A mother's agony for a daughter brutally killed at Christmas - and the ruling that makes the hurt worse.

Byline: Alastair Craig

AFTER a decade of grieving Christmas Day remains a time for pain, not presents, for Doreen Soulsby.

Doreen's 29-year-old daughter Joanne Tulip was murdered in the early hours of December 25, 1997.

The chilling news arrived with a telephone call at 11am as gifts were being unwrapped - and they have remained half-opened ever since.

Joanne sustained 60 injuries in a sadistic attack, including 31 knife wounds, some of them lacerations to her hands as she desperately tried to defend herself.

Drunk farm labourer Steven Ling, 35, was later jailed for at least 20 years for the murder, which the then Home Secretary Jack Straw publicly branded as "butchery".

Now, as Joanne's depraved killer wins a two-year cut in his jail sentence, Doreen has opened her heart for the first time about how her family was almost destroyed by grief. And the grandmother-of-three is continuing her harrowing fight for changes to the British justice system as her only daughter's murderer aims for freedom in just six years' time.

"I was with my son, Michael, and my three grandchildren on Christmas Day in Newburn," said Doreen.

"They were young and hyper because Santa Claus had been. We were all opening presents when the telephone rang.

"One of the little ones picked up the phone and said it was grandad Tulip, Joanne's father.

"Michael took the phone and all I can remember is him standing silent, looking at the ceiling. I thought 'what's going on?' Michael said 'Joanne's been murdered'. Everything changed from then.

"I went into complete orbit and the children were screaming because they knew something wasn't right. They didn't know what was wrong with their grandma and were ushered away."

Joanne was a popular hairdresser who enjoyed travelling and had been partying with friends on Christmas Eve 12 years ago in a pub in Stamfordham, Northum-berlandclose to her father's home.

Struggling to contain her grief as she relived the ordeal, Doreen said: "I went in the car to Hexham with my son to identify Joanne's body.

"As other people were having their Christmas dinner, we were confirming that the dead woman was Joanne.

"The doctors wouldn't let me see her body, just her face, presumably because her wounds were so terrible. I couldn't have taken it.

"Joanne looked angry and she had blood coming from her mouth.

"The image of her I carry with me is of her in the mortuary. I will never get it out of my head. In the beginning I would imagine what her body looked like under the sheet."

Ling met Joanne during a night out in Stamfordham on Christmas Eve 1997 and convinced her to go back to his house.

Once there, he took a knife and, after threatening to commit suicide, forced himself upon her before stabbing her and attempting to suffocate her with a pillow. When the knife broke, Ling went to the kitchen, took another blade and continued the vicious attack, before trying and failing to cut his wrists.

As well as stabbing her repeatedly and brutally, he also attempted to carve a swastika on her collar and forced a cigarette into her body.

"I haven't celebrated Christmas since then and never will again," said Doreen, whose son, Michael, is now 40.

"I visit Joanne's ashes now in Stamfordham's churchyard. I feel I have to be there for her. I can't desert her just because she's not with us any more.

"Joanne's murder was about as horrific as you can get. Her death is like a wound seeping all the time.

"The only way I can describe it, is that it was like I was constantly wearing a veil and looking at life through a picture of Joanne's face.

"Now her death is a scar that will never heal. She is constantly on my mind."

In October 1999, after a trial at Newcastle Crown Court, Mr Straw ordered that Ling serve at least 20 years before being allowed to apply for release.

But last week, following a Comment 10 review of his case at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, High Court judge Mr Justice Owen cut his minimum term to 18 years.

Taking into account the 11 months he spent in custody before he was sentenced, the decision means Ling will be free to apply for his release before the end of 2015.

Mr Straw had not had the subsequent guidance given by the Sentencing Guidelines Council on the reductions in tariff that should be given to killers who plead guilty.

Doreen, who runs a garden tours company from her home in Wall, near Hexham, said: "It's terrible to imagine what she was thinking. How afraid she must have been.

"This man should never be let free. Words really can't describe what I think of him and what he did."

Ling will only be released after serving his tariff if he can convince the Parole Board he is no longer a danger to the public and, even then, will remain on licence for life.

CAPTION(S):

MUCH LOVED Joanne Tulip was murdered by Steven Ling at Christmas 1997. He could be out of jail in 2015. NEW BLOW Doreen Soulsby will continue to fight for changes to the British justice system.