Today's Early Release Murderer - Strike One For Ken Clarke

Ken Clarke is so right - prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.

Take Raoul Moat for example - an ordinary bouncer from Gateshead who inadvertantly 'got caught up in crime' and assaulted someone.

Some idiot magistrate who probably read in the Mail that 'prison works' sent him down - and what happened ? He comes straight out and murders someone !

Armed officers are seeking Moat, 38, who is believed to have fired on the young victim, named locally as Samantha Stobbart, through the living room window. A man believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s was also shot dead outside the property in Birtley, Gateshead. He has not yet been named by police. Miss Stobbart, 22, who has a young daughter named Chanel, is thought to have been shot in the stomach and is now in a critical condition in hospital. Moat has previously worked as a nightclub doorman and was released from jail on Thursday after serving time for assault.

So our criminal justice system turns a man into a murderer with one short sentence ! Nobody gets a long sentence for a little thing like assault nowadays, do they ?

As Rob Allen of the Centre For Crime But No Justice Studies puts it :

His recognition in today's speech at King's College London that there are more people in prison than necessary is as welcome as it is overdue. His description of prison as often costly and ineffectual marks a return to late 1980s Conservative policy under Douglas Hurd, which saw that far from working, "imprisonment can often be an expensive way of making bad people worse."

UPDATE - that short sentence has done even more damage than we thought.

Police said the uniformed motor patrol officer was carrying out a "static patrol" on a roundabout joining the A1 and A69 when he was attacked. He suffered a gun shot wound and was taken to Newcastle General Hospital.

I suppose it's no surprise that Rob Allen is on board. I've just taken a look at Ian Duncan-Smith's Centre for Social Justice site. Who's on the Working Groups ?

Aslyum - Bob Holman, the holy fool of Easterhouse. Did they really ever send asylum seekers there ? That is what I call cruelty. And an asylum seeker, of course.

Courts and Sentencing - well, there's the chair of the Prisoners Education Trust, anti-prison activist Enver Solomon, deputy dawg at the anti-prison 'charity' based at King's College London. And who's this 'advisor' - no less than Rob Allen, director of same 'charity' !

Social Cohesion don't look too promising, either, given the presence of a Peace Studies lecturer whose book has 'a foreword by Jon Snow'.

Economic dependency looks a bit 50-50, Early Years seems full of pointy-heads .. only the Police Reform working group looks sound - Ray Mallon, Norman Dennis, David Green, Ken Pease (possibly the only non-Guardianista criminologist in existence). Even they have Steve Green, former head of Notts Police and the guy who in August 2005 issued his force with green ribbons "to show solidarity with the Muslim community after a series of racist attacks".

Prison reform - uber-liberal Rod "The Master" Morgan and James Monahan, the double murderer who writes for the Guardian - the CJS give him his pen-name. He also features (with Rob Allen again and some NACRO guy) in the Youth Justice area.

What we're seeing in Ken Clarke's "Back To The 80's" initiative is a toxic synergy between the desire of the Tories to cut government spending and the desire of the liberal establishment to bang no man up except racists and smokers. They pretend that a few more social workers and probation officer chats will cut crime and he pretends to believe them.

This is cost centre management at its very worst. Ken will save on the headline costs while passing on even more of the cost of crime, financial, social, moral, psychological, to individuals, families and communities.


















Looks like the Cameroon honeymoon is the shortest on record.

Today's Early Release Murderer - Robert Tozer

A man who murdered his 85-year-old neighbour in a "merciless" attack in her home has been jailed for life. Robert Tozer pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to killing Joan Charlton in West Parade, Hull, in June. The judge recommended Tozer, 20, spend at least 22 years in jail before being considered for parole.

Humberside Police had described the attack on Mrs Charlton, in which every bone in her face was broken, as "sustained and brutal".

As chance would have it, the BBC report is somewhat light on the unpleasant detail.

He repeatedly assaulted her with a bottle in the living room before searching upstairs for cash. Tozer came back downstairs to discover the injured pensioner trying to reach the phone in the hall to call for help and launched a merciless attack. He stamped on her head, cut the phone line, deactivated the fire alarm and tried to set fire to her body despite knowing she was still alive.

All the reports, except the BBC, point out that Tozer had been released from prison just weeks before (for attacking someone with a pool cue). At that point you assume he was freed early - isn't everyone these days ?

Tozer, who was sentenced to life for Mrs Charlton's murder at Hull Crown Court yesterday, had been released from prison early after serving five months of a 15- month sentence for assault, one of two previous convictions for violence.

I see you only serve a third, rather than half - when did that happen ?

Chalk up yet another death to our Probation "Service".


UPDATE - expanded at Biased-BBC.

"Disturbance"

You'd have to pay good money to see performance art like this in some countries - here it's free and on the front lawn :

An armed police response unit was called to deal with an incident in the city after reports of a knife and gun being brandished. Police were called after a car was driven through a hedge during a disturbance in Hartwell Way, Ravensthorpe, Peterborough. A car, which is believed to have been carrying the two men, ploughed through a hedge and collided with the home in Hartwell Way, Ravensthorpe. A number of men are thought to have jumped out of the vehicle prior to an altercation breaking out on the home's front lawn.

Three people were inside the property at the time, including a nine-month-old baby, but the occupants were unharmed. Homeowner Simon Hallowell was on a night shift when the incident happened at 1.20am, but today described the shocking scene that met a family member as he looked out of a window. He said: "My relative was woken by a bang and thought it was a burglary. He looked out of the window and saw two people having a stand-off, one holding a knife and the other a rifle-like object". Following the argument, the silver car made off with three or four people inside.

Insp Snow said that it was likely that there would be "extensive damage" to the car due to the collision. One man, who left the scene in the car, is described as black, and was wearing a white T-shirt and grey jogging bottoms. A second man, who fled on foot, is described as black, 6ft 1in and wore black clothing with a hood up.

In the Land of the Free you can still get a more traditional form of disturbance :

"A domestic disturbance turned into a headache for one Sherman man when police say his wife hit him in the face with a frying pan."

That's the way the girls are in Texas ... but back in the land of the community penalty ...

Police were called to reports of a disturbance at the address close to Silver Street railway station at about 2.30pm. Melvyn Bryan, of Peckham, south east London, was taken to hospital for treatment but died of his injuries.

Scallyland :

Ian Aitken, 46, received a fatal stab wound to his neck following an argument with the defendant Jason Moran, 23, in 2007 at the address they shared on Firbeck, Skelmersdale. Police were called to the scene at 11.45pm on Friday, December 7, by Moran reporting a disturbance at his home address.

Is this police oficer taking the mick ?

Senior investigating officer, Det Chief Insp Tim Leeson from Lancashire Constabulary said: "Knife crime causes massive grief and pain to both families and today's sentence demonstrates how seriously it is taken.

I think he must be - either that or he's got a good line in irony :

A Skelmersdale man has been jailed for three years after pleading guilty to stabbing his flatmate to death after a disturbance at their home.

Wow

An impressive resource, this. I wonder why I've not heard of Michael Hughes or his site before ?

This website is hosted by a former detective sergeant in the Metropolitan Police who worked inside the British criminal justice system for in excess of 25 yrs - including 6 years in one of Her Majesty’s Young Offenders Institutions. This has given him a wealth of insider knowledge as to the workings of the CJ System - and the necessary authority and ‘streetcred’ to become the author of a True Crime & Political hard backed book entitled,

JUDGEMENT IMPAIRED

Law, Disorder & Injustice to Victims in 21st Century Britain

(This book has received excellent book reviews from a retired Crown Court Judge, a former Senior Probation Officer, the Legal Editor of Jane’s Police Review - part of Jane’s Information Group - a widely read and very long established weekly Police publication - and others - See BOOK REVIEWS)

There are 808 pages in this book, spread over 24 chapters.

Your 79 On Bail Murderers (Minimum) Tonight

One in six murders was committed last year by someone who was out on bail for another offence, figures disclosed suggest. In 79 out of 462 murder cases, the alleged perpetrator was facing separate charges at the time of the offence, according to statistics obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Police leaders said the figures proved that a "systemic failure" in the bail process was undermining efforts to keep the streets safe. Their disclosure follows a string of murders carried out by people who had been freed from custody. Nick Herbert, the shadow justice secretary, said: "These shocking figures underline the need for tighter bail laws. Public safety must come first."

In one county, Avon and Somerset, just under half of all those charged with murder in 2007 were on bail for other offences. Three were on police bail, three on court bail and two on both court and police bail. The statistics came from 34 forces in England, Scotland and Wales but did not include, among others, figures from the Metropolitan police, in whose area the most murders were committed last year.

High-profile cases have included that of Garry Newlove, 47, who was kicked to death outside his Cheshire home last summer by Adam Swellings, who had been freed from custody earlier that day. Last week an inquest heard how Garry Weddell, a former police inspector, shot dead his mother-in-law and then committed suicide while waiting to be tried for the murder of his wife, Sandra. In January, when details of his case first emerged, Gordon Brown promised a review, saying: "If any changes in the law are necessary, we will make them."

However, last month it was revealed 60 murder suspects were still walking the streets after being granted bail by the courts. In manslaughter cases the figures were even more stark with 35 suspects out on bail - 85 per cent of those charged. Only six were in custody.

And an early release double murderer.

A convicted murderer from Teesside has been told he will die in prison after strangling and stabbing his wife. Douglas Vinter, 38, was separated from Anne White when he stabbed her to death at his mother's house in February.

The bodybuilder, who was released from prison in 2005 after serving nine years for killing a workmate, later told police "I had my reasons". Vinter, of no fixed address, admitted murder and was given a whole life sentence at Teesside Crown Court.

Vinter, formerly a railway signalman, was jailed in 1996 for the knife murder of train worker Robert Eden, 24, in a railway cabin.

Two Early Release Killers and an Early Release Lord Chief Justice

In reverse order of dangerousness, John Campbell, Richard Hanson, and Lord Chief Justice Phillips of Worth Matravers.

Campbell, 34, was serving an eight-year sentence for two offences of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement when he was granted unsupervised leave. He was initially placed on a high supervision level when he was sentenced in August 2002. But his supervision level was wrongly reduced to medium at Kilmarnock prison within 12 months of his sentencing. At a review in December 2004, Campbell's supervision level was again wrongly reduced to low, making him eligible for unsupervised home leave when he was transferred to Castle Huntly.

Sentenced to eight years in 2002. Two years later he's tranferred to Scotland's legendary comedy "prison", Castle Huntly. He's given "home leave" in 2005, three years into an "eight" year sentence, takes it and kills Catherine Thomson a day later.

The court was told that Richard Hanson, who has an IQ of 78, had suffered from disturbed behaviour since the age of three, when it was reported that he kicked a teacher and set fire to a bed. He has numerous previous convictions and was most recently sentenced to 18 weeks' imprisonment on July 3 last year for offences of resisting or obstructing a person assisting a constable, shoplifting and driving while disqualified. He was released on September 8, just under two weeks before the attack.

Kicked "a teacher" at the age of three ? What was he doing with a teacher at that age ? I know not, but his release seven weeks into an eighteen week sentence killed Gemma Roberts. Hanson cut her throat in the street as she walked past in a random and motiveless attack. He did it because he could.

If he had "numerous previous convictions", why exactly did the Probation "Service" think he was fit to be released less than half way through his latest sentence ?

The most depressing bit of this depressing saga is the sentence. The poor chap's ill, you see. Unlike Gemma Roberts.

Setting a minimum period in custody of two years 320 days, Judge Collier said he would be subject to a licence for the rest of his life.

Less than three years for cutting a girl's throat in the street. Can't say Judge Collier's not got a sense of humour, even if it is rather sick. As for this "on licence", "may never be released" nagombi, Hanson was on license when he killed. Some social worker will certify he's free to go - as likely as not within five years. Especially if the prisons are full.

Which brings us on to the biggest danger to society of them all - Lord Chief Justice "The Jails Are Full" Phillips of Bryanston, Cambridge and Worth Matravers.

Top judge attacks sentencing laws

Prison overcrowding is at a critical level because of the government's sentencing policy, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales has said.

Damning judgment

Most pressing of all is the matter of physical capacity - the overstretched system is in a permanent scramble for cells, with hundreds of prisoners each night being dumped in police stations. Lord Phillips was blunt: "We simply cannot go on like this." And there is little doubt that some mix of early release and new prison building will be needed simply to relieve the immediate strain.

But the Lord Chief Justice also raised a second, more strategic, question - how many prisons will society pay for?

Prison overcrowding is at critical stage, says Lord Chief Justice

Britain’s most senior judge has given warning that the shortage of prison spaces was now “critical” as a result of ministers’ failure to take account of the cost implications of their sentencing policies.

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice, said that the present prison overcrowding could not continue. And he delivered a stark message to ministers — either they should fund the sentences that judges impose or change the sentencing framework that requires them, often, to jail offenders.

“We are in a critical situation,” he said. “The prisons are full to capacity.” Prisoners who went to court did not know if they would return to the same cell or even the same prison. Cells designed for one were being used for two and prisons were being forced, literally, to close their doors to more admissions. “Prisoners are being driven around for hours on end in a desperate search for a prison that can squeeze them in,” he added. “As often or not 200 or 300 are spending the night in police or court cells. We simply cannot go on like this.”

He said that Parliament had not been prepared to leave it to judges to decide if an offence merited imprisonment and, if so, for how long. Instead, it had set down how the seriousness of an offence should be judged, as well as starting points for minimum terms to be served for murder in the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

My problem with Judge Let'emout is that he's supposed to be the head of the judiciary - the people who interpret the law and pass judgement. Whether there are enough prison places should not be part of their calculations. It's not their problem. That issue, as even the Guardian recognises, belongs on the plate of the politicians. By poking his learned proboscis in, this unelected judge is using his position in the (nominally independent) judiciary to become a politician himself.

You can understand why he's shouting. What he says is quite true (discounting the anti-prison spin).

“Unless Parliament is prepared to provide whatever resources are necessary to give effect to the sentences that judges choose, in their discretion, to impose, Parliament must re-examine the legislative framework for sentencing.”

True. Send less people down (or shorter sentences) or cough up for new prisons. But it's not his place to say it. He should have been saying it in private, behind the scenes, to Home Office (or whatver it's called this week) ministers.

Maybe he did. And maybe they gave him carte blanche to campaign publicly with the Howard League for more community sentencing and less imprisonment, which is in fact what he's doing. He should have clammed up. Instead his (self-perceived) duty seems to be to follow his inclinations. He's bringing our pro-criminal, out of touch judiciary into even greater disrepute than they currently enjoy.

I'll leave with one more thought of the bewigged buffoon.

"“If you decide to lock up one man for a minimum term of 30 years, you are investing £1 million or more in punishing him.

“That sum could pay for quite a few surgical operations or for a lot of remedial training ..."

Nice of him to think about the poor taxpayer. I've got a better - and cheaper - idea. What kind of prisoners do thirty years these days ? You'd have to be a multiple child-killer to get that sort of sentence. Couldn't we go back to the future - and save that million ?

"My tools are but common ones,
Simple shepherds all,
My tools are no sight to see:
A little hempen string,
And a post whereon to swing,
Are implements enough for me !"

Today's Early Release Killer - Christopher Beresford

Christopher Beresford, 18, was let out of jail just six weeks before the accident which brought chaos to the M4. He was driving the wrong way down the motorway to escape police when he hit James and Bridget Stafford's car head-on. Beresford and the Staffords were killed in the accident last Monday, in Newport, South Wales. Two of Beresford's passengers, Sam Case, 19, and Lee Maggs, 27, also died.

Yesterday it emerged that Beresford had been released from Parc Prison, in Bridgend, only last month. He had served six months of a one-year detention and training order - given to persistent or high-risk offenders. It was imposed by Newport Youth Court in February after Beresford failed to comply with non-custodial sentences. His convictions included dangerous driving and taking a car without consent. Beresford, who was 17 at the time, did not hold a driving licence and was banned from having a licence for two years. Young offenders are routinely released at the halfway point of their sentence.

There'll be more soon. This has been a joint production of the Probation "Service" and the Youth "Justice" Board.

Tonight's Early Release Murderers

A crack addict burglar who targetted pensioners to feed his habit was jailed for life for savagely kicking an 83-year-old man to death in his own home. Jobless James Stace, 37, punched, kicked and stamped on the face and head of widower Ferozur Rahman after kicking in the door of the pensioner's east London flat. Stace, who has committed more than 150 crimes including robbery and burglary, routinely attacked the elderly in their own homes to steal from them.

Mr Rahman was left incapacitated with a fractured jaw, ruptured windpipe broken ribs and fatal brain damage and lay badly bleeding for 24 hours before his grandson discovered him. Despite brain surgery father of seven Rahman, who was originally from Bangladesh, was pronounced dead a day later and his life support machines was switched off.

Here we go again :

James Stace's criminal career of theft and burglary stretching back to when he was 17 and in 1993 was caged for 30 months for assault and robbery. In 1998 at Newcastle Upon Tyne Crown Court he was jailed for eight years after admitting 12 offences of robbery and burglary and asked for another 140 offences to be taken into consideration. Many were elderly whom he pushed about, threatened, stamped on or tied up. Mr Ellison said: "He was a man that demonstrated a clear propensity to target vulnerable occupants according to their age in their homes and readiness to exact quite serious violence upon them in order to advance his aim of burglary."

He was jailed for a further 18 months in January 2003 for robbery, another three years for attempted burglary at in June 2005 and 18 months for burglary in July 2005.
He last appeared before the courts three months before the murder when he admitted criminal damage at Thames Magistrates Court.

He murdered Mr Rahman on 29 December 2006. He'd been given three years in June 2005. Chalk up another one to our wonderful Probation "Service".

Let's move on to Christopher Toussant-Collins :

A robber on parole who took part in the gangland execution of a rival in front of his two young children was jailed for life. Jason Greene, 30, was shot in cold blood as he sat in his car with his eight-year-old son in the passenger seat and his four-year-old boy on the back seat. His eldest son was splattered with his father's blood. He was about to take them to school when the callous gunman struck in a busy street at 8.20am as horrified passers-by, many of them children, looked on or cowered behind dustbins for cover.

Mr Greene was suspected of involvement in an earlier murder. Just an everyday tale of Northwest London life.

In February 2005 Greene's brother Gavin Greene was shot in Harrow. It was rumoured that 24-year-old Shaun Stanislas was responsible for the attack. The following month Shaun Stanislas himself was murdered on the notorious Stonebridge Estate. Both Gavin and Jason Greene were suspected of involvement, but were released without charge by police due to insufficient evidence.

Where were we ?

Christopher Toussant-Collins, 19, was not the gunman that carried out the pre-planned execution but was convicted of murder for his part in the killing. He was jailed for a minimum of 25 years behind bars at the Old Bailey today (Mon). At the time of the murder, Toussant-Collins was on licence after serving part of a 30 month sentence for assault and robbery. He had been released from a young offenders prison just two months before the murder.

Hmm. Prison certainly worked for him - as long as he was in it. Ker-ching ! Another one !

Your Early Release Murderer Tonight - Stephen Browning

Stephen Browning, who had just been released from prison, left Susan Grundy, 51, for dead just yards from her home as she walked home from an evening out with friends. Browning, 31, who had taken a cocktail of prescription drugs and alcohol, punched, kicked and stamped on the former Bradford College lecturer more than 20 times when she wouldn't give him a cigarette. Mrs Grundy, who had moved to Bridlington, East Yorkshire, in search of "the good life" was then stripped naked, sexually assaulted and left for dead behind bushes near her home.

Browning, who was a cannabis user with a history of violence had had just been bailed by police for an assault on a police officer at the time of the sickening attack on January 23. Browning, who had a string of convictions, for assault and burglary had been jailed for four months for an assault on Wendy Cording his girlfriend in November 2006, who went into a women's refuge. He was released on January 9 this year. He went to his sisters and got drunk and was arrested by police for a breach of the peace and obstructing a police officer. He was then bailed and was free to kill Mrs Grundy.

Jailed for four months in November 2006. Released in January 2007 after half the sentence. Murdered Susan Grundy the same month. Chalk up another death to the Probation "Service".

But there's a double betrayal here. Surely obstruction and breach of the peace are breaches of his license conditions ? He should have been remanded.

Today's Early Release Murderer - Peter Tobin

The church handyman was sentenced to 14 years in prison at Winchester Crown Court in Hampshire in 1994 for the assault.

After his release in December 2004, he moved to Paisley, East Renfrewshire but within 10 months the authorities had lost track of him.

The case has once again raised questions over the early release and monitoring of sex offenders.

Has it ? You could have fooled me. Just the other day, as Judy McKnight reports, Lord Falconer was praising (Word doc) the Probation Service 'in marked contrast to the sort of speeches we have heard from John Reid'.

"Underpinning our approach to probation is inevitably a desire to reduce re-offending. Using probation as effectively as we can. Increasing rehabilitation, reducing re-offending, more restorative justice, raising public protection. The challenge we face, and you most particularly on the front line, is that of how to turn the offender into the citizen.

It is not an easy task. Elements of the media and parts of the public see you as a soft touch, not grounded in the real world. They say you are naive. That does you a great disservice, and it is I believe ignorant. The probation service I know retains a realism about what can be achieved, about set backs and relapses without allowing itself to become cynical or jaded. It has dogged determination and patience. By giving people a future to follow, they can leave their past behind. It is the service on whom many people will rely when their lives are mired in crime and everyone else has given up and gone home."

The trouble is that 'setbacks and relapses' translates into 'dead girls under floorboards'. If the Probation Service were a commercial organisation offering a service which caused as many deaths and injuries each year as their decisions do, they would long ago have been closed down and the directors prosecuted. 'Retaining a realism about what can be achieved' seems in practice to boil down to accepting those deaths, injuries and losses.

'It is the service on whom many people will rely when their lives are mired in crime and everyone else has given up and gone home.'

Had he followed that with 'and just as importantly, it is the service on which law-abiding people rely to take the correct decisions to protect them, their families and their property' I could just about swallow it. But, as ever, the focus is on the poor offender, 'mired in crime', as if he fell into it by accident one day.

What's Falconer's problem ? Why won't we get a decent - a just - criminal justice system out of this guy ? He's answered the question himself.

"I have been speaking, seeing, sharing and listening to a great number of people who have a vested interest in the justice system."

You said it.

Today's Early Release Murderer

Homeless Danny Wilde, 43, killed Pamela Vardey, 75, after she gave him shelter. He "repaid her Christian charity with ruthless brutality", a judge said.

Wilde then set light to his victim's body at her home in Rotherham last September, Sheffield Crown Court heard.

Just days before he had been freed from a four-year jail term for burglary.

This early release murderer is brought to you courtesy of the Probation "Service". Look out for more !

As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap

Another day, another crop of Home Office disaster stories.

The reverse foreign criminal scandal.

Acpo spokesman, Paul Kernaghan, told MPs that until his association took over the job of updating criminal records last year, offences committed overseas were not being entered into the Police National Computer (PNC).

Instead, information on convictions was left "sitting in desk files" at the Home Office rather than being properly examined.

In total, details of 27,529 cases were left in files at the Home Office, according to Acpo.

Which the Home Office were unaware of.

Home Secretary John Reid, who was only told about the issue on Tuesday, held an emergency meeting with police and the Criminal Records Bureau the next morning.

He later announced an internal inquiry would take place.

Or were they ?.

Chief constables wrote to Tony McNulty, the Police Minister, three months ago and the letter was then passed to Joan Ryan, a junior minister.

The letter advised Mr McNulty that given earlier problems over foreign national prisoners it might be wise for the Home Secretary to be briefed on the issue.

Ms Ryan’s office acknowledged the letter in December, according to a report on ITV news.

The row almost overshadows the everyday Home Office fare.

The absconding prisoners.

Opposition parties have criticised the Prison Service after its head admitted not knowing the number of inmates on the run from open jails in England.

Phil Wheatley said there was no central system to count escapees who had been recaptured, but such a database would now be developed.

The policy of putting killers in open prisons.

Duncan MacNeil, 41, and Paul Michael Neale, 50, were reported missing from Sudbury Open Prison on Wednesday.

MacNeil from London was jailed for life in 1982. Neale was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bristol in 1983 for a murder in Wiltshire.

On Sunday, Gary Smith, 41, from Liverpool, convicted of manslaughter in 2002, failed to return to the prison after temporary release.

The decriminalisation of many crimes.

Just half of the penalty notices for disorder are paid within the required 21 days; offenders who fail to pay may still end up in court. A Whitehall consultation paper last month revealed that each penalty notice costs £91 to enforce - more than the value of the penalty.

The notices for disorder followed Tony Blair's claim that yobs would think twice before misbehaving if they faced being marched to a cash machine and fined on the spot.



How can such things be ? How can the criminal justice system (CJS) be in such a mess ? Call me naive, but I'm wondering if the culture of the people running it has a bearing.



There was a wonderful student photo of Sir Kenneth Macdonald in the Sunday Times when he got the job of head of the Crown Prosecution Service. A classic hippy circa 1972. This was around the time he was convicted of sending cannabis through the post to a friend.


Take a look at the head of the Youth Justice Board, Rod Morgan. Or at the rest of the board - let's see, a social worker who's a trustee of the Refugee Council, a former "Chief Inspector of Careers Services within the DfES", a former BBC Religious Affairs correspondent, a child psychiatrist, a children's charity worker (for the Church of England Children's society, a body who believe that no child should ever be imprisoned - including the Bulger killers), a magistrate, another charity wonk who also works for the left think-tank the IPPR, a "regular contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4" and a "Professor of European Youth Policy at the University of Glamorgan (formerly Bridgend Technical College)".


You can see why youth crime is almost non-existent, can't you ?


Last, read the CV of Helen Edwards (profiled in yesterday's Times), newly appointed head of the Offender Management Service NOMS, the body tasked with keeping the lags on the straight and narrow while they're being supervised 'in the community'.

Sociology at Warwick and Sussex Unis in the early 70s, two centres of leftwing student radicalism. Social worker with Sussex Council. Then charity work with Save the Children before 18 years at the pro-criminal lobby group NACRO.

From Chief Exec at NACRO to Home Office, Director of Active Communities Directorate 2002-04; Director-General of Communities Group 2004-06.

Is this a CV which will have criminals quaking in their boots and vowing to turn over a new leaf ?


(She came from a charity to the Home Office. Her predecessor, Martin Narey, has left the Home Office - to go to a charity. One which gets a lot of taxpayer cash, of course. As one door closes another opens.)



People like these have been in charge of our criminal justice system for thirty-odd years, with the happy results noted at the start of this post.




We can see the touch of the Youth Justice Board in the treatment of Alan Steel, a 26-year old smackhead with four previous convictions for dangerous driving and 13 previous convictions for driving whilst disqualified, dating back to June 1996. I wonder what other convictions he had ?

He was free and on the streets to pay £700 (doubtless saved from his paper round) for a second hand jeep. Pausing only to fill up with fuel, heroin and methadone, he set off on a ride which ended in the death of Paula Stead and a ten-year old girl losing a leg.

Not much Youth Justice for Danica Green, was there ?

A girl of ten screamed 'I hate you' across a courtroom yesterday at the hit-and-run driver who left her with one leg and killed her aunt.

From her wheelchair, Danica Green shook and wiped away tears as she unleashed her fury on Alan Steel.

She has undergone months of surgery and emotional counselling since Steel, high on heroin and driving 'like a maniac' to escape police, mounted a pavement and ploughed into her, her aunt Paula Stead, 32, and Mrs Stead's daughter Bridie, 11.

Danica was knocked to the ground before the wheels of the black Cherokee crushed her legs. Bridie was thrown into the air. Mrs Stead was swept on to the windscreen and carried along before being thrown into the middle of the road. She died instantly from injuries which included a fractured skull, a gash to the head, 18 rib fractures, a ruptured spleen and a ruptured liver.



But the story has a quasi-happy ending - the killer's been "jailed indefinitely". Huzzah !

Uh-oh.

Steel was told he will only be released from prison when probation officials believe he is no longer a danger to the public. He will have to serve at least five years.

When probation officials believe he is no longer a danger to the public ? He'll be out this weekend, then.

Today's Early Release Murderer (Unconfirmed)

Gary Chester-Nash had denied stabbing 59-year-old Jean Bowditch nine times as she cleaned a bungalow in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, in October 2005.

The 28-year-old, of no fixed address, will serve a minimum of 30 years. The court heard he killed Mrs Bowditch just a week after being released from jail.

A week. I'll be very surprised if this isn't another triumph for the Probation 'Service'.


PS - I note that 'Public Protection' is emblazoned over just about every Home Office website at the moment. I suppose we can have the slogan if we can't have the reality. I also note that neither the Probation 'Service' nor the Prison 'Service' have email contact details. Just an oversight I'm sure.

Early Release - Psychiatric Division

The case of John Barrett, who despite 'a long history of mental illness and violence' - including stabbing his fellow mental patients - was released from a loony bin to stab Dennis Finnegan to death the following day, is only the latest in a long and dishonourable line of early releases from mental institutions.

Thallium's much in the news at the moment. Let's turn back the clock to those swinging sixties. There's a blogging connection, too.

"Young was arrested on 23 May 1962. He confessed to the attempted murders of his father, sister, and friend. The remains of his stepmother could not be analysed, as she had been cremated.

Young was sentenced to 15 years in Broadmoor Hospital, an institution for mentally unstable criminals. He was released after nine years, when he was deemed "fully recovered." During his years in the hospital, however, Young had studied medical texts, improving his knowledge of the effects of poisons on the human body, and had continued his experiments, using fellow inmates and hospital staff as guinea pigs.

After his release from prison in 1971, he worked at a photographic supply store not far from his sister's home in Hemel Hempstead in nearby Bovingdon, Hertfordshire. His new employers received references from Broadmoor hospital, but were inexplicably not informed of his past as a convicted poisoner. Soon after he began work, his foreman, Bob Egle, grew violently ill ..."

Opiates "a basic human right"

Reality gives satire another shoeing.

Nearly 200 prisoners and former inmates forced to stop taking drugs by going "cold turkey" are to receive payments.

The unspecified settlement followed claims the practice amounted to assault and a breach of human rights.

The claimants had been using heroin and other opiates and were understood to been receiving alternative treatment before going to prison.

The Home Office said it "reluctantly" decided to settle out of court to "minimise costs to the taxpayer".

How long before burglars sue after they're imprisoned and forced to stop breaking into houses ?

In another slapping for satire, Life Style Extra reports that Sofian Majera came here from Rwanda in 1997 "to escape the violence".

Pedro Frota, 19, Sofian Majera, 22, and Robert Lincoln, 18, all from east London, admitted 17 robberies.

The court heard they cruised London at night armed with guns, knives and baseball bats looking for victims.

People they kidnapped were stripped of their valuables and warned they would be tortured or killed unless they handed over their pin numbers.

Threats ranged from being shot and having their throats slit to their eyes being gouged and being burnt alive.

The jury was told the gang broke the arm of one victim who was so frightened he could not tell his attackers what they wanted to know.

Francis Sheridan, prosecuting, said it was made clear homophobia and racial hatred occasionally played a part in the selection of victims.

Jamaican national Lincoln, 18, from Barking, and Rwandan Majera, 22, from nearby Dagenham were ordered to each serve seven years.

Portuguese national Frota, 19, also from Barking, must serve six years and three months.

They had 36 convictions between them, so it's probably another early release triumph for the probation service.

While we're looking at peoople who'll do the jobs the locals don't want to do, disturbing news from the leafy Carmarthenshire/Cardigan borders.

Police are continuing to investigate allegations of a serious sex assault in a west Wales village.

Detectives said "a number of males" had been questioned about the alleged attack in Llanybydder, Ceredigion, early on Saturday.

As part of the inquiry the High Mead Arms Hotel was cordoned off, and a police mobile incident unit set up.

According to local people, the business closed a few years ago and the building has been used for some time to house workers who have moved into the area.

The Dyfed-Powys Police statement did not say how many men were detained or what allegedly happened.

"workers who have moved into the area", eh ? Probably doing the jobs the locals won't. We all know how high local wages are in that part of Britain, and how many unfilled vacancies there are.

One hates to criticise the BBC, but they do have a track record of being a bit coy when it comes to people who enrich our economy. Let's try a google. Aha !


Police arrested a number of men and cordoned off the Highmead Arms in Llanbydder, Carmarthenshire, near the border with Ceredigion, following allegations of an attack in the early hours of yesterday.

Locals fear the arrests will cause tensions within the hamlet, which is home to a large number of Polish workers, some of whom were housed in the former pub-turned-hostel.

It is believed a mother and daughter from a neighbouring area made the complaint.

Residents claimed they had returned to the village with a group of men they had met on a night out.

But .. but ... I thought they were all good Catholics !


Since Poland entered the EU in 2004, some 250 nationals have settled in Llanbydder, whose population is just 1,500.

Dyfed-Powys Police said "a number of people" were in custody and were being questioned at police stations in Ammanford and Haverfordwest. A mobile incident unit has also been set up.

Police would reveal no further details about the alleged assault.

Pamela Burke, a member of Llanybydder & Rhydcymerau Community Council, said the large number of Polish workers had caused tensions with young locals when they first arrived.

She said: "It's normally quiet here. It's a nice little village.

"This doesn't bode well for the communications within the Welsh and the Polish communities here.

"It was terrible a while back, but that was all sorted out and it's been perfectly OK since. I worry that this will cause friction with the local youths again."

Llanybydder is a Welsh-speaking village which straddles the River Teifi.

Don't worry, though, the police are "providing reassurance" - something the BBC can report.

Police chiefs have laid on extra patrols in a village where they are investigating allegations of a serious sexual assault.

Officers said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident and appealed for calm.

A force spokeswoman said the alleged attack was an isolated incident which occurred within a residential property, but extra police patrols were being laid on to provide reassurance.

It's a sad thing when you have to read between the lines of a BBC report, but when it comes to people who do the jobs the locals won't, you have to.

Her's a translation of the above story, not from the Welsh but from BBC-speak.

"The locals are pretty cross about this. The patrols aren't to reassure the locals that no more serious sexual assaults will take place, they're there to reassure the locals that any attempt to 'have a quiet word with' the 'number of men' who have been bailed will have consequences. The cordon round the hotel is to protect the bailees."

Another good Catholic here. I do like the Met's response. Got to keep a sense of humour about these things.

Kamil Krawiec, 26, has been convicted of attacking an eight-year-old boy in the toilets of a restaurant.

He has not been seen since being given a 10-month suspended prison term on 21 April.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said the delay between the disappearance and appeal was "not unusual", and officers had been trying to trace him.

At his sentencing, the judge at Blackfriars Crown Court ordered that Krawiec remain under supervision by the probation 'service'. and his details be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

They didn't send him to prison because they need the prison spaces for serious offenders.

Polish-born Krawiec pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the boy in a restaurant on 9 December 2005 where he was working as a waiter.

The child, who was having a meal with his family, had been attacked after he went to the restaurant's toilets by himself.


The boy went to the toilets by himself ? The defence probably pleaded provocation.

Today's Early Release Murderer - Thomas Wood

Thomas Lee Wood, 22, launched his unprovoked attack on Tom Grant, 19, without warning, suddenly lunging at him as he sat in his seat on a crowded express train. Tom, in his first year at St Andrews University, Scotland, and hoping to become a Sandhurst cadet, had no chance to defend himself.

One blow from Wood's stolen 11-inch kitchen knife pierced his heart and aorta, killing him "with callous efficiency". Covered in his own blood, the teenager had time only to cry out: "I've been stabbed." His killer then tried to break down an interior train door to reach other passengers and staff, who had fled in terror.

Wood, of Skelmersdale, Merseyside, made his escape by smashing a window with a fire extinguisher. He was later held at a police road block.

Last night, as the killer was jailed for life with the recommendation that he serve at least 21 years, police disclosed that he had been released from prison on licence less than six weeks earlier.

This case was brought to you by the Probation 'Service'. There'll be more soon !

Today's Early Release Rapist

James Marshall.

The court heard Marshall had previous convictions for rape, aggravated burglary and assault.

He was jailed for six years in 1987 for the violent rape of a young girl, who was dragged out of bed at knifepoint.

Marshall attacked the youngster in a churchyard near her home before taking her back to the house and burgling it.

In his 1992 attack, Marshall pounced on his pregnant victim as she walked across fields off Marsden Street in Bury.

1987 + 6 years = 1993.

But in 1992 he was carrying out the rape for which he's just been convicted.

This case was brought to you by the Probation 'Service'. There'll be more soon !


PS - I notice the Probation 'Service' site has information for the following categories :

Practitioners (the people who let the criminals out and the tax-funded lawyers who defend the criminals)

Sentencers (the Magistrate)

Offenders (criminals to you and me)

Can you spot the missing category ?

Today's Early Release Murderer

A sex offender who stabbed a schoolgirl to death was not monitored after leaving prison because he changed his name, according to a report.

Timothy Cuffy, 39, plied 13-year-old Sandy Hadfield with alcohol before taking her to a secluded park and cutting her throat with a Gurkha knife.

Cuffy had moved into the area a year before the killing in July 2002.

The independent report found he hid his criminal record from the authorities by using the surname Barnett.

The report looked into how the man came to be in Lincolnshire without any supervision after his early release from a six-year sentence for burglary and assault on a blind woman.

It followed a two-year investigation by the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board.

The report also found vital information about Cuffy was not shared between the Probation Service, the police and health authorities who all had contact with him prior to the killing.

A probe led by Lincolnshire County Council discovered Cuffy had been set free from prison only three years into a six-year sentence for indecently assaulting a deaf woman as she slept in her own bed - then leaving gas seeping from her oven.

The early release took place despite a string of previous convictions - which also included the sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl.

If Cuffy, 38, had served his sentence in full, he would have been behind bars when he slit Sandy's throat after calmly leading her to her "execution" in July 2002.

And there'll be more soon - courtesy of the Probation Service.

Early Release - Scotland Special

Three of Kriss Donald's murderers were sentenced today.

Mr Stewart revealed that all three had criminal records - including serious violence in the case of Huddersfield-born father-of-two Imran Shahid.

He was jailed for four-and-a-half years at the High Court in Glasgow in May 1995 for serious assault and was sentenced to 30 months in February 2003 for assault to danger of life and dangerous driving.

Mushtaq's record, mostly for road traffic offences, also includes assaults.

Zeeshan Shahid has served an 18-month sentence for culpable and reckless conduct and reckless damage.

So Imran Shahid was sentenced to 30 months in February 2003. Unbelievably he was released in December 2003 - just eight months into his 'thirty-month' sentence. Is the Scottish system even less sane than the English ? It's not as if he had no previous - he'd been given 'four and a half years' in 1995. What made them think he'd be suitable for release after a QUARTER of his sentence ?

Less than three months later he was driving his mates around Glasgow, looking for a white victim "to cut them up and take out their eyes". If he'd served his time Kriss Donald would be alive today.



It's been a cracking week for Scotland's Criminal Justice System.

Jack Roy was just 15 when he raped and stabbed Janet Maddocks before throwing her body off a train. He's an old man of 37 now, obviously no threat to anyone. Let him out on licence. Blimey - he's done a runner from his 'close supervision' !



Difficult one, this. You've got Vasilica Potolinca, an illegal Romanian immigrant who's been charged with rape. He's been on remand for a whole two weeks. Surely we can trust him to turn up for his trial of we release him on bail ? Well I never - he's legged it !



Or how about this - "Inmate hid heroin in prison cell".

British understatement is not dead. 53 grams of the stuff, worth a fair bit on the street and a lot more inside.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how prison officers also found steroids, electronic scales, syringes and mobile phones in Ian McLaughlan's cell.

Sounds like a cushy little number - literally a captive market to sell to.

Mr McLaughlan's home, Castle Huntly, seems a bit of a comedy prison. It was also host to Alan Wright, who broke out at night to rob a nearby house before returning to his cell. He said he needed the money 'to pay drug debts'.

To Ian McLaughlan ?

Early Release .... Today's Roundup

Bring Back The Cat !

CCTV footage showed Callum Myers grinning as two friends watched him dangle the cat above the snarling dog. He stood back as the dog savaged it, snapping its ribs and ripping open its heart. The cat’s owners later identified their pet, Tigger, by its collar.

At Huddersfield Magistrates’ Court yesterday, he admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the animal on March 15 last year. Myers, 18, who was on licence for robbery at the time of the attack, showed no remorse and was told that he faced a life ban from keeping animals.

Mr Goldstraw the child-killer.

Goldstraw, 31, who will serve at least 35 years, was on licence after being released early from a jail term for the manslaughter of a previous girlfriend.

Dale Casssidy - one of the more productive and useful members in our society.

The court heard that Cassidy and Mr Simms were part of a group of six people who had been drinking cans of beer on Christ's Pieces in Cambridge on February 17 this year.

Hugh Vass, prosecuting, said that the group, who had possibly been smoking cannabis, thought Mr Simms had stolen £60 from another homeless man earlier that day.

He said that is what led to the brawl during the early evening, which left 42-year-old Mr Simms with a cut to his ear and two stab wounds in his back.

Mr Vass added that Mr Simms claimed that during the stabbing the men tried to take the money they had accused him of stealing earlier in the day. He then staggered to a nearby pizza restaurant covered in blood, and members of the public called an ambulance.

Cassidy, who was living in a hostel in Victoria Road, Cambridge, was arrested several days afterwards when his name was given to police.

The 25-year-old, who was on licence after being sentenced to 45 months for a dwelling burglary in February 2003, was remanded in custody while he waited for the case to come to crown court.

Judge Gareth Hawkesworth jailed Cassidy to two years, minus 188 days for his time spent on remand.

I don't understand. Shouldn't he also be serving the remainder of the 45 month sentence ?


There'll be more early release stories soon, courtesy of the Probation Service.