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Woman's Hour: Deborah James; Colin Pitchfork Parole and Falling in love with an object

Deborah James on bowel cancer, Maria Miller, Nitrous oxide, Sarah Newman

Deborah James; Colin Pitchfork Parole and Falling in love with an object

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, Deborah James; Colin Pitchfork Parole and Falling in love with an object

Deborah James on living with cancer and the hidden life of Maria Callas

Deborah James on living with cancer, Colin Pitchfork's Parole, falling in love with objects and the hidden life of Maria Callas.

Deborah James is a the host of the BBC's You, Me And The Big C podcast, a campaigner, writer and mother of two. As @bowelbabe she blogs about living with stage 4 bowel cancer since Christmas 2016.  After trialling experimental drugs she was told she had ‘no sign of active disease’, not once but twice.  She joins Emma to discuss her recent experience of liver failure followed by sepsis, how she attended Wimbledon only 12 hours after leaving hospital, her mission to protect cancer care, and why she is rewriting her next book, How to Live When You Could Be Dead.

Yesterday the Government's challenge to a Parole Board decision to release Colin Pitchfork was rejected - paving the way for the double child killer to be freed in the next few weeks. Pitchfork has served 33 years in prison after being jailed for raping and murdering 15-year-olds Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth in the 1980s. A judge-led independent review rejected a bid by ministers to halt his release. Philip Musson, the uncle of Dawn Ashworth tells Emma how disappointed the family are by the decision. David Wilson Emeritus Professor of criminology at Birmingham City University and former prison governor, is concerned that Pitchfork has “gamed” the rehabilitation system. Belinda Winder, a Professor of Forensic Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, whose primary field is sexual offending explains how carefully parole boards come to their decisions and the importance of reintegration into the community. 

Have you ever been in love with an object? Yes, that's right. Not a person: a thing, or maybe a building? There's a new French film out called Jumbo, and it's about a young woman who falls in love with a fairground attraction. Zoe Wittock is the director.

A number of high profile gruesome cases of women dying after their partners claimed  “rough sex gone wrong” as a defence led to a change in the law earlier this year.  The Domestic Abuse Act states that even if consensual, the infliction of serious harm, or worse will lead to prosecution. The veteran labour MP Harriet Harman was instrumental in getting the law changed but she says it’s not always working in practice and she joins Emma Barnett to explain why she’s calling for the Director of Prosecutions Max Hill to review two cases of particular concern.

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