Our whole criminal justice system is flawed

The appalling Worboys case shows that the Justice Secretary must reform the law, Parole Board and CPS

One day, when I worked in the Home Office, Theresa May held a meeting to discuss holding an inquiry into the murder of Daniel Morgan, and allegations that corrupt police officers ensured the perpetrator was never convicted. One official thought corruption might be so rife that the inquiry would become impossibly wide-ranging. “I advise you not to go there, home secretary,” he said. “If you pull at this piece of string, you might find it’s very long indeed.” That, and the injustice of the case, decided things for Theresa May: she announced an inquiry shortly afterwards.

I recalled that story yesterday when three judges overturned the Parole Board’s decision to release John Worboys. Both cases reveal the resignation with which many officials respond to the failures of the criminal justice system.

The Worboys case is appalling. He drugged, assaulted and raped more than 100 women between 2002 and 2008. The police failed his victims repeatedly: their gullibility in believing him contrasted alarmingly with their reluctance to believe his victims. When he was arrested in July 2007, he was released without charge, allowing him to attack more women before he was arrested again in February 2008. The Independent Police Complaints Commission found “individual and systemic” police failures, while victims report having been “lied to and laughed at” by officers.

The judge overseeing his trial was tough. Mr Justice Penry-davey handed down an indeterminate sentence, meaning Worboys would serve a minimum of eight years, and would be released only when he was no longer a threat to women. Indeterminate sentences, however, were abolished in 2012, which means that, if Worboys had been prosecuted under today’s laws, his release would have been automatic and impossible to stop.

Prosecutors promised Worboys’ victims “to all intents and purposes, [this is] a sentence of life imprisonment.” But they were in no position to guarantee that, as the Parole Board proved when it decided Worboys should be released. That decision was outrageous. As they overturned it yesterday, the judges argued the Parole Board should have looked more closely at the circumstances of Worboys’ offending. They said the board should have taken into account his other alleged offences, not just his convictions, and it should have tested his honesty about his likely future behaviour.

David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, is now under pressure because he chose not to challenge the Parole Board’s decision in court. His officials advised him not to proceed with a judicial review, but he was wrong to heed them. Official advice on these matters is always overly cautious and, as the ruling proved, there was merit in the case.

He should not be judged by this decision, however, but by what he does about the bigger issue, because the case shows why the criminal justice system needs to change.

Since 2010, the police have undergone serious reform. Thanks to a willingness by ministers to investigate miscarriages of justice and abuses of power, and a deliberate effort to make policing more transparent, examples of corruption, cultural problems and incompetence have been exposed. A long list of reforms – including a more independent inspectorate, a better complaints system, improved recruitment policies, a new criminal offence of police corruption, and improvements to the response to domestic violence – have been implemented. But the case for change does not stop there, and the Home Secretary needs to go further.

Change also needs to come to the wider criminal justice system. Following the Worboys case, the Government has said it will make Parole Board decision-making more transparent. It could also change the law so, consistent with yesterday’s ruling, parole decisions must reflect not only the crimes for which the prisoner has been jailed but other alleged offences. Victims – many of whom in this case were not warned about the Parole Board’s decision – should be given more rights.

More broadly, the Crown Prosecution Service should be reformed so prosecutors work better with the police, which would increase the number of prosecutions and save time and money. Prison must be reformed so we stand a better chance of rehabilitating criminals instead of allowing them to fall further into criminality. And probation services – which have suffered from botched changes under the coalition – need to be reformed so released prisoners can be better supervised and helped into normal life.

The Justice Secretary needs to do all this while working on a limited budget. Downing Street should give him the time and support to get things done. And he needs to be brave enough to unpick past mistakes and take difficult decisions. As police reform shows, there is always more to be done, but it is possible to deliver institutional reform. That is what our criminal justice system needs, badly.