Page QQQ Daily Mail, Monday, August 12, 2019
RAPISTS and murderers could
spend longer behind bars as Boris
Johnson seeks to make punish-
ments ‘truly fit the crime’.
The Prime Minister ordered an
urgent review into sentencing –
reporting directly to Downing Street
- which could also see repeat offend-
ers incarcerated for longer.
The review will focus on violent and
sexual offenders and whether changes in
the law are needed to lock them up for
longer by not letting them out part-way
through a sentence. The work will also
consider how to break the cycle of repeat
offenders – perhaps making them serve
longer sentences. Mr Johnson said dan-
gerous criminals must be taken off the
streets as he promised to ‘come down
hard’ on crime and restore public confi-
dence in the justice system.
At the weekend, Mr Johnson said he
was determined to tackle rising levels of
knife crime, amid the impression of a
growing ‘culture of insolence’ among
the Crown Prosecution Service to
improve capacity and manage
caseloads, including clearing a
backlog over the next two years.
It will further fuel speculation
that Mr Johnson is preparing the
ground for an early general elec-
tion amid continuing deadlock in
Parliament over Brexit.
Mr Johnson said: ‘Dangerous
criminals must be kept off our
streets... We have all seen exam-
ples of rapists and murderers let
out too soon or people offending
again as soon as they’re released.
‘This ends now. We want them
caught, locked up, punished and
properly rehabilitated.’
The sentencing review has been
instructed to report back to No 10
in the autumn. Its remit is to look
at the rules governing how and
when violent and sexual offenders
are released from prison. Mr John-
son will highlight the approach
today at a Downing Street meet-ing with police, probation and
prison sector leaders. Currently,
offenders sentenced to 12 months
or more serve the first half of theirtime in prison and the second ‘on
licence’ in the community.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday,
Mr Johnson said the ‘first duty’ of
any government was to protect the
public. ‘We have the impression of
a growing culture of insolence on
the part of the thugs; and in the
face of that sense of impunity –
entirely misplaced – I believe the
British public knows instinctively
what we must do,’ he said.
‘We need to come down hard on
crime. That means coming down
hard on criminals. We need to
reverse the balance of fear. I want
the criminals to be afraid – not the
public.’ Under the Government’s
plans, a pilot project, allowing
police to deploy stop-and-search
powers in an area without a seniorofficer’s authorisation, will be
extended to an extra 8,000 officers
in England and Wales.
Mr Johnson said the move would
be controversial but said he
believed it would be backed by
parents of children most at risk of
knife crime. The Prime Minister
added that when police did catch
violent criminals it was ‘vital they
get the sentence they deserve’.
He wrote: ‘Our first duty is to
protect the public in the most
basic way – and that means taking
such people off the streets.’ The
Ministry of Justice said the first
new prison to be built would be at
Full Sutton in East Yorkshire next
to the maximum security jail.
Comment and Stephen
Glover – Page 16PM promises
to put violent
criminals in
jail for longer
By Daniel Martin
Policy Editor
‘Culture of insolence
among thugs’
BORIS LAYS DOWN LAW
Let off with slap on the
wrist – but they’d face
tougher terms now
Bradley Wil-
liams, 1, raped
a schoolgirl 14
times but
avoided jail.
Williams, from
Stoke-on-Trent,
admitted the
rape of a child
under the age
of 13, but walked
out of court with a two-year youth
rehabilitation order. The judge
took into account the fact he ‘spent
his life moving from home to home’
and had a troubled upbringing.A paedophile
who had videos
of babies being
raped was
spared jail
because he
apologised.
Kevin Taylor,
2, of Nether-
ton, Mersey-
side, had down-
loaded 30 videos of baby and child
rape, but the judge said: ‘If there
had not been a degree of insight
and remorse, it’s almost certain
that I would put you into custody.’FATAL BUS STOP ASSAULT
REPEAT DRINK-DRIVER
SCHOOLGIRL RAPIST PERVERT SAID SORRY
HEADBUTTED WOMAN
‘thugs’ who believed they could act with
impunity. In a series of announcements,
returning the Tories to the party that is
tough on crime, he promised a £2.5billion
programme to create 10,000 additional
prison places and an extension of
enhanced stop-and-search powers to
police forces across England and Wales.
He also pledged an extra £85million for
Thug Christo-
pher Rogers
headbutted his
ex-partner and
dragged her on
the ground by
her hair in front
of her children.
Rogers, 39, of
Nailsworth,
Gloucestershire,
was told ‘there is no place in a civi-
lised society for your violent and
abusive and controlling attitude
towards women’. But recorder
Timothy Brown let him walk out of
court with a 17-month suspended
sentence and a community order.A woman who
ploughed into
three cars while
drunk walked
free, despite
having two prior
convictions for
drink-driving.
The judge told
shop manager
Victoria Parry, of
Stratford-upon-Avon, that if she
had been a man ‘it would have
been straight down the stairs’ to
prison. But Judge Sarah Bucking-
ham said she should be allowed
another chance to give up drink-
ing and get her life in order.Gang members Rochelle Dob-
bin and Netesha Lewis, both
1, avoided jail over an attack
on an Egyptian student who
later died. Mariam Moustafa,
1, of Nottingham, was pushed
so hard into a bus shelter she
fell into a coma. Her attack-
ers were spared jail after the
court was told to ‘avoid crim-
inalising young people
unnecessarily’.Tragedy:
Mariam
Moustafa
was just
1 when
she diedRochelle DobbinGANGS are recruiting children
to deal drugs by luring them
with free fast food.
The use of the tactic – known
as ‘chicken shop grooming’ –
has seen schools launch cam-
paigns to warn children.
A primary school head
teacher has shared a YouTube
video highlighting the dangersamid fears the technique is
being used at takeaways in the
area. While a separate poster
campaign, launched by the
London Grid for Learning, tells
secondary school students:
‘There’s no such thing as free
chicken! Friends of friends who
buy you things often want
something in return.’Gangs recruit in chicken shops
A FORMER Army Corporal injured By James Tozer
in a road rage attack tracked down
CCTV of his assailants – only for
police to refuse to interview him as it
‘wasn’t a high-priority case’.
Lewis Eames, 25, was reversing out
of a driveway after thinking that an
oncoming car was letting him out.
But he claimed the car sped up and
two men pulled up. They then
attacked his vehicle and punched
him in the face. Mr Eames, who wasleft with a black eye after the inci-
dent in Stockport, Greater Manches-
ter, said he called police but was told
they could not do anything without
the suspects’ registration number.
So he tracked down CCTV footage
from two pubs and an undertaker’s
of the men and their VW Tiguan
taken before and after the alleged
attack on July 24. He also spoke tothree witnesses and informed police
of his detective work – even driving
to a forensics centre so his car could
be checked for possible fingerprints.
But he said he was told by Greater
Manchester Police the incident was
not being investigated as a priority.
It comes after Ian Hopkins, the
force’s chief constable, told BBC
Radio Manchester his officers ‘screen
out’ 43 per cent of alleged offences.
Mr Hopkins said that ‘we don’t haveenough officers’ and when callers
report a bicycle theft or a shed break-
in, if there was no CCTV or witnesses,
the likelihood of an officer turning up
was ‘almost non-existent’.
But Mr Eames, a rail engineer, said:
‘I feel let down. If it was a police
officer who had been assaulted, they
would have been all over it.’
A force spokesman said: ‘Officers
have made contact with the victim
In uniform: Mr Eames and inquiries remain ongoing.’
Victim tracks down CCTV of road rage attackers
- but the police refuse even to interview him