Labour left 98% of victims in the dark when 179 criminals were released from jail by mistake
Labor was revealed to have left 98 per cent of victims in the dark after 179 criminals were wrongly released from prison.
Only three people involved in the trials were informed of the Prison Service’s errors.
The Conservatives, who obtained the data under Freedom of Information laws, said it showed Justice Secretary David Lammy’s apology for the scandal was ‘not worth the paper it was written on’.
An official report published in April showed that 179 prisoners were mistakenly released from April to March last year.
Of the 179 victims, 14 were part of the Probation Service’s Victim Contact Program, but only three were notified of wrongful releases. None of the remaining 165 cases, which did not include victims in the program, were notified.
Shadow justice spokesman Nick Timothy said: ‘David Lammy has offered what he calls a clear apology for the faulty discharge scandal. It wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
‘Victims of crime trust that they will be treated with basic dignity, or at least notified that the person who wronged them has accidentally been released from prison. ‘Labour has broken that trust.’
In a statement to the House of Commons at the time the report was published, Mr Lammy said: ‘We recognize the distress experienced by victims who learn that the person who harmed them was free when they should have been behind bars.
‘I offer my unequivocal apologies to anyone who has faced anxiety or worse as a result of inaccurate broadcasts.’
Labor left 98 per cent of victims in the dark when 179 criminals were wrongly released from prison (Image: David Lammy)
Sex offender Hadush Kebatu (pictured) was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford last October
In November, then-victims minister Alex Davies-Jones told Parliament that participants in the Victim Contact Program would be notified by the authorities and notified if the offender was mistakenly released from prison.
April’s white paper focused on the mistaken release of sex offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford last October.
It highlighted a long list of failures that led to small-boat migrant Kebatu being released on a 12-month prison sentence after just one month for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping.
The crimes occurred while he was living at the Bell Hotel at taxpayers’ expense and sparked protests.
The victim, a schoolgirl known as ‘Victim A’, learned from a post on social media that she had been mistakenly released from prison. He was not notified until hours later.
The investigation, led by former National Crime Agency boss Dame Lynne Owens, said the release ‘had a profound and harmful impact on the victim and her family’.
He said they described the experience as ‘re-traumatising’. ‘Victim A’s father described his fear that Mr Kebatu may have re-encountered his daughter following his mistaken release and knowing what might have happened.’
Kebatu was finally arrested in north London after a three-day manhunt. He was later deported.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: ‘We understand that the inadvertent publication of distress has caused harm to victims and their families, and we are taking action to fix the crisis-affected system we inherited.’
