‘Criminals will just abuse this policy, they’ll work the system’
Stacey Mcclelland’s husband craig Mcclelland was murdered by James Wright – aged 25 – in July last year.
the convicted criminal was ‘unlawfully at large’ for almost six months after destroying his electronic tag.
Here, Mrs Mcclelland tells of her anger at possible plans to treat adults as young offenders. She writes: IF the justice system were any softer, you would need to ask, is this really punishment? Lady Dorrian’s review will cause more devastation than crime prevention. So many people convicted of crimes will just abuse this policy and work the system. This will put yet more people at risk.
It’s about time the justice system toughened up so that people learned their lessons first time round.
I have no words to describe how I feel about what happened to Craig. I have searched my brain time and time again to process some kind of answer. My emotions have frozen over to cope. I am forced to wear a mask every day to deal with the grief. I don’t believe justice exists for Craig but the closest thing I can get to it is an inquiry into his death. I need to find out what happened that meant his killer could roam free. My children are left without a dad and all because of the negligence and recklessness of government organisations.
We deserve to get answers about why James Wright was able to murder in cold blood while on bail.
Craig’s death represents what could happen to any member of the public. That night he was brutally murdered it could have been anyone, another family shattered.
The shield that was supposed to protect us fell down and left innocent people vulnerable.
Because of the justice system’s mistakes my boys will never experience their daddy. It can’t happen to other people.