Tragic proof that parole system is not working

THE top priority of any society is to keep their citizens safe.

The staggering case of Robbie McIntosh represents a disastrous failure to live up to this basic requirement.

This evil killer attacked an innocent woman with a dumbbell while she walked in the woods.

Linda McDonald’s life will never be the same. Her family have been left traumatised.

Sick McIntosh had only been out on leave from Castle Huntly open prison for five days when he launched the frenzied attack.

He killed his first victim Anne Nicoll by inflicting 29 stab wounds.

Fifteen years later, locals in Bridgefoot near Dundee sounded the alarm about McIntosh’s bizarre behaviour when he surfaced in their community.

But Angus Council insisted he was being properly monitored. Clearly, this was nonsense.

From beginning to end, this is a tragedy – for the victims and their families, and for confidence in Scotland’s justice system.

Something has gone badly wrong and somebody must answer for it.

The case raises so many questions: ●Why did no one spot the threat McIntosh posed? ●How can someone as vicious as this be so poorly monitored? ●And more fundamentally, can we have any faith in the justice as it currently operates?

The police, the local council and the Scottish Government are now rightly in the spotlight.

Linda’s husband Matthew McDonald yesterday demanded the Scottish Prison Service and the Parole Board examine their release criteria and assessment systems.

That is the bare minimum the family are owed.

If public confidence is to be restored, there must be a full investigation into this whole catastrophe.