• Hassan Shatanawi murdered Laura May Al-Shatanawi and then dismembered her in a shed at his allotment
  
• After being jailed for life in 1994, he has now been released and deported - but her family fear he may be back into Britain
• 'He could be back in the UK by now, because he is not tagged. He could simply change his name and sneak back in,' Laura's brother Don said

By Martin Robinson

PUBLISHED: 08:25 EST, 15 January 2013 | UPDATED: 10:15 EST, 15 January 2013

A Jordanian doctor who murdered his wife has been freed from jail and deported just weeks after the Parole Board warned he was still a danger, the devastated family of his victim have revealed.

Hassan Shatanawi has never revealed how he killed trainee travel agent Laura May Al-Shatanawi 20 years ago, and her family still do not know what he did with her body.

They fear the 67-year-old, who has shown no remorse, could be anywhere as he is no longer monitored by the UK authorities and may even sneak back into the country.

Freed: Doctor Hassan Shatanawi, pictured in 1994 after being convicted of the murder of his wife, Laura May, is out of jail and deported just weeks after the Parole Board warned he was still a danger

They only found about about the killer's release after it happened, and are furious with Home Secretary Theresa May.

She used newly-introduced powers which mean foreign prisoners who have served the minimum part of their sentence may be deported immediately if they have no right to remain in the country, even if the Parole Board did not recommend their release.

Crime: Laura May Al-Shatanawi's body has never been found and her husband has never shown remorse for what he did

Don Vaughan, Laura May's brother, said: 'We believed from what the Parole Board said that he would remain in prison because he was still a dangerous man.

'Then we hear a couple of months later that he was on a plane and out of the country.

'We thought it was absolutely disgusting.

'Even when he was released, the authorities decided that they would only notify the family the day after, when nothing could be done.'

Mr Vaughan, 53, from Hartlepool, said Shatanawi should not have been released before he revealed what he did with the 36-year-old's body.

'They could have said 'you're not going to leave these four walls unless you tell us where the body is and why you did what you did'.

'I wanted to see that man leave the country - they didn't give me that privilege.

'Now they don't know where he is. He could be back in the UK by now, because he is not tagged. He could simply change his name and sneak back in - people do it all the time.'

Mr Vaughan said Cleveland Police officers, which cracked the complex case using DNA evidence which was pioneering at the time, were shocked by the killer's sudden release.

'They told us "This doesn't happen, files have to be written, updates have to be done, before someone is let out'."

Mr Vaughan, who cares for his elderly father, said the pain of losing his sister in such a brutal way has not gone.

'Twenty years down the line, you still feel like it was yesterday.

'Until we lay my sister's body in a proper place we will never give up.

'He has never shown any remorse whatsoever.

'He has never offered an explanation. All he has proved to be is one big liar.'

Blame: Laura May Al-Shatanawi's family have blamed Theresa May's deportion policy, which they fear means he will sneak back into Britain under a new name

Shatanawi tried to keep detectives at bay after he reported his wife was missing.

But he was caught after they discovered an allotment shed he had bought and then tried to destroy just days later.

Forensic tests discovered Laura May's blood on the partly gauged away floor of the shed.

The love-cheat was believed to have dismembered her in the shed at his allotment in Seaton Carew.

He was jailed for life with a minimum term of 16 years in 1994 at Newcastle Crown Court.

He made three unsuccessful applications for parole.

Shatanawi, who owned properties in Hartlepool, had paid a workman to dismantle the shed and burn it, but the man sold it to a friend when he saw it was almost new.

The couple had a seven-year-old son at the time of her murder.