Sex offenders on probation who commit fresh crimes at record high
THE number of sex offenders convicted of committing another attack after being freed from jail has hit a new high – fuelling fears probation officers are failing to keep the public safe.
Figures obtained from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) show 121 serious sexual offences were committed over five years by prisoners released from sentences for previous sex crimes.
It means scores of victims suffered sex attacks while the offender was supposedly being monitored by probation officers.
Data released under Freedom of Information laws shows 49 of these cases took place in the most recent year. One horrific example was last year’s case of Anthony Roberts, a serial sex offender who carried out a frenzied knife attack. Roberts, 56, had been freed from prison five months earlier despite a warning in parole reports that he posed an imminent risk of ‘serious injury and potential death’.
His criminal record included attacking women and indecent exposure. In his latest attack, for which he received a life sentence, he assaulted a woman in her 70s with a knife as she walked alongside the River Severn in Worcester.
Last year inspectors said the probation service was ‘ struggling’, faced ‘chronic staff shortages’ and was ‘consistently weak’ in protecting the public.
Justin Russell, the then chief inspector of probation, said he had ‘significant concerns’ that officials were making ‘inaccurate, incorrect or incomplete’ assessments of offenders’ risks.
He also warned a rise in probation officers working from home was potentially increasing the risks with some appointments becoming little more than ‘check-ins’.
In January last year Mr Russell’s team found probation blunders meant a sexual predator described as a ‘ticking timebomb’ was left free to kill a law graduate.
Zara Aleena, 35, was walking home from a night out with friends when Jordan McSweeney leapt out of the darkness and murdered her in a frenzy of violence. The 29-yearold thug had been released on licence from jail nine days earlier.
Mr Russell has said McSweeney, who had been wrongly classified as ‘medium risk’ rather than ‘ high risk’, should have been recalled to prison six days before the attack.
Rebecca Hitchen, of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: ‘Every part of the criminal justice system is crumbling when it comes to responding to violence against women and girls.’
An MoJ spokesman said: ‘Fewer than 0.5 per cent of offenders subject to supervision go on to commit serious further offences and our new laws keep the most serious criminals behind bars for longer.’
David Spencer, of the think-tank Policy Exchange and a former detective chief inspector with the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘Dangerous criminals are free to roam our streets. It is a horrific indictment on the ability or willingness of Government to take the steps necessary to keep us all safe.’
‘Every part of the system is crumbling’