Calls for a man who shot dead a woman outside a police station 20 years ago to have a public parole hearing have been rejected.

The review for Paul Asbury will decide whether he should remain behind bars, but a request for it to be heard in public was not granted by the Parole Board.

Asbury murdered 25-year-old Sabina Rizvi in the early hours of March 20 2003 outside Bexleyheath police station in south-east London. A year later he was jailed for life with a minimum term of 20 years, which expires next week.

Since last year victims and the press have been allowed to submit applications to the Parole Board for a prisoner’s parole hearing to take place in public as part of a bid to remove the secrecy around the process.

The Parole Board said on Wednesday: “The application for a public hearing has not been granted. However, if the victims wish, the Parole Board will explore whether it may be possible to support the victims observing the private hearing, subject to conditions, if appropriate arrangements can be made.”

Ms Rizvi’s family has been “fighting for years” for an investigation into the circumstances of her “tragic” death, lawyers representing her relatives have said.

In a document detailing the reasons for the decision, Parole Board chairman Caroline Corby said the family had her “deepest sympathies” but a “high bar” had been set for public hearings to be in the interests of justice, adding: “I have decided that this high bar is not met in this case.”

Although the case is “distressing”, there are no “special features of this particular case which set it apart from other cases and which may therefore add to the proper public understanding of the parole system”, she said.

An inquest into Ms Rizvi’s death is due to take place next month.