KILLED BY SOFT TOUCH JUSTICE
EXCLUSIVE: 16 Scots murdered in three years by thugs spared prison
SCOTLAND’s soft-touch justice system was last night blamed for the deaths of 16 innocent people – all murdered by criminals who had been spared jail.
The failure of community punishments and supervision to protect the public from violent thugs has been laid bare in a damning report. In less than three years, 145 crimes have been committed by offenders who were not sent to prison or were freed early.
The Care Inspectorate recorded ‘serious incidents’ including 16 murders, 15 attempted murders, 49 sexual offences, 60 serious assaults and one terrorist offence.
The figures, published last week, have reignited the debate about the country’s attitudes towards crime – particularly the Scottish Government’s determination that fewer criminals
should be sent to prison. It is introducing a presumption against sentences of less than a year, which could mean 10,000 extra offenders a year are spared jail.
The Scottish Government has also failed to end the system of automatic early release, which means that offenders serving less than four years are freed after only half their sentence.
Scotland has been shocked in recent years by a series of crimes committed by offenders who were spared prison, or who were released early.
Among the most shocking examples is the murder of fatherof-three Craig McClelland, 31, who was fatally stabbed in an unprovoked attack by a thug who had been released from prison wearing an electronic tag.
Equally horrific was the brutal attack on Linda McDonald, who was battered with a dumbbell by Robbie McIntosh – a convicted murderer who had been granted home leave during his jail sentence.
Last night, Linda’s husband Matt McDonald said: ‘Life should mean life for someone like Robbie McIntosh. Our family will never be the same again.
‘He has given us a life sentence and that is what he should serve. He should never get out.’
Last night, the Scottish Conservatives warned that the Scottish Government must think again about its soft-touch justice crusade, if it cannot protect the public from harm.
Liam Kerr, the party’s justice spokesman, said: ‘If dangerous criminals are to be released under the assumption they will be watched, that monitoring has to be watertight. We already know from highprofile cases like that of Robbie McIntosh that there are problems with the system.
‘Now this report reveals the sheer scale of it.
‘This is what happens when a soft-touch SNP Government dictates justice policy – that weak approach drips through the system and has serious implications for victims and public safety generally.’
David Hines, of the National Victims Association, said: ‘The criminal justice system is an industry and they say they care about the victims but in reality the public are victimised again and again.
‘Nothing changes, except the name of the victim. Criminals don’t care about community payback orders. Punishment has now become a dirty word and it should not be – they should be punished for what they do.
‘If someone is punished, and it hurts, they don’t do it again.’
The Care Inspectorate is a watchdog which scrutinises criminal social work, as well as health, childcare and early learning services.
Last week, it published its Serious Incident Reviews 2015 to 2017 report, on crime committed by people who were either let out early under supervision, or who had been sentenced to serve a community payback order as an alternative to prison. There were 145 crimes committed by this group between February 2015 and December last year.
These crimes included 16 murders, 15 attempted murders, 49 sexual offences, including rape, 60 serious assaults, three abductions, one possession of a firearm, and one terrorism offence.
Almost three-quarters of the people involved in serious incidents were on community payback orders, which some offenders are sentenced to as an alternative to prison.
This is a type of sentence which is about to become far more common, as the Scottish Government is set to introduce a presumption against prison sentences of less than a year.
In 2016/17, there were 19,140 community payback orders imposed but there were also 10,104 people sentenced to prison terms of 12 months or less – including killers, sex predators and violent thugs.
That would potentially see the number of people on community payback orders rise by 50 per cent.
In most cases they will be spared jail and handed a community payback order instead, under the Scottish Government’s plans. The Care Inspectorate recorded 72 ‘serious incidents’ last year, the largest number of the three years covered, although the watchdog believes this could be because of improved reporting by criminal justice social workers.
Officials also believe that the number of serious incidents could be far higher than reported – as eight local authorities failed to notify the watchdog about incidents at all.
The Care Inspectorate report said: ‘It is difficult to conclude anything
‘Nothing changes, except the name of the victim’
other than that some areas are failing to report incidents when they should.
‘This gives rise to two concerns – firstly, that those local authorities have not implemented a process to identify and review serious incidents in order to learn from them and, secondly, that our understanding of practice across the country is incomplete.’
However, the Scottish Government has insisted that protection of the public is a priority and it was investing in rehabilitation services. A spokesman said: ‘We welcome the Care Inspectorate’s findings of improvement and good practice that has been implemented since their previous report, as well as its recommendations to local social work services for further improvements.
‘The Scottish Government’s commitment to strengthening public protection while investing in rehabilitation and crime prevention has helped reduce reoffending – with reconviction rates at their lowest level for 19 years – contributing to overall crime being down by a third over the decade.’ Gordon Weir, interim chief executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: ‘Where an offender is on licence or community supervision, there is, rightly, intense public interest in how they are supervised.
‘Effective criminal justice social work services play an important role in reducing reoffending and this can support individuals to live a life free from crime.’
Despite concerns about softtouch justice, Cosla, the umbrella body representing councils, said that it wants more community punishments.
A spokesman said: ‘Reoffending can be a significant problem for those who serve their sentences in prison or in the community. All crime of the sort suggested here is of concern and there are no grounds for complacency.
‘However, those who serve sentences in the community do have significantly lower reoffending rates than those who serve their sentences in prison.
‘We would like to see a greater use of community payback orders, but this would require further discussion over resources that would be needed to deliver effective and appropriate communitybased orders for those with a greater offending history.’