A PAROLE hearing for a handyman who murdered four people has been adjourned.

George Francis Stephenson’s hearing was scheduled to conclude on Thursday, November 30 after a two-day hearing, but this was adjourned.

An oral hearing is now listed for Friday, December 29.

Stephenson was given a mandatory life sentence aged 36 in 1987, after he was convicted of murdering two men and two women, raping another woman, and robbery.

He killed husband and wife Joseph and Hilda Cleaver, their son Tom and family nurse Margaret Murphy at Burgate House in Fordingbridge in September 1986.

Stephenson became eligible for parole in 2021, having served his minimum term of 35 years imprisonment.

A hearing was previously started by the Parole Board in May 2022, but it was adjourned.

In February 2023, victims of the crime, supported by then-justice secretary Dominic Raab, had requested for the hearing to be heard in public, but this request was refused.

Stephenson was tried along with brothers George and John Daly.

John Daly was given a life sentence after he was convicted of the same offences at Stephenson, while George Daly was cleared of murder, but sentenced to 22 years in prison for rape, robbery and manslaughter.