Scots justice in dock after killer freed to strike again

●4,000 prisoners given home leave last year without checks by parole board

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is facing demands to overhaul a justice system that sees thousands of offenders freed every year without parole after a convicted murderer tried to kill a dog walker while on home leave.

Robbie Mcintosh may never be released from jail after he was handed a life-long restriction order yesterday for attacking Linda Mcdonald in Dundee. Mcintosh was on unsupervised “home leave” in August last year – before any parole board had assessed his case.

Conservative leader Ruth Davidson demanded a review of the system and insisted the public wanted to see violent criminals serve their full sentences. Mrs Mcdonald’s family have demanded “answers to straightforward questions” over how Mcintosh was released in the first place.

Ms Sturgeon pledged “lessons will be learned” from the case and expressed her sympathy for Mrs Mcdonald and her family.

At First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Ms Davidson said: “I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the public to expect prisoners to serve their time.

“When a case like this emerges, the question from the public is why again? Why is a killer let loose to try

and kill again? Why are the dice loaded against victims and in favour of criminals again? Why do we only act when another family is left to pick up the pieces of their lives again?”

Mcintosh, 32, who was jailed for life in 2002 for stabbing a dog walker to death on Dundee Law when he was 15, was granted home leave before having appeared before the parole board to assess whether he was suitable for release.

He attacked Mrs Mcdonald, 52, as she walked through Templeton Woods in Dundee in August.

Ms Davidson said last year there were some 4,000 prisoners granted temporary leave from prison before their case had been considered by the Parole Board.

“This appalling case raises further questions about our justice system and why killers, who should be in jail, are instead allowed to walk free before a parole board has even ruled that they are safe to do so,” she added.

A review of the case has already been carried out by the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and this will form part of a wider investigation by the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), which manages the release of serious offenders in Scotland.

The First Minister said a review of the facts surrounding the case had been undertaken by the authorities and told MSPS “lessons must be learned”.

She added the case was “extremely distressing” and she could “entirely understand and sympathise with the views of the family”.

Ms Sturgeon said: “A rigorous risk assessment is undertaken by the Scottish Prison Service before any offender is granted any form of unescorted leave that involves psychological assessments, social work reports, and reports on the time they have spent in prison. Home leave is also always granted with very strict conditions applied.”

However, she added that home leave was an important part of Scotland’s penal system to ensure prisoners being released after long sentences could be successfully re-integrated into society.

Ms Sturgeon added: “I think at the heart of Ruth Davidson’s question, as is often the case with the Conservatives – although often their actions in government don’t quite match their rhetoric in opposition – is this notion that somehow Scotland’s justice system is a soft touch.

“Frankly, the facts do not bear that out. We have one of the highest prison populations in the whole of Europe and one of the big challenges for our criminal justice system. Of course serious criminals should be locked up, that’s not in doubt, but the bigger challenge is how we rehabilitate these prisoners, so there’s less chance of reoffending.”

She said lessons that could be learned from the case could includechangesto“tightenthe way in which risk assessments are carried out in future”.

The Scottish Prison Service has already conducted a reviewintothemcintoshcase.

An SPS spokesman said: “All of us take very seriously the responsibilities that we’ve got.

“There isn’t anything that I or anyone in SPS can say that takes away the trauma of the absolute horror that that poor woman has had to experience because of the despicable actions of an individual. If there’s anything we can learn from it, we will.”

The spokesman insisted Scotland had a “rigorous” criteria in place to determine whether prisoners could be granted home leave.

“There are probably about a third as many people in open conditions today as was the case 20 years ago,” the spokesman said.

“The criteria that people have to go through to make that progress means that they’re almost entirely longterm prisoners that we’ve had

0 Robbie Mcintosh was jailed for life in 2002 for stabbing a dog