A Scots SAS hero who executed his girlfriend with a Gulf War machine gun is feared to have returned here after being released early.
Veteran Thomas Shanks was jailed for life in April 2000 for the murder of Vickie Fletcher outside a pub in Castleford, Yorkshire.
Nurse Vickie, 21, was gunned down by the former soldier on May 7, 1998, after she dumped him for a former patient. The Glaswegian, then 47, and holder of the Military Medal, fled to his home city where he was captured.
It is feared he may have returned to the city and adopted a new identity after winning early release from an English prison.
A source said: “Shanks is a professional soldier and used to adopting a new identity and keeping a low profile. The fact that his release was not made public knowledge is surprising.”
Shanks dated Vickie for three years while they worked at the Pontefract General Infirmary. Crazed with jealousy, Shanks tracked Vickie and her new man to the pub and confronted them.
He then went home for the Kalashnikov, a trophy from his service in the Gulf War, and returned to the scene. He also had an axe, a sheath knife and a baseball bat in his car.
Shanks confronted Vickie again outside the pub and shot her. He drove to Glasgow and was arrested in a phone box in nearby Lennoxtown. Two cops were given bravery awards for catching him.
Shanks, who trained as an anaesthetist after leaving the SAS, denied murder but admitted manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The plea was not accepted and a jury found him guilty of murder. He was jailed for a minimum of 18 years in 2008 when a law change forced judges to give a minimum tariff for lifers.
But because he was originally jailed in 2000 and had already served two years while awaiting trial, he was able to apply for parole in April 2016.
The judge said Shanks would have got more than 30 years if he had been sentenced in 2008. The Record can reveal that the killer, who grew up in Blackhill, has been roaming the streets on licence for more than five years.
He was allowed back into society in November 2017 after a Parole Board hearing. Shanks told his trial he was not responsible for his actions when he shot Vickie and claimed his mind had been affected by Gulf War syndrome.
The trial judge said his defence was “spurious”. Mrs Justice Cox rejected claims by lawyers that his sentence should be cut because of his “disorder”.
She noted Shanks had lost his temper and “man-handled” nurses at work several times before the murder. He had been given a final warning from the hospital over the incidents.
A spokesman for the Parole Board said: “Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care. Protecting the public is our No1 priority.”
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