Fatal stabbing sparks review of prisoner home releases

● Matheson orders study into regime and how breaches are dealt with

Scotland’s system of home release for criminals is to be reviewed after the killing of a Scots father-of-three by a knife thug who was “illegally at liberty”.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson told MSPS yesterday that the “home detention curfew (HDC) regime” will be reviewed by the country’s prisons inspectorate following the death of Craig Mcclelland in Paisley last year.

A separate review will also be carried out into how breaches of the HDC are dealt with, including apprehending offenders, after it emerged that Mr Mcclelland’s killer, Jamie Wright, had breached his home curfew five months before the attack and was unlawfully at large when he attacked Mr Mcclelland.

Mr Matheson said the “appalling” case raised a number of questions which both he and Mr Mcclelland’s family wanted answers to.

He told Holyrood’s justice committee yesterday: “In order to look at this issue thoroughly, I have asked both HM Inspectorate of Prisons and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary to look at the case to determine whether there are further aspects that can be improved in how they make assessments in determining whether someone should be provided with home detention curfew.

0 Craig Mclelland and his partner, Stacey. Craig was stabbed in the street

“Secondly, to look at whether there are ways in which the police process for investigating such breaches and apprehending individuals who have breached a home detention curfew, that they are brought to account and apprehended.

“They will report directly to me and once we have those reports we can determine whether there are any further actions that need to be taken.”

The case was raised by Paisley MSP George Adam during a committee session looking at new laws to expand the use of electronic tagging.

Conservative MSP Liam Kerr said: “I think people will be looking at this committee where we are looking at electronic monitoring … and be very concerned to see us looking at a bill which could increase the prevalence of convicted criminals in the community.”

Mr Matheson said provi- sions around home detention curfews had been in place since 2006.

He said: “What the provisions in this bill will allow us to do is to use an extended form of electronic monitoring which we don’t have at the present moment.”

He said the expansion would allow individuals on orders such as home detention curfew to be monitored more effectively, including through the use of GPS.

The issue was discussed at the Scottish cabinet yesterday where community safety minister Annabelle Ewing briefed First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on the case.