WHY WAS MONSTER FREED TO KILL?
Sex predator released early gets 19 years for murder of pensioner
A PREDATOR who raped and murdered a defenceless pensioner in her home was jailed for life yesterday.
Jason Graham had been released early from a previous prison term for an almost identical attack on another retired woman when he killed Esther Brown.
Even though police were supposed to be monitoring him, the 30-year-old, who had been drinking heavily, gained access to the 67-yearold community stalwart’s flat in May this year.
The serial offender punched, kicked and stamped on Miss Brown before striking her with wood from a broken chair. She was also raped, and lay dead inside her blood-soaked flat in Glasgow’s Woodlands area for four days.
Friends contacted police after Miss Brown failed to attend a church service as usual.
Sentencing Graham to at least 19 years yesterday, Lord Armstrong described the shocking crime as one of ‘utter brutality and extreme and sustained violence’.
Tory MSP Russell Findlay said: ‘This highly dangerous sexual predator has destroyed lives, but is able to look forward to freedom one day to live the rest of his life.
‘The rape and murder of Esther Brown also raises serious concerns about the monitoring of sex offenders in communities across Scotland.’ Last night, members of Miss Brown’s local community paid tribute to the ‘walking angel’ who did so much to help others.
DNA evidence led officers to Graham, who was being monitored by police after his early release from prison on licence in 2018. He had been jailed for seven-and-a-half years for raping a retired nurse at her Glasgow home in 2013, but spent only four years behind bars.
The High Court in Glasgow last month heard how, prior to Miss Brown’s murder on May 28, Graham had been drinking in the city’s West End. He was told to leave the licensed premises after becoming increasingly aggressive.
He was later seen in the rear garden of the block where Miss Brown lived. Graham then gained access to her attic flat.
Later, CCTV footage from a shop showed him buying tobacco at 9.19pm using his victim’s bank card. Graham is said to have called a relative stating that he ‘robbed the flat and panicked’ and that he had ‘done something bad’.
Swabs taken from Miss Brown’s body provided a match for Graham’s DNA. He was arrested and charged with murder.
Passing sentence at the High Court in Livingston, Lord Armstrong told him: ‘You have pleaded guilty to the gravest of crimes involving the most depraved actions on your part, characterised by the utter brutality and extreme and sustained violence you directed against a 67-year-old woman in her own home. Your victim was a woman who had led a full and rewarding life.
‘That has been demonstrated by the outpouring of grief from the local community and their collective shock at her untimely death.
She was an exceptionally kind, compassionate and caring person.’
Defending Graham, Brian McConnachie, QC, said his client claimed to have no recollection of what he had done and had been under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
He said Graham suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of witnessing his mother’s suicide when he was a child.
The court heard that at the age of 30, Graham already had more than 23 convictions, with his criminality and use of drugs dating back to when he was ten years old.
Yesterday, Woodlands resident Helen Moran said Miss Brown was ‘loved and respected’ in the closeknit community. She added: ‘She was the type of person that would go and help anybody. She did not judge. She was there to help. She was a walking angel.
‘One of her priorities was feeding people. She was so nice and so approachable to everybody. Graham knew what he was doing. He was up for a vulnerable woman.’
The Rev Martin Ayers of St Silas Church, where Miss Brown worshipped, said her death had caused much grief, adding: ‘We will ensure this does not define our memories of a tremendous, energetic and compassionate woman of God.’
Detective Superintendent Suzie Chow, of Police Scotland’s major investigation team, said: ‘This was a brutal attack and one that left Esther’s family and the community absolutely devastated.’
Tory community safety spokesman Mr Findlay has written to Chief Constable Iain Livingstone on behalf of a group of Miss Brown’s friends. He said: ‘This shocking murder highlights the need for judges in Scotland to have the option to impose whole life sentences on those who commit the most heinous crimes and pose the greatest risk to society.
‘The decision to release this predator was taken in secret, but what kind of monitoring was he subject to? We are in the dark because the system is shrouded in secrecy. Esther’s friends rightly demand answers. The SNP must guarantee the police will have the resources needed to effectively monitor the thousands of registered sex offenders on our streets.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘We do not comment on nor intervene in the decisions of the independent court.
‘It is understood there will be a Significant Case Review to help operational agencies involved in protection arrangements to assess the circumstances with a view to learning any lessons.’
‘She would go and help anybody’
ESTHER Brown was a respected figure in her community. A much-loved pensioner and a regular churchgoer who was described as a ‘walking angel’ by friends.
She was murdered in her own home by Jason Graham, a violent monster who had been freed early from jail after raping a retired nurse in 2013.
It took the SNP nine years from when they came to power in 2007 to finally end automatic early release at the two-thirds point of a jail term. The move did not apply retrospectively. Shamefully, as a result, Graham was let out to strike again, supposedly under strict supervision.
He had more than 20 previous convictions, so would have been regarded as at high risk of reoffending.
Yet police are struggling to cope with the burden of monitoring thousands of sex criminals living in the community.
It is now vital that we find out what went wrong and why Graham was allowed to strike again.
Scotland’s justice system under the SNP has become a lottery, with scores of sex criminals going on to commit further crimes.
And under the latest proposed reforms, those sentenced to more than four years in prison –which includes some killers and rapists – would be able to apply for parole after just a third of their sentences, rather than the halfway mark under the current protocols.
This is designed to ease pressure on crowded jails, while more criminals will also be bailed with electronic tags.
The SNP is obsessed with playing constitutional games but appears to have forgotten that its core duty is public protection.
As Russell Findlay, the Scottish Conservative community safety spokesman, argues on this page, it is time to stop the soft touch justice merry-go-round.