A paedophile who murdered an 11-year-old boy while he was a teenager has been refused release by the Parole Board.

Convicted sex offender Dominic McKilligan, 44, killed schoolboy Wesley Neailey in Newcastle in 1998 and was jailed for life in 1999.

Following an oral hearing on September 16, the Parole Board said on Thursday that it had also refused to recommend moving McKilligan to an open prison.

Nine months before Wesley’s death, McKilligan, 18 at the time of the killing, was discharged from Aycliffe Young People’s Centre in County Durham, where he had been sent for a string of sex attacks on young boys in his home town of Bournemouth in 1994.

We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board refused the release of Dominic McKilligan following an oral hearing

McKilligan was not eligible to be placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register because his sentence, a three-year supervision order, ended one day before the provisions of the 1997 Sex Offenders Act came into force.

Previously described in local authority reports as a danger to children, McKilligan went on to befriend the 11-year-old and attacked him at the garage of his home in Wingrove Road, Newcastle, less than a mile from Wesley’s house.

Wesley was missing for a month before his body, partially enclosed in plastic bags, was found dumped on a grass verge in the Northumberland village of Healey.

McKilligan was jailed for the killing in July 1999, but his conviction for rape was quashed at the High Court in 2000.

As a result, he will not be subject to the Sex Offenders’ Register if he is eventually released.

The review by the Parole Board was McKilligan’s fourth following the end of his initial minimum jail term in July 2018.

In its decision summary, the Parole Board said McKilligan “had maintained his innocence of murder, though he accepted he had caused his victim’s death”.

It added there was “insufficient evidence of significant risk reduction at this point”.

A spokesperson for the Parole Board said: “We can confirm that a panel of the Parole Board refused the release of Dominic McKilligan following an oral hearing.

“The panel also refused to recommend a move to open prison.

“Parole Board decisions are solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community.

“It is standard for the prisoner and witnesses to be questioned at length during the hearing which often lasts a full day or more.

“Parole reviews are undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care.

“Protecting the public is our number one priority.”