Pic:Convicted killer: Dempsey Hawkins (wp )
Crime reporter(wp/es):
A “cruel” killer who was deported to Britain after serving 38 years in jail for strangling his teenage girlfriend in the US has joined an online meeting site to date women in London, it can be revealed.
Dempsey Hawkins, 58, who was refused parole nine times before his release in 2017, used an alias to contact a woman on social networking site Meetup.com
In messages seen by the Standard, he tried to foster a relationship with her, suggesting they explore the capital together. He did not reveal his conviction for the murder of his 14-year-old ex-girlfriend Susan Jacobson in New York in 1976.
Hawkins strangled her with a shirt and hid her body in an oil drum. Three years later he was jailed for a minimum of 22 years for murder.
The London-born killer was refused parole for years because he was considered too dangerous to release, despite good behaviour in jail. He was finally allowed out on condition he was deported to the UK, the country he left with his mother at the age of six.
He was flown to Heathrow in January last year with letters of support from the British consulate in New York. He was helped in his return by Cambridge University criminology expert Dr Ruth Armstrong, who campaigned for his release. She found him a job in a Mexican restaurant run by her husband.
The woman who was contacted by Hawkins only discovered his past when an online search threw up news articles about his murder conviction. She said: “He sent me a message from a profile called Dempsey Louis. I responded and he was terribly forward. He gave me his number immediately.
“I thought it was an unusual name and he said he lived in Cambridge, so I googled him and there was a reference to the murderer Dempsey Hawkins. I compared their photographs and it was obviously the same man. I was horrified.”
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, added: “I could’ve gone on a date with him — that’s really scary.
“I have contacted the police because I think they need to know he’s actively looking for women. I think other women ought to know this as well.
“You go to singles events and don’t expect to run into someone like that.
“I hope he’s a contributing member of society but I think it’s important other females and males in his dating network know his face, know he killed his original girlfriend and he’s looking for another. I would not be able to live with myself if someone else got hurt and I didn’t say anything. As soon as I found out who he was I blocked him. It’s too frightening.”
Hawkins told the Standard that he wanted to focus on his future.
He said: “If someone goes to the newspapers or whatever, then what can I do? I can understand it. You cannot control what anyone does, but I understand it. I look at it like this — I didn’t harass anybody. I did not say anything bad.
“I just asked would they like to go on a date. ‘No?’ OK then, bye. That’s it.”
Hawkins was 16 when he lured his girlfriend Susan Jacobson, 14, to a remote area of Staten Island in May 1976 and strangled her after their relationship ended.
He finally won parole in 2016 after repeated appeals. The parole board said: “Your actions exhibit a cruel deliberation and contempt that prompt us to find that your release in the United States would deprecate the seriousness of the crime as to undermine respect for the law.”
Hawkins, who had an “exemplary record” in jail, expressed regret for his actions at parole hearings and vowed to lead a crime-free life if released.
He told one hearing: “I am remorseful for the crime. I am deeply, I’m terribly sorry. … I will never harm another human being, and I mean that.”
No conditions are believed to have been attached to his release other than that he does not return to the US or contact the family of his victim.
The father of his victim, William Jacobson, said women should “stay away” from Hawkins if contacted. “All I can say is protect yourself. He’s a murderer, he should be in prison. Stay away,” he told the Standard today.
“I would hope that whoever is involved would contact the police once they know what he’s done in the past. I’m glad he’s out of the United States, but I’m also sorry for the people in England who have to put up with him now. He never should have been let out.
“I think anyone who has ever committed any sort of horrendous crime is always capable of doing it again. No matter who it is.”
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