'Why have these lifers been let out? If this was the 60s, they would've been hanged'
They were two of the most horrific crime cases in Greater Manchester's history. A terrifying campaign of rape by one man, and the torture of a 16-year-old girl over a week, which ended in her murder.
"A perversion of justice" In the first case Andrew Barlow, formerly Andrew Longmire, was given multiple life sentences after two campaigns of rape in the 1980s. Barlow, 66, has spent 34 years in prison. But, on December 14, the Parole Board concluded he should be released this month. But, after a backlash from victims and their relatives, reported by the Manchester Evening News, the Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab, has requested that the Parole Board reconsiders its decision.
"I've had a large number of harrowing emails from people describing how their families, their personal lives have been destroyed by this man and the multiple rapes he carried out over a period of time. I think one of the issues on this case is that Andrew Barlow was given his first life sentences more than 30 years ago, but the progress with DNA analysis meant the police went back on cold cases and found that he had committed two further rapes, and he was given further life sentences.
A 2018 decision to release Worboys was reversed by the Parole Board after a public outcry and prompted other victims to report attacks. He was subsequently sentenced to two additional life sentences for attacks on four more women, with a minimum six-year term. He said an expert had told the Science and Technology Parlimentary Committee, of which he is a member, that when a recommendation was made it was very rare that the Parole Board ever went against it.
"I believe, even though three have been released since I made representations on behalf of Suzanne Capper's mother to the Parole Board, which effectively were ignored, that one of the murderers shouldn't be released. "Previously the Parole Board had operated in secret - sometimes it made decisions just on papers in front of it ...sometimes with the criminals in front of them, sometimes with reading out statements from the victims. I think we all accept in court cases that justice must not only be done, but be seen to be done, and that has not been the case with the Parole Board," the veteran MP added.
"I would refer people who think the Parole Board can be objective to what I think is not a nice film, but a rather brilliant film by Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange.
The Minister of State for Prisons, Parole, and Probation, Damian Hinds, in response, said: "He spoke in light of some of the very most horrific, most appalling crimes, murders and rapes we have known in our lifetimes. The thoughts of all of us in this House are with the victims of those most terrible crimes and their families.
"It is clear that victims need to be kept updated on what is going on in their case and we are looking at ways to improve that. We will make the release test more prescriptive so that prisoners should continue to be detained unless it can be demonstrated that they no longer present a risk for further serious offending."
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