Release on licence

• Dangerous Criminals Could Be Freed Earlier After Ruling

SOME of Scotland's most dangerous criminals could have the minimum term of their sentences reduced after a landmark legal ruling by seven appeal court judges. The judges were reviewing the way the punishment part of a sentence is set after considering an appeal by Morris Petch and Robert Foye, convicted rapists who appealed against the length of time they must serve in jail before they can be considered for release on licence.

• The Herald
• March 02, 2011

• Early Release in Dock Again As Number of Re-Offenders Rockets ; Criminals On Licence Back in Jail After Breaking Law Up by Almost 20 Per Cent

RECORD numbers of serious criminals in Scotland are re-offending after being freed early from prison. The past year has seen a sharp rise in violent attackers, robbers, drug dealers and rapists sent back to jail for crimes committed after their release on licence.

• Daily Mail
• June 27, 2006

• Bulger Killer's Plea for Early Release Is Turned Down

CHILD killer Jon Venables is to remain behind bars for at least another 12 months after his application for early release was turned down. Venables, 28, had applied for release on licence after serving half the two-year sentence handed to him last year for downloading and distributing child pornography.

• Daily Mail
• June 28, 2011

• Plea for Prison Licence System to Be Extended

CALLS have been made to extend a scheme which temporarily releases prisoners serving lengthy jail terms into communities. Prisoners need to be given more responsibility for their own sentence and rehabilitation to help tackle the problem of almost half of adult offenders being reconvicted within a year of their release, the Prison Reform Trust report said. But it also found that prisoners could not always find jobs on their own and that the release on temporary licence system could discourage some people from finding work. The report recommends prison governors should use their discretion to make increased use of the temporary licence scheme, particularly for people serving long sentences or within the last six months of their sentence.

• Derby Evening Telegraph
• September 05, 2012

• Straw Apologises for Silence Over Jailing of Venables Amid Claims of Cocaine- Fuelled Violence

PRESSURE was today mounting on the government to come clean about Jon Venables's prison recall. Justice secretary Jack Straw apologised for his silence after refusing to reveal why the 27-year-old was last week brought back to custody for breaching the conditions of his release on licence.

• Liverpool Echo
• April 09, 2010

• Murderer On the Loose From Prison

A CONVICTED murderer has absconded from Sudbury prison. Steven Blissett failed to return on Sunday after release on temporary licence. The 41-year-old, formerly of Warrington, was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court in December 1997 to life imprisonment for murder.

• Derby Evening Telegraph
• September 06, 2011

• Prisoner Hanged Himself On Return to Jail

A TROUBLED inmate hanged himself at Swansea Prison shortly after being recalled to jail for breaching the conditions of his release on licence, an inquest jury has heard. Father-of-four David King, 41, of Greenwood Road, Baglan, Port Talbot, served almost 10 years for an armed robbery before being released on licence in March 2007.

• Western Mail
• February 15, 2011

• My Family has Been Torn Apart. It May Be Legal to Release Biddle, but It Just Doesn't Seem Reasonable ; - Michael Bradshaw, Father of Stabbing Victim Emma, 30

THE father of a woman stabbed to death by her love rival at the home of their two timing boyfriend is furious after her killer was allowed to leave prison for Christmas on a temporary licence. Michael Bradshaw, from Sutton Cold-field, received a letter recently telling him Karla Biddle, jailed for seven years for the manslaughter of his 30-year-old daughter, Emma, had been "granted a period of release on temporary licence".

• Birmingham Mail
• December 28, 2010

• Ex-Love Set Fire at Flat ; Ex-Boyfriend in Drunken Arson Attack Ex-Boyfriend in Drunken Arson Attack [Edition 2]

A DANGEROUS Neath man torched his ex-girlfriend's flat after barricading himself inside and claiming to have a gun. Arthur Anthony Veysey drunkenly carried out the arson attack in Cimla when he became upset that Kelly Hearn had a new boyfriend. The 24-year- old set the Kingdon-Owen Road flat on fire after yelling to police officers: "I've got a gun and I'll use it." Ferocious He was eventually rescued by firefighters after collapsing from smoke inhalation as the blaze became "ferocious". The incident was described yesterday when Veysey, of Moorland Road, Cimla, was sent to prison indefinitely after a judge described him as dangerous, and said the public needed to be protected from him. Veysey pleaded guilty to committing arson while reckless whether lives would be endangered when he .ap...

But he would only be released at that stage if the Parole Board was satisfied he... becoming eligible to apply for release on licence. But he would only be released at that stage if th...

• South Wales Evening Post
• November 29, 2009

• Leaked Us Memo Told of Labour Minister's Letter to Tripoli

The latest Wikileaks document reveals Labour foreign minister Bill Rammell wrote to his Libyan counterpart in October 2008 advising him how Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi's diagnosis of prostate cancer could result in his release. The letter referred to Section 3 of the Prisoners and Criminal Proceedings (Scotland) Act of 1993 as the basis for the release of prisoners, on licence on compassionate grounds.

• The Scotsman
• February 02, 2011