Sex predator allowed out of prison to pick up prostitutes
A SEX attacker serving a life sentence used his home leave from an open prison to pick up prostitutes.
Brian Travers, who was sent to jail in 2002 for sexually assaulting and robbing a woman in her own home, even bragged about his away-day trysts while an inmate at Castle Huntly prison near Dundee.
When he was later reprimanded by prison officials, he packed a bag, walked out and went on the run.
He was caught four days later in a busy tourist pub in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket.
The details emerged last week as the 43-year-old was jailed for a further 16 months for absconding from Castle Huntly prison in July.
Concerns have been raised as to how someone with Travers’ history of sexual violence towards women was assessed as suitable for open prison and why his home leave was not better monitored.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘This case raises a number of questions about who is suitable for open prison.
‘Brian Travers carried out the most horrendous crimes and there has been no thought for his victims or the safety of the wider public.
‘How many more violent and dangerous criminals have been handed a passport to freedom? The Scottish Prison Service and the SNP should be looking into this case. We need assurances that only those considered not to pose a threat to society are allowed to go to an open prison.’
Travers admitted staging a prison break from Castle Huntly on Friday, July 8 and remaining on the run until Tuesday, July 12 this year.
It is understood he had a variety of home leaves last year, of between one and eight days. During the last, he met an offender management officer and disclosed that he had been seeing prostitutes. Later that day, he got a call at home to say he was being recalled to prison.
Fiscal depute Carol Whyte told Perth Sheriff Court: ‘Two days later, on July 8, there was no trace of the accused within the prison. CCTV was viewed and it showed the accused leave his cell. At the time he was carrying a black holdall.
‘There was a full search of the prison and grounds but no trace was found. He was arrested on July 12 in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh.’
Nicky Brown, defending, said: ‘It was all going in the correct direction until he had this meeting with the officer who raised concerns.
‘When he was taken back to Castle Huntly, his first impression was that he hadn’t been contravening any conditions and his privileges would not be downgraded. However, that changed and it quickly dawned upon him there would be huge consequences for him, including a return to more secure conditions.
‘He made the stupid decision to abscond with no real plan what he was going to do. He felt so low he took the opportunity to leave and was found drunk in a pub.’
Travers suffered a broken arm while being arrested and is now in the high-security HMP Glenochil.
A spokesman for Rape Crisis Scotland said: ‘It is essential that public safety is paramount in any arrangements made for the management of sex offenders. Where current arrangements are failing to offer the necessary protection, safer alternatives must be put in place.’
Travers and accomplice Paul Gargaro, 47, were jailed for life in 2002, both already having a long history of committing violent sex crimes.
The duo forced their way into their victim’s Edinburgh flat before subjecting the 45-year-old university lecturer to a sustained attack.
At Travers’ trial, the judge told him: ‘You are clearly a danger to women and for that reason the sentence will be life in prison.’
Travers was also jailed for seven years in 1997 for a sex attack on a 20-year-old American student.
An SPS spokesman said: ‘The number of absconds are at historic low levels.’
‘There has been no thought for his victims’
DEPRAVED sex attacker Brian Travers was jailed for life because he is a danger to women – yet he was able to stroll out of an open prison, unchallenged.
Travers had been reprimanded by prison authorities after using home leave to visit prostitutes, so he upped and left Castle Huntly jail near Dundee.
For four days, Travers was a free man. Fortunately, he was apprehended in Edinburgh and is now behind bars again.
This case raises troubling questions. Why was a man with a history of sexual violence able to visit prostitutes, some of whom are especially vulnerable? Why was violent Travers in an open prison at all? And how could he simply be allowed to walk out of prison unchecked?
It’s time for Justice Secretary Michael Matheson to explain how so many bad decisions came to be made in this case.