Offenders to be refused prison remission

The Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice has today released a new report recommending that dangerous offenders in Northern Ireland should be refused automatic 50% prison remission.

As research for the report, Kit Chivers, the Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice, assessed the management of high-risk offenders, including sex offenders.

The review was prompted by the murder of County Tyrone pensioner Attracta Harron, who was murdered by a sex offender who was on parole at the time.

Mrs Harron, 65, went missing in December 2003.

After her body was discovered, Trevor Hamilton, 24, and a convicted rapist from Sion Mills was convicted of her murder.

Mr Chivers' report stated that a main problem in the Harron murder case was Hamilton's release from custody after serving half of his original prison sentence.

Due to this, new sentencing arrangements are expected to be announced later this month, after the Criminal Justice team insisted that it was time that Northern Ireland was brought in line with other UK regions.

Mr Chivers said: "We recommend that the government should bring forward legislation that would have the effect of ending automatic 50% remission for dangerous offenders, create more scope for indeterminate sentences and generally place Northern Ireland on a similar footing to England and Wales.

"We are conscious that this would have significant resource implications, but it is the most important single step that could be taken to improve public protection."

The report also claimed the proper handling of Hamilton after his prison release had not been a high enough priority for the PSNI.

Since Mrs Harron's murder, the Criminal Justice Inspector has said that considerable progress has been made in respect to monitoring offenders, however an additional six recommendations have been made, including police providing a wider internal access to the Visor computer system for sharing details on dangerous sex offenders; management work featuring in the Northern Ireland policing plan; the agencies starting work on an accommodation strategy; a review of legislation to allow any breaches to be dealt with faster; future serious case reviews following a more detailed format; and the CJI should be asked to undertake the most serious.

(EF)