Failures that let murderer out on day release to kill yet again

CATASTROPHIC failures by prison staff meant a sadistic killer was allowed out of prison on day release to murder a Good Samaritan. Ian McLoughlin (right) stabbed Graham Buck, 66, to death after wrongly being allowed out of an open jail where he was serving a 25-year sentence for killing a man he believed was a paedophile. Mr Buck had intervened to stop the killer robbing his neighbour Francis Cory-Wright, 87 – an Old Etonian who McLoughlin had met in prison two years earlier.

The attack took place within hours of McLoughlin hitching a lift from HMP Springhill, a category D prison near Aylesbury, Oxfordshire, while on unsupervised day release in July 2013.

A report by the chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick yesterday said the decision to let the killer out was ‘inappropriate’. He said there were ‘insufficient safeguards to manage the risks’ presented by some prisoners when ‘released on temporary licence’.

In 1984, McLoughlin was jailed for ten years for the manslaughter of Len Delgatty, 49. In 1992, he was jailed for life, with the recommendation that he serve 25 years, after stabbing his landlord Peter Halls to death.

On the first day he was eligible for day release, McLoughlin travelled to the home of convicted sex offender Cory-Wright in Hertfordshire. As McLoughlin filled a pillowcase with family heirlooms and cash, his victim shouted for help from a window.

Mr Buck came over to investigate but was dragged inside by McLoughlin, who slashed his throat.

McLoughlin had a history of violence and had failed to return from previous days out. But despite these warning signs, officials waved through his day release in July 2013. Mr Hardwick added: ‘ The decision had catastrophic consequences.’ In October 2013, McLoughlin was jailed for a minimum of 40 years. Last year the Government tightened up the rules on day release.