One in five murders in the UK are committed by prisoners out on parole, shocking figures reveal
- Figures show a 63 per cent increase in killings by ex-inmates since 2015
- Charities have said this show serve as a ‘wake up call’ to the probation system
- Leroy Campbell, 57, was on probation and murdered Lisa Skidmore, 37
- Marvyn Iheanacho, 41, beat girlfriend’s son, 5, after list of previous convictions
One in five murders are committed by people on parole, shocking figures reveal.
And a failure in the probation service to oversee prisoners properly after their release has led to killings by ex-inmates soaring by 63 per cent since 2015.
Figures show that at the end of March 2017, 112 of the 613 killings were by people on parole, according to The Telegraph.
The following year showed an increase in murders to 695, excluding 31 terror attack victims, with 114 deaths by those on probation.
‘This is an extremely worrying development. The Ministry of Justice must implement its new reforms without delay,’ Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville-Roberts said after harvesting the data through a series of parliamentary questions.
A victims rights campaigner, Harry Fletcher, said the data ‘defies belief’.
Leroy Campbell, 57, (left) was released from prison four months before he raped and killed Lisa Skidmore, 37, (right) in Bilston, West Midlands in November of 2016
He added: ‘Yet again, victims are ignored by the criminal justice system.’
Chief executive of Refuge, a national domestic abuse charity, Sandra Horley CBE said the ‘statistics should serve as a wake up call to politicians and the criminal justice system’.
She added how women and children are most at risk with ex-partners who have a violent record.
Ms Horley said: ‘Two women per week in England and Wales are killed by their current or former partner. Reform is desperately needed. Women’s lives depend on it.’
Acting co-chief executive of Women’s Aid Adina Clare said the findings show the ‘scale of the challenge’ within the system and having a safe probation response to domestic abuse cases can be ‘a matter of life or death’.
She added: ‘Early releases of offenders, particularly when a victim is not provided with robust safeguards and ongoing support, can and do put women at further risk.
Alex (left) was beaten by Iheanacho (right) with such ferocity that witnesses who overheard ‘booming’ blows thought two men were fighting, before they heard the boy begging for mercy
One attacker who slipped through the net was Leroy Campbell, 57, who was released from prison four months prior to attacking Lisa Skidmore, 37, in her home in Bilston, West Midlands, in November of 2016.
The convicted rapist, who was on probation at the time, raped and murdered Lisa before attempting to kill her mother, Margaret Skidmore, 81, by choking her.
Campbell, from Moseley in Birmingham, had been watching Lisa for weeks – after chillingly telling his probation officer that he ‘felt like raping’ someone again.
This was the second missed opportunity to recall Campbell, as he told his probation officer just after his release he had troubling thoughts – the same type he would get before attacking a woman.
Marvyn Iheanacho, 41, flew into a violent rage and beat his girlfriend’s son, five, to death after the youngster lost his shoe in a park in Catford, south east, in November 2016.
The victim’s mother Liliya Breha claimed probation officers did not warn her that Marvyn Iheanacho was banned from contacting children before he fatally attacked her son Alex Malcolm.
The inquest at Southwark Corner’s Court heard Iheanacho had a string of previous convictions for assaulting girlfriends dating back to 2001.
These included him punching a girlfriend aged 19, striking another with a hammer, punching a girlfriend unconscious in 2012 because she refused to lend a phone, breaking her jaw.
He also throttled a partner in 2014 and in 2015 was jailed for whipping a girlfriend and grabbing her by the throat.
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