soon as I heard about the attack on the pensioner, as with all the killings, I knew it was George," she said.

"My children who are grown-up now don't want anything to do with him.

"We can finally live a normal life now knowing that he will hopefully never be released again," she added.

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