Starmer’s shame as thug who blinded and paralysed a baby and a schoolboy’s killer are freed under his early release scheme, leaving victims’ families in tears _ Hieuuk
A sickened mother has described how she burst into tears after learning the thug who shook her tiny baby so violently he was left blind and paralysed is due to be freed from prison under Labour’s controversial early release scheme.
Inmates will be released after serving only 40 per cent of their sentence – reduced from 50 per cent for the first time.
Around 1,700 prisoners will walk free this morning, with more than 5,000 in total set to be freed over the next six weeks under the plans drawn up by Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
Adam Andrews, 37, was jailed for three years in February after his brutal treatment in June 2018 of the 21-day-old boy, who now suffers up to 40 seizures a day and needs round-the-clock care.
He showed ‘absolutely no remorse’ for his actions – but Labour’s decision to release some offenders after serving just 40 per cent of their jail terms, plus time spent on remand, mean his release is understood to be imminent.
‘Absolutely no remorse’: Adam Andrews, 37, who was jailed for three years in February after shaking a 21-day-old boy so violently he was left blind and paralysed, is due to be released
Around 1,700 inmates will walk free this morning, with more than 5,000 in total set to be freed over the next six weeks under Labour’s controversial early release scheme
The child’s mother, who didn’t want to be identified, said she broke down in tears after a victim support officer delivered the ‘devastating’ news.
‘Not only has this process taken almost six years to get a sentence – and he was given such a lenient sentence in the first place – now this is being used in his benefit,’ she said.
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‘If he is not classed as a serious offender for almost taking my child’s life away, then who is?’
Complaining that victims and their families’ feelings had not been ‘taken into consideration’ when the Government announced its plans, she added: ‘I don’t think members of the public actually understand that people like him – people that hurt children, that do the most horrific crimes against a child – will be released.’
Andrews, of Great Whelnetham, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, was convicted of GBH without intent.
The housing association worker has never explained why he lost control with the infant, who has a significantly reduced life expectancy.
In a victim impact statement read out at Ipswich Crown Court, the mother said: ‘He should not be allowed to walk the streets while I care for my child around the clock.’
The deeply controversial move is the largest release of prisoners in a decade, with some prisons in rural areas preparing to lay on coaches to transport freed criminals.
Only violent criminals sent down for more than four years will be ineligible, but this still means domestic abusers, gang members and other criminals could be set free.
The mother of a teenage boy killed in a brutal machete attack also faces fresh agony and said she was ‘totally sick to my stomach’ today as one of his killers faces release under the scheme.
One of the men convicted of killing Gordon Gault, 14, in November 2022 after he was attacked with a blade is up for release
Early release: Lawson Natty, 18, was convicted of Gault’s manslaughter and unlawful wounding
Gordon Gault, 14, died in hospital six days after he was attacked with a blade during an ongoing feud in Elswick, Newcastle, in November 2022.
After a trial at Newcastle Crown Court, Carlos Neto and Lawson Natty, both 18, were convicted of manslaughter and unlawful wounding.
Neto, from Manchester, was jailed for nine years and two months, while Natty, from Newcastle, was handed two years and eight months at their sentence hearings in March.
But Gordon’s mother Dionne Barrett was left devastated when she received a letter in August confirming Natty’s early release.
Gordon Gault’s bereaved mother, Dionne Barrett, slammed the release of her son’s killer as ‘a massive risk’
In an emotional interview on BBC Breakfast this morning, his mother Dionne Barrett slammed the decision as ‘a massive risk’ and said she has been left feeling ‘totally lost’.
She said: ‘Fair enough, let petty criminals out, not somebody who killed a 14-year-old child, someone who purchases machetes.
‘What if he goes out and does it again to somebody else?
‘I think it’s a massive risk in these circumstances for someone to be let out after such a small amount of time.’
Among the 1,700 set to walk free on Tuesday is Connar Shaw (pictured), who was sentenced to 32 months behinds bars after breaking his partner’s jaw, strangling her, and threatening to throw acid in her face
Shane Riley, who said he ‘enjoyed’ attacking his partner after she broke off their relationship will also be free after serving barely nine months of his sentence
Jordan Green, who was put behind bars after he pleaded guilty to robbery and dangerous driving in March, will also be released under the new scheme
Others set to walk free include Connar Shaw, from Rotherham, who will only serve 13 months of his 32-month prison sentence after strangling his partner and threatening to throw acid in her face during years of abuse.
It comes despite his victim saying in court how she would be scared when he is released as ‘there will be repercussions and that he will want to get his revenge on me for being in prison’.
She added: ‘Connar is a psycho and he frightens me – I’m afraid that one day he will end up killing me.’
Shane Riley, from Swansea, will be released after serving less than nine months for punching, kicking and headbutting his ex partner after she broke up with him on June 8, 2020.
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Riley, who said he was ‘enjoying’ the abuse, was sentenced to 23 months for causing actual bodily harm, common assault, making threats to kill, and criminal damage. He will serve less than nine months.
Another offender who will taste freedom will be Jordan Green, who was put behind bars after he pleaded guilty to robbery and dangerous driving in March.
He was jailed for 27 months after an incident saw him approach a woman’s window in Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees and screech: ‘Get out of the f***ing car.’
He proceeded to hurl her mobile phone out of his window as he sped off, which allowed her to take an image of the criminal.
Green, who was previously handed a prison sentence after he attacked his own mother, will only spend four months in jail.
Others up for release include drug dealer Patrick Scotland, of west London, who was jailed for ten years in 2020 after police found £2.2million of MDMA and crystal meth in his flat.
Patrick Scotland, of west London, who was jailed for ten years in 2020 after pleading guilty to possession of Class A and B drugs with intent to supply
Jason Holland, of Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, was jailed for 12 years for conspiracy to supply Class A drugs
Fellow criminal Jason Holland, from Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, who was part of a gang which supplied drugs worth £70million around the M25 could be freed despite being jailed for 12 years in 2020.
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Prison bosses are now having to ‘carefully choreograph’ the mass releases over fears of violent clashes between gang rivals, MailOnline understands.
Meanwhile, a rise in homelessness is also feared as some prisoners are released with nowhere to go.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is providing accommodation for 12 weeks only, meaning some could end up on the streets and committing crime.
Prison leaders said there was even a risk that some of those freed today will become homeless straight away.
Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the Prison Officers’ Association, told the Mail: ‘History tells us that there will be people who slip through the net.
A significant number of inmates at jails such as HMP Wandsworth and HMP Thameside in London are subject to ‘non-association’ orders preventing them from mixing with other inmates – usually members of rival gangs.
This means their releases will have to be staggered to avoid violence, a source told MailOnline.
They added that these releases were being done in small groups, but warned that any delays with getting prisoners to reception, recovering their property and arranging transport could lead to rivals being brought together by mistake.
Dame Diana Johnson, the policing minister, insisted plans would be put in place to avoid re-offending by domestic abusers and other high-risk criminals.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood during a visit to HMP Bedford in Harpur, Bedfordshire
She told Sky News: ‘There’s been a real trawl through to try and identify where their primary offence isn’t domestic abuse, we know there’s a history, and that’s where the steps have been put in to protect as best we can.
‘Because we know, unfortunately, domestic abuse is so prevalent amongst the offending community.’
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Asked by the BBC how many prisoners were due to be released today, she said: ‘I understand it’s in the region of about 1,700.’
A senior government source warned yesterday that a high proportion of those released would be domestic abusers.
Nicole Jacobs, the domestic abuse commissioner, warned that about a third of domestic abuse survivors were likely unaware that their perpetrators are due to set free.
She told the Times that victims were ‘paying the price’ for Britain’s overcrowded prisons, warning that survivors are at risk of their attackers getting in contact with them, with them likely knowing their workplace and home address.
‘We must ensure that victims aren’t lost in the shuffle of the changes that are being made in the prison release schemes and the perception of justice and fairness.
‘Victims of domestic abuse are very focused on those release dates, it causes them sleepless nights, they will change so much of their daily activities knowing that their perpetrator is being released, the uncertainty of not knowing if that person will comply with licensing conditions and of release.
Criminals exempt from the new early release scheme include those with sentences for sexual and violent offences of over four years (stock image)
‘This is incredibly stressful in the normal situation so for those dates to change unexpectedly or without them knowing that is a huge consequence for them to pay.’
Newly appointed Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said measures have been taken to reduce the number of domestic offenders being freed by excluding those serving time for coercive control, stalking, harassment and breach of a restraining or non-molestation order.
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But prisoners convicted of broader offences like assault or criminal damage, which are not specific to domestic violence, are not excluded.
Official figures showed there were 88,521 people behind bars on Friday, 171 more than the previous record set at the end of last week.
The prison population has now risen by 1,025 people over the past four weeks and now stands at its highest level since weekly population data was first published in 2011.
Crimes exempt from the new early release scheme include prisoners sentences for sexual and violent offences of over four years.
The Justice Secretary said she has been told that the emergency early release plan could prevent prisons running out of space within weeks.
The MOJ has said the move will give them an extra 18 months to allow more prison places to be freed up and allow for a wider review of sentencing to take place.
