Supervision of offenders 'fails' as at least two reoffend

Oct 23 2007

TWO violent criminals under community supervision in Merseyside and Cheshire were charged with murder, rape or another serious offence last year.

Opposition parties at West- minster said the pair were part of a 36% rise in serious re-offenders across England and Wales – from 61 to 83 – which amounted to a “catastrophic failure”.

And the serious re-offender in Merseyside was among just 12 assessed as the “critical few” – with the highest risk of harming the public and under the most rigorous supervision.

Nick Herbert, Tory justice spokesman, said: “In spite of the focus on the most serious cases, unacceptable weaknesses in the arrangements for supervising offenders remain.”

David Heath, for the Liberal Democrats, said: “For even one offender to commit another serious offence while under supervision is unacceptable. For 83 to do so in a single year, a tenth of all the offenders released from prison, is a catastrophic failure.”

But, last night, Merseyside mounted a fierce defence of moni- toring procedures, insisting it was going “from strength to strength”.

Terry Eastham, of the National Probation Service in Merseyside, said the crime – an alleged murder – was the only serious charge against any of 283 offend- ers under supervision last year.

Mr Eastham said, it had not been a failure of supervision, because the dead person involved a family member.

Two independent inquiries, including by Merseyside’s strategic management board – which includes lay members – had found no failures in practices.

Mr Eastham said: “You are never going to get total security, you are never going to get a zero, because this is not 24-hour sur- veillance. If this offence had been committed within the supervision programme, it would have been more worrying, but it came totally out of the blue.”

Sex and violent offenders released from prison are monitored by Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrange- ments (Mappa), bringing together police, probat- ion and social services.

No details were available for serious offence committed by the offender under supervision in Cheshire, but he or she was at Level 2, rather than Level 3 – or the “critical few”.

The reports also reveals that 36 offenders were sent back to prison in Merseyside for breaching the terms of their release, with a further 11 re-jailed in Cheshire.

The number of registered sex offenders charged or cautioned for breaching notification require-ments – such as informing police when they move house – was 59 in Merseyside and 11 in Cheshire.

The total number of registered sex offenders living in Merseyside is little changed in three years at 975, or 69 per 100,000 people.

The highest number is in Liverpool (408), followed by Wirral (232), Sefton (160), St Helens (92) and Knowsley (67).

In Cheshire, there are 577 registered sex offenders - or 59 per 100,000 people - including 142 deemed dangerous and under supervision.

Justice minister Maria Eagle, MP for Liverpool Garston, said protecting the public was of “paramount importance” to the government.

She said: “We have one of the most advanced systems in the world for monitoring and managing dangerous offenders.

“Mappa protects the public by providing robust communication and sharing of information between all responsible authorities, but we are not complacent and continue to look for ways to improve.”

In June, the government set out plans to expand the use of libido-reducing drugs for sex offenders, as well as compulsory lie-detector tests.

But proposals to tell parents if paedophiles are living nearby - so-called “Megan’s Law” - were dropped after warnings that sex offenders would be driven underground.