Murderer who wiped out family wins legal battle in bid to visit his granny
A MURDERER serving life for killing three family members in a fire has won a legal battle against prison bosses who stopped him from going to visit his ill grandmother.
Scott Snowden, 44, was refused the right, on two different occasions, to visit his granny, 99, who suffers from dementia and is too unwell to see him in jail.
Following the rejections, he took the Scottish Government to court to seek permission to have the matter reviewed.
A judge at the Court of the Session refused to let the case proceed, believing the killer had little chance of success.
However, Snowden appealed the matter, arguing that the refusal breached his human rights.
Now judges have ruled the review should be allowed to go ahead, which means he can continue his fight against the Government.
In a written judgment which was published yesterday, appeal judges Lord Malcolm, Lord Woolman and Lord Doherty concluded that their colleague should have given Snowden permission for the case to proceed.
The j udgment states t hat Snowden’s grandmother was born in December 1920 and stays in a nursing home.
Up until 2017, she routinely travelled to Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, to use video conferencing technology to speak to Snowden.
However, her health is now said to be such that she can no longer travel to visit him.
I n January, Snowden was granted escorted day release to visit her because of her failing health – a provision that can be granted by prison authorities if an inmate’s family member is deemed to be ‘dangerously ill’.
Snowden made another two applications for escorted day release in May 2019 and July 2019, but these were refused.
Prison staff disclosed that they had received a letter from his grandmother’s GP indicating that, while she was unable to travel to visit him at HMP Shotts where he is serving his sentence, she is not ‘dangerously ill’.
They also claimed to have intelligence linking Snowden with ‘drug supply’ and ‘violence’. But after he was refused day release, Snowden applied for a judicial review, arguing that the move breached his human rights.
A Court of Session judge refused to grant permission for the judicial review to proceed but the Inner House concluded the judge was wrong to do so and granted permission for it to go ahead.
Snowden and his accomplice Robert Jennings, 57, were jailed in July 2013 for the murders of
‘Breached his human rights’
Thomas Sharkey Snr, 55, his son Thomas Jnr, 21, and his daughter Bridget, eight, in Helensburgh, in July 2011.
The pair set a fire which killed the three at their home. They were also convicted of trying to murder Mr Sharkey’s wife Angela, 48, who survived the blaze.
Lord Matthews told Snowden he would have to serve at l east 33 years in prison before he would become el i gible f or parole. Jennings was ordered to serve at least 29 years behind bars.