Two sisters have come out to speak after a child killer who raped and strangled their then six-year-old sibling was legally allowed to change his name.
Adam Stein, originally from Glasgow, was released from prison in March this year, 35 years after he murdered little Collette Gallacher in Corby, Northamptonshire.
Now the 61-year-old killer is trying to hide his true identity by changing his real name and Collette’s family are banned from knowing his new name because he ‘has a right to a private life’.
Collette’s sister Claire Holmes, 29, speaking to the Daily Record said:
“The public deserve to know who he is.
“How can someone rape and murder a child and then be allowed to go and change their name?”
Stein lured Collette to his flat with crisps as she went to catch the bus to school in 1986.
Her body was later found in his loft five days after she vanished.
Stein, who had previously been quizzed over a sex attack in Scotland, has not been publicly pictured since he was jailed for life.
But Collette’s family say they’ve been contacted by people who met him after his release from prison in 2016 even though he was recalled in 2017 after breaching his parole terms.
He was finally released in March 2021.
A woman who unknowingly formed a relationship with the Stein said he was using the surname Scott and described him as a “master manipulator”.
Claire and sister Lauren submitted a formal complaint to the probation service about his release but the bureau say they have found no wrongdoing on Stein’s part.
“Any individual in the UK has the right to change his name through legal means.” The prison service said in a statement.
“The rationale for licencees choosing to undertake this course of action can often be underpinned by their concerns about their own safety and/or to support their rehabilitation within the community.”
All agencies involved with Stein know his new name, they said, but giving the information to Collette’s family may undermine their duty to uphold his “legal right to have his private life respected”.
Claire in response to the statement said: “It’s all about his protection, his privacy and human rights.
“The authorities knew about the name change but we weren’t on that list of people who should be told. That was a bit of a tough pill to swallow.”
