‘One murder a week’ carried out by criminal on probation

OFFENDERS on probation are committing three murders or serious sex crimes a week, new figures have revealed.

Known criminals have been convicted of nearly 700 murders while on probation since 2010, the equivalent of one a week.

Over the same period, there have been a further 950 convictions for rape, attempted rape or serious sex assaults – including attacks on young children – carried out by offenders who were on probation.

The disclosures follow two cases in which the service wrongly assessed two killers on probation as medium risk, which meant they were supervised by inexperienced staff.

Justin Russell, HM chief inspector of probation, warned it was “impossible to say” the probation service was keeping the public safe from freed criminals after the blunders that led to the murders of two women and three children.

The Labour Party, which obtained the official figures, said it showed the probation service was “in chaos” and blamed the Government for failing to invest in the system.

There were 3,219 “serious further offences” committed by known criminals on probation in England and Wales between 2010-11 and 2020-21.

Other convictions were for kidnapping, attempted murder and arson with intent to endanger life.

It follows the two damning reports by Mr Russell into the murder and sexual assault of Zara Aleena by Jordan Mcsweeney and Damien Bendall, who killed his partner and three children after being classed as “medium risk”.

Yesterday a third case saw Lee Peacock found guilty of murder after slitting the throats of his girlfriend Sharon Pickles and friend Clinton Ashmore while on probation just three months after his release from jail in June 2021.