David J. Farley of Plympton, Plymouth, United Kingdom

David J. Farley of Plympton, Plymouth, United Kingdom

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The Price of Bail



24 murders and 9 rapes in 32 months committed by suspects on bail in just one county...

In two and a half years suspects let out on bail committed 24 murders and 9 rapes in one county alone, it was revealed last night.

The shocking statistics from Lancashire Police caused outrage - with one MP demanding a "far more vigorous system".

The figures showed that people on bail were responsible for 11,171 crimes across Lancashire between January 2007 and September 2009.

As well as the murders and rapes, they included 62 attempted murders, 63 other sexual offences, 45 arsons, 283 robberies, 667 burglaries and 3,100 shoplifting incidents.

Stunned local Tory MP Nigel Evans "The figures are very large indeed. These are obviously people who are repeat offenders."

Calling for a more rigorous system, he added: "They should be kept under lock and key in the future."

Kirk Bullen, of the Make Lancashire Safer charity, said "people are losing faith" in the system.

But police chiefs said far more people were being released on bail, while officers continued investigations and waited for forensic tests.

And Justice Secretary Jack Straw, whose constituency is in Lancashire, said courts were "toughening up" on bail. "They face a difficult decision but they get it right most of the time." he said

Story courtesy of www.policeoracle.com

2 comments:

Annette said...

That is frightening.
I wonder how they come to that decision to bail them in the first place?
Surely, if the offence is bad e.g. they have tried to harm someone, then surely they would not bail them?
I also wonder if it's because everyone is saying how over crowded the prisons are?!

Annette said...

David, whilst reading this I remembered that dickiebo had done a blog about a man, Alan Entwhistle, who was a bouncer had threatened to kill his girlfriend, Claire Atkinson. He took a big knife to her and told her "If I can't have you, no-one will."Luckily that time she got away unharmed and called the police.
He was arrested and charged and at the court they didn't want him to have bail.
The magistrate decided he should be bailed.
What happened?
Yes, you can guess.
He enticed her into his car and stabbed her 13 times.
She died immediately.
The questions is, why did they bail him when they knew he was a violent man?
And I question, why wasn't she protected by the police while he was on bail?
Or am I being a little hard on the police?
It just goes to show that there are times when bail should not be allowed.