The brother of murdered Trowbridge woman Hayley Richards hopes to find out why her killer was deported without the family’s knowledge, after meeting South West Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison.

Paul Richards met Dr Murrison to question why the family were given no warning that Hayley’s killer Hugo Quintas was to be deported from Wandsworth Prison back to his native Portugal.

The 52-year-old was only told by the Wiltshire Probation Trust a day after Quintas was deported and, while Quintas will not be permitted to return to the UK, his release will now managed according to the laws in Portugal.

Mr Richards maintains the trial judge had ruled that Quintas, who was jailed for life for a minimum of 18 years for murdering his 23-year-old pregnant girlfriend in June 2005, should serve at least two-thirds of his sentence in the UK.

After the meeting at Warminster Conservative Club last Friday, Mr Richards said: “Dr Murrison said he will write to the relevant ministers and ask for answers for me. We will have to wait now, but it will be interesting to see where we go from here.

“I need to find out if Quintas is going to serve the 18 years he was given and I also want to know more about support for victims afterwards, because there was very little of it for us.

“Dr Murrison is also going to see if Quintas is going to be let out under some sort of licence. He agrees there needs to be more support for families and he was for families getting more information after a killer is convicted.

“We weren’t told anything about him being deported and hopefully we will find out why that was. It’s been a very difficult period for us and going through this just rakes everything back up again.”

Dr Murrison said he is taking up Mr Richards’ questions with Home Secretary Theresa May and Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling and hopes to get answers in the coming weeks.

He added: “It’s clear the family feel strongly that they haven’t been properly supported and are keen that as victims they should be given the priority that is their due.

“I want to see what the Government is going to do for victims of serious crime. I know they want to improve matters for victims and help people in this ghastly position. It’s a complex case.

“ I think most of us would want to see those from other countries who commit crimes here deported, as long as they are properly punished, and that’s what I want to know in this case.”