A killer serving a life sentence for murdering his estranged wife could be released on parole later this year.

Glyn Razzell will be one of the first inmates in UK legal history to have their parole hearings held in public due to a change in the rules and a request from the victim's family.

Linda Razzell, 41, disappeared while on her way to work at Swindon College in March 2002. After dropping her children at school and her boyfriend in Highworth, Linda parked her car in Old Walcot and vanished. Her body was never found.

Her partner Glyn, 63, denied killing her but was later found guilty of murder by a jury in 2003.

The pair had been embroiled in divorce proceedings when she went missing. His trial heard that he faced a financial settlement which he was not prepared to accept.

Glyn Razzell was one of the first prisoners to be considered by the Parole Board under Helen’s Law, which makes it more difficult for killers to get parole if they refuse to reveal where they hid their victim’s body.

The Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Act 2020 was named after insurance clerk Helen McCourt, who vanished on her way home from work in Merseyside in 1988.

Razzell appealed over the Parole Board’s decision to refuse him early release from prison in 2021, claiming the panel’s use of Helen’s Law was “irrational”. The bid was denied.

He was also refused release from prison in October and will now face a new two-day parole hearing beginning on August 24.

Such hearings are usually held in private, but on Wednesday, the Parole Board said that though the killer opposed requests for a public hearing, the victim’s family’s wishes for proceedings not to be held in private have been granted.

Razzell is set to join wife killer Russell Causley and notorious prisoner Charles Bronson as one of the first inmates in the United Kingdom to have their case heard in public after the rules were changed last year in a bid to remove the secrecy around the process.

The Parole Board said it had received a number of representations over why the case should be heard in public – including that Razzell is one of the few prisoners to fall under Helen’s Law and the high level of public interest in the matter.