David Shipley
Just over a week ago Andy Burnham came under attack over the impending early releases from prison. His critics included the widow of Andrew Harper, a policeman killed on duty in 2019 by being dragged behind a car for a mile. Andrew’s widow, Lissie, described the possible early release of two of his killers as ‘deplorable’. Burnham insisted that ‘keeping the public safe will be my top priority’ and said of the early release policy that he would ‘look at in detail before we go further forward’.
Clearly Burnham wanted to do anything to avoid being the PM who released rapists early. But he will still be releasing men who have done very awful things
Now, having presumably done all the detailed looking, the PM has a plan, just in time for the start of his holiday. Those who have committed ‘rape, serious child sex and other grooming offences’ will not be eligible for the early release scheme, and although this isn’t made clear in the published statements I understand that those who have sexually assaulted children will also not be eligible.
This is something at least: clearly Burnham wanted to do anything to avoid being the PM who released rapists early. But he will still be releasing men who have done very awful things. PC Andrew Harper’s killers will be eligible for early release. Lissie Harper is ‘beyond appalled’ and ‘bristling with anger’, and no wonder. For all Burnham’s words, he’s done nothing for her. It’s clear from the tone of the press release that not even Burnham thinks it’s a great plan – he says that ‘I want to be honest – I wanted to go even further as I know there will still be concerns about other offenders having their sentence shortened. But it’s not possible without the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing, which would put public safety at much greater risk’.
