Alice killer ‘may have been let in even if past murder was known’
FOREIGN murderers and sex attackers could be allowed to live in the UK even if their previous convictions are known, a Whitehall official admitted yesterday.
David Cheesman, Home Office policy chief on international criminal records, said there was ‘no guarantee’ violent offenders would be refused entry or deported if past crimes were discovered. The revelation came at the inquest into teenage schoolgirl Alice Gross, who was killed by a builder previously jailed for murdering his wife in his native Latvia.
Mr Cheesman said the lack of information provided by other EU countries means convicted murderers living in the UK are ‘sometimes’ not discovered unless they commit a crime here. He said the police and Home Office had pushed EU laws ‘to the limit’ on public protection – and many European countries think we have gone too far.
Alice’s body was found in the River Brent in September 2014, a month after she disappeared. The 14-year- old, of Hanwell, west London, was murdered in a sexually motivated attack by Arnis Zalkalns, who was let into Britain despite a conviction for bludgeoning his wife to death, the coroner has heard. The builder, who also had sexual assault and firearms convictions in Latvia, first arrived in 2007 but was allowed to come and go as he liked for the next seven years because he was not on an international watch list.
Mr Cheesman told the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice: ‘Had he been placed on a watch list, that would have led to stop and questioning.
‘ The officer would then decide on whether he would be denied entry. I’d have thought it was more likely than not that he would have been refused entry. He could have been given temporary admis- sion even while more checks were made.’ The immigration officer would have to consider issues such as how long he had lived in the UK and if he had any family here, Mr Cheesman told the inquest.
But he added: ‘I can’t guarantee that just because you had a murder conviction you would be deported or refused entry.’
Most EU countries do not alert Interpol about previous murder convictions, Mr Cheesman said. It means, in many cases, foreign criminals here are not discovered unless they are later arrested and British police run an overseas background check.
‘In a small number of cases other countries will tell us, but that doesn’t happen regularly,’ Mr Cheesman added. ‘If we are not given that information, under the current system it isn’t until the first time he comes into the custody suite – however minor the offence – that the check will be made.’
The inquest continues.