No remorse as ‘road-rage fantasy’ killer is set free: Victim’s family grieve... but Tracie Andrews cites human right to a new life

She will go by the name Tia Carter



Killer has already had £5,000 surgery to alter her jaw

Crocodile tears: Tracie Andrews during a press conference in the days after her crime

One of Britain’s most notorious murderers walks free from jail this week after serving her sentence for a crime which robbed a family of a much-loved son.

But Tracie Andrews refuses to apologise for the brutal stabbing of her fiancé Lee Harvey.

Andrews, 41, insists it is now her ‘human right’ to get on with her life.

She will go by the name Tia Carter and has had £5,000 surgery to alter her distinctive jaw and dyed her blonde hair brown.

The former barmaid was jailed for life for killing Mr Harvey, 25, in 1996 during a row as they drove in a country road.

She cut his throat and stabbed him 37 times with a penknife in the back, face, neck and chest.

After leaving him to bleed to death, she concocted a story about a road-rage incident and blamed the other driver for the attack.

Two days after the murder, Andrews went on television holding the hand of Mr Harvey’s mother Maureen to appeal for information to catch the killer.

As her release grows closer, her family has urged her to repent publicly but she continues to insist she owes no one anything and wants to pick up her life where she left off.

‘She categorically refuses to take the blame,’ said a family friend. ‘Her attitude is she has done her time and the slate is now clean. She sees no reason to say sorry to anyone.

'Her family wanted her to make a public statement on her release, for the first time fully admitting what happened and expressing her regret and sorrow over Lee’s death.

Left to die: Lee Harvey was stabbed by his fiancée who then claimed they had been the victim of a road rage attack on a country lane

‘They take the view that unless she shows public remorse, she will be a target for hate. But she has refused to listen and has said repeatedly, point-blank, that she will not say anything to anyone. She says that, having paid her debt to society, it is her human right to be left alone.’

Andrews is expected to be released on Thursday from Askham Grange open prison, near York, where she has spent the last part of her 14-year term.

At her trial in 1997, she stuck to her story about a ‘wide-eyed maniac’ who had attacked Mr Harvey, but she was convicted.

New look: The changes to Andrews' appearance came after she was refused lifelong anonymity

Andrews, who lived with her fiancé in Alvechurch, Worcestershire, later confessed to her crime in a letter from prison but refused to apologise or accept full responsibility.

The changes to her appearance follow the refusal by the Ministry of Justice to grant her lifetime anonymity.

This was given to Maxine Carr, who became her friend in jail. Carr gave a false alibi to her boyfriend Ian Huntley, the killer of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

Instead, Andrews will be kept under observation until early next year.

It is believed that she will stay in a secure ‘approved residence’ in the North of England with CCTV and a night curfew for her safety.

Under a ruling won by Mrs Harvey and her husband Raymond, Andrews will not be able to stay within 50 miles of their Birmingham home without informing them and the police.

This means she cannot stay with her mother Irene in Warwickshire or at her 20-year-old daughter Karla’s home in Walsall.

Yesterday Mrs Harvey declined to comment. But in the past, she has said: ‘All we have left are memories and a grave while she’s ready to carry on as if nothing happened. She is evil.’