Boyfriend killer Tasmin Glass has sparked anger by moving into a close-knit community after being freed just halfway through her jail sentence.
Glass, 26, and two male accomplices were jailed for the “savage and depraved” killing of her former boyfriend Steven Donaldson in Kirriemuir, Angus, in 2018.
Glass lured her unborn baby’s dad to his death but has served just five years before being allowed to walk free – in a move slammed by her victim’s family as a “disaster”.
After being banned as part of her parole conditions from moving to the Angus area, Glass has moved to East Lothian and was photographed near a primary school in Dunbar.
Furious locals now want Glass removed from their quiet seaside town. Our exclusive pictures show Glass smiling as she stands with other parents and children at the school.
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One enraged parent from the town said: “It’s disgusting. She always looks so cold and chilling. She comes every day and stands smiling as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. She’s always around children after being involved in one of Scotland’s most harrowing and horrific murders. I cannot believe she only served five years. She should have been made to stay inside the whole sentence.”
Former Scottish government justice minister Kenny Macaskill last night warned Glass she should be dragged back to prison if she puts a foot wrong in his former constituency of East Lothian.
He said: “She is released under licence. She requires to adhere to the terms of the licence and if there’s any fears at all about her actions, then individuals and communities should be raising them and the Parole Board should be either reining her in or, ultimately, if she doesn’t desist, if there’s something untoward, then recalling her. The powers exist. She is out on trust and if the trust is broken, then she goes straight back to jail without passing go.”
He added: “Her actions were appalling and she rightly was sentenced and convicted. I can understand communities’ concerns and that’s a matter of why those who are overseeing her should be perhaps having a word in her ear about where she goes and what she does.”
Scottish Labour’s justice spokeswoman Pauline McNeill also said there must be close monitoring of Glass.
She said: “This was a heinous crime committed and it must be an incredibly difficult time for the Donaldson family. The Scottish Government must act to keep all communities safe from harm and, crucially, there must be close monitoring of the conditions applied in a case like this to give victims’ families and communities confidence in the criminal justice system”
Another parent from the town told the Daily Record: “Nobody knew who she was at first. I think I first noticed her after the summer break and she seemed nice enough to chat to at the school gates but someone recognised her or she told someone the truth and then word started filtering around the other parents. We’ve been assured by the head teacher she is not a risk to children but a few of us aren’t sure about that.”
He added: “The word is she isn’t allowed anywhere near Angus, so they’ve put her down here. I know they have to be put somewhere but everyone is a bit shocked by it. We’d rather she was moved elsewhere to see out her sentence.”
Glass was jailed for 10 years for the culpable homicide of Steven, 27, while pregnant with his child in Kirriemuir in 2018. She was just 20 years old when she crashed a car he had bought for her, writing it off.
She owed him £1000 from the insurance payout but instead of admitting she could not find the cash, she concocted a deadly scheme to end his life. She lured Steven to a remote spot where her accomplices Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson, both 24, murdered him.
Steven was initially attacked at the Peter Pan children’s play park at Kirriemuir, before he was transported to the nearby Loch of Kinnordy Nature Reserve. There, he was hit again on the head and body with a knife and a baseball bat and was repeatedly struck on the neck with a heavy, bladed weapon before his car was set on fire.
After a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in May 2019, Glass was convicted of culpable homicide and sent to a Young Offenders’ Institute for 10 years. Dickie and Davidson were found guilty of murder and given life sentences with a minimum punishment period of 23 years and 24 years respectively. In November that year, Dickie took his own life in Perth Prison.
Judge Lord Pentland described Glass – who had given birth to her victim’s child a few months previously – as “manipulative and devious” and told her: “You returned home where you continued to go on with your normal routine. You showed a chilling coolness. You are manipulative and devious in advancing your own interests.”
When Glass was granted parole in July, five years into her sentence, the family of Steven described her release as “a disaster”.
They had been warned she was eligible for early release in 2024 and found out about the decision by email from a victim liaison officer for the Parole Board for Scotland.
Her release has conditions attached that she can’t live in Dundee or Angus or approach Steven’s relatives. His family said in a statement after her release: “Whilst this may have been her first offence, it was a very significant, calculated and serious one for which she showed no remorse or acceptance. We continue to be of the view that Tasmin Glass is a risk to ourselves and the wider public.”
The family said at the time they “objected in the strongest possible terms” to her release and stated they did not believe she should be living in the community given the impact her crime had on the family.
A relative said: “This decision strengthens our concerns that the concerns of victims and their families are not taken into consideration and decisions are made in the best interests of the offender only. We are of the view justice has not been served and Steven’s life was worth far more than five years. Quite frankly we are appalled at this.”
A Parole Board spokesman said after her release: “In order for the board to grant release on parole licence, it must be satisfied that the level of risk posed by the individual can be managed safely in the community. The board was satisfied and has therefore granted release on licence.”
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