In 1993, Josephakis Charalambous arranged for the killing of Sian Simmonds, after the 19-year-old patient filed a complaint against him for inappropriate sexual behaviour.
A former Surrey doctor who hired a hitman to kill a teenager in the early 1990s has lost his latest attempt to seek parole.
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Josephakis Charalambous’ application for day parole was denied this month, with parole board members David Hunt and Ryan Nash citing his “manipulative behaviours” and his dropping participation in prison programming after he was moved to a lower security situation.
“You have, however, yet to sufficiently demonstrate your skills in a less-secure environment, and upon return to the community there is little confidence in your ability to establish a collaborative working relationship with your parole supervisor, to actively participate in recommended programming, or to effectively avoid or manage narcissistic injury,” the decision read.
“In general, the board finds your release plans insufficient to manage your assessed risk to reoffend sexually or with general or domestic violence.”
In 1993, Charalambous arranged for the killing of Sian Simmonds, after the 19-year-old patient filed a complaint against him for inappropriate sexual behaviour.
Weeks before a scheduled disciplinary hearing into the allegations, Simmonds was shot and killed by David Schlender, who had been hired by an associate of Charalambous.
The doctor was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy in 1994 and sentenced to life without parole eligibility for 25 years.
In a 2023 psychological assessment considered by the parole board in its latest decision, it was determined that Charalambous presented “at least a moderate risk for future violence in the community.”
While he displayed “generally good institutional behaviour,” the assessment found that it was not a factor to be considered in the parole decision, since the target of any potential future violence were likely girls or women Charalambous would not have encountered while in custody.
The parole board also noted that Charalambous did not make full use of sex offender programming and instead, used it as an opportunity to “challenge all rationale for being in sex offender programming.” He was also described as being “manipulative” and “skilled at impression management,” and had attempted to barter information with prison staff.
In his previous 2020 parole application, Charalambous had indicated he hoped to write books if released. In the parole decision issued this month, the board noted that it had recently come to light that the books Charalambous hoped to write were actually children’s books.
“This latter aspect is something you had not previously revealed, and it raised concern given the age of your victims, the age of some of the complainants of sexually inappropriate behaviour, and about the likelihood of this increasing your access to potential victims,” read the decision.
“You have been dismissive of these concerns, believing your case management team) is making small things into a big deal.”