Labour left 98 per cent of victims in the dark when 179 criminals were mistakenly released from prison, new data has revealed — with only three people notified despite the Justice Secretary’s “unequivocal apology” over the scandal, which critics say was “not worth the paper it was written on.”
The figures, obtained by the Conservatives under Freedom of Information laws, show that of the 179 cases of inmates freed in error between April last year and March, just three victims were told about the blunder. Of the 14 victims who were part of the Probation Service’s Victim Contact Scheme — a programme specifically designed to keep victims informed — only three received notification. The remaining 165 cases, where victims were not part of the scheme, saw nobody informed at all.
The revelations directly contradict assurances given to Parliament by then victims minister Alex Davies-Jones in November, who told MPs that those who had opted into the Victim Contact Scheme would be kept updated by officials and notified if their offender was released in error.
Shadow justice spokesman Nick Timothy said David Lammy’s public apology over the scandal rang hollow in light of the figures. “David Lammy offered what he called an unequivocal apology for his erroneous release scandal. It was not worth the paper it was written on,” Timothy said. “Victims of crime place their trust in the system to treat them with basic dignity — to tell them, at minimum, when the person who wronged them has been let out of prison by accident. Labour have broken that trust.”
When the official report was published in April, Lammy told the House of Commons: “We recognise the distress that is caused to victims who learn that the person who harmed them is free when they should be behind bars. I give an unequivocal apology to all who have faced worry or worse as a result of releases in error.”
The April report was triggered by the mistaken release of sex offender Hadush Kebatu from HMP Chelmsford last October. Kebatu, a small-boat migrant who had been living at taxpayers’ expense in a hotel, was freed just one month into a 12-month sentence for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping. His teenage victim — known as Victim A — discovered he had been released not through any official notification but via a social media post, and was only informed by authorities hours later.
The inquiry, led by former National Crime Agency chief Dame Lynne Owens, found the release had “a profound and detrimental impact on the victim and her family” and described the experience as “retraumatising.” The victim’s father told investigators of his fear that Kebatu, while at large, could have re-encountered his daughter and what might have resulted. Kebatu was eventually arrested in north London after a three-day manhunt and was subsequently deported.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the government understood the distress caused to victims and their families and was “taking action to fix the crisis-hit system we inherited.”
