A woman fears for her safety as her sister's killer is freed today after serving only seven years of a life sentence.

American Curtis Howard dumped the blood-soaked body of Catherine Ayling in a car boot at Gatwick Airport in 1991.

Before killing her, he had broken into her sister Sylvia Hartigan's home in Wick and etched 'Catherine is dead' on furniture.

During his trial in 1994, the judge said that Howard, a 6ft 4in computer science student with a long history of mental illness, posed a threat to the family.

Judge Mr Justice Hidden told Howard: "Even after the death of Catherine, it is necessary to protect the public and particularly her sister and her husband from serious harm from you."

Howard, 33, was being released today from HM Prison Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire after convincing the parole board he no longer posed a threat.

The decision has been condemned by Catherine's Sussex-based family, who fear Howard may seek reprisals against them, despite assurances he will be flown back to the United States.

Mrs Hartigan, 39, said the family was afraid Howard would attempt to track them down and harm them.

She said: "We don't want details of where we live to be known because you never know what might happen.

"We have moved from the house where he broke in and he doesn't know where we live now. We want to keep it that way."

She added: "The family is furious. We don't think the time he has served reflects the severity of the crime.

"He should have served the full sentence but I don't suppose we have got an awful lot of say in the matter.

"We knew he was up for parole some months ago but the first we heard he was being released was last Wednesday when the decision had already been made.

"We're all very unhappy about it, as you can imagine."

Mrs Hartigan has written to Arundel and South Downs Tory MP Howard Flight registering the family's disgust at the decision to free Howard early.

Howard became infatuated with 24-year-old Catherine, a former Worthing College student from Arundel, after she made a six-month student exchange trip to the US in 1989.

She fended off his advances after agreeing to go out with him once but he continued to pester her by phone after she had returned to Britain.

Howard was deported to the US after wrecking Mrs Hartigan's home but he slipped back into Britain in 1991 using a false passport.

He tracked Catherine to college in Cheshire and lay in wait before launching a frenzied attack on her as she walked to her car.

He dumped her body in the boot of his hired green Montego before flying back to America from Gatwick.

Brought back to Britain, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

It is understood Howard will be flown back to America but there is no statutory obligation for US authorities to supervise prisoners released on licence from British jails.