Public Protection

Given that four of the six individuals convicted of the horrific murder of Mary-Ann Leneghan in my constituency were under the supervision of the probation service, the Home Secretary’s announcement is welcome. However, none of those young men had been subject to early release, and I deplore the attempt by the shadow Home Secretary to make political capital out of a horrible episode. Only one of those individuals, Adrian Thomas, had convictions for serious and violent offences. Incredibly, that man, who kidnapped and tortured a 13-year-old boy before murdering Mary-Ann Leneghan, received only a community rehabilitation order in 2004. Will the Home Secretary accept that the courts should take a long, hard look at the sentences that they hand out to dangerous individuals, because those sentences are currently far too soft?