The UK’s longest-serving female prisoner is set to be freed from prison after the Parole Board approved her release. Maria Pearson , 70, has spent almost 39 years behind bars after stabbing her ex-boyfriend’s new partner, Janet Newton, to death in 1986. She was initially ordered to serve a minimum of 12-years before being considered for parole. But repeated concerns over her behaviour and the risk she posed to the public kept her in prison for an extra 27 years. In a decision summary released