Two convicted killers are among the three prisoners transferred to the island this week.

Home Affairs Minister Graham Cregeen announced that the prisoners had been transferred to the island from prisons in the UK.

The department has refused to name the prisoners, who are all serving life sentences, but families of their victims have confirmed they were told of their arrival.

Some of the families say they were only told shortly before the media was informed.

It is know that among the three prisoners are Peter Newbery, who killed Samantha Barton and George Green and Andrew Dickson who killed Keith Kirby. Their transfers were confirmed by their victims’ families on social media.

However, a Department of Home Affairs spokesman would not confirm or deny this, saying: ’We don’t release the names of prisoners.’

All prisoners are now classified as category B or below.

Mr Cregeen said: ’I appreciate that the return of these prisoners to the island may be unsettling for the community.

’Planning has been ongoing for this move for some time, but was paused during the Covid pandemic. We are ever-conscious of the victims and their families and the impact that decisions of this nature may have. We have worked to ensure, as best we can, that the victims or their loved ones affected by this decision have been informed.’

However, several members of the victims’ families stated on social media that they were given little notice of the prisoners’ return, with one family saying they were only informed minutes before the government announced the transfer to the island’s media.

Despite this, the spokesman added: ’The immediate families were informed as soon as the UK Government agreed to the transfer.

’This has been a difficult balance to achieve as we didn’t want to let the families know until we had agreement from the UK to the transfer. Once agreement was reached, the transfer moved very quickly.

’We acknowledge this has been distressing to the families. Our probation service has a dedicated victim liaison team which has been in touch with the families and met most of them in person. We will continue to offer ongoing support to those families who require it.’

The move is part of a standard process for Manx criminals who are convicted here but serve at least part of their sentence in the UK and allows for decisions on any potential parole or conditions upon their release being determined in the island as opposed to in the UK.

A spokesman for the DHA said: ’The Isle of Man’s custody legislation means that any offenders serving a life term are not subject to automatic release and must satisfy the parole committee that they are no longer a risk to the public.

’The parole committee is independent from Government and considers a range of factors relating to the individual and the risks they pose.

’This includes detailed reports from the probation service. This level of rigour in relation to probation was unlikely to have been applied in the UK, particularly the Isle of Man context.’