Baby P’s killer mother will be freed from prison after the Parole Board today rejected Dominic Raab’s appeal.
The Justice Secretary raged against the decision to release Tracey Connelly, saying it showed why the board ‘needs a fundamental overhaul – including a ministerial check for the most serious offenders’.
Connelly, now 40, was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2009 for causing or allowing the death of her 17-month-old son Peter at their home in Tottenham, north London, on August 3, 2007.
Known publicly as Baby P, Peter had suffered more than 50 injuries despite being on the at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, police officers and health professionals over eight months.
Connelly’s lover Steven Barker was jailed in 2009 for a minimum of 32 years for torturing the 17-month-old to death while his brother, Jason Owen, received a six year jail sentence for allowing the toddler to die.
Connelly was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2009 for causing or allowing the death of her 17-month-old son Peter at their home in Tottenham, north London , on August 3, 2007
Known publicly as Baby P, Peter (pictured) had suffered more than 50 injuries despite being on the at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, police officers and health professionals over eight months
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab (pictured) pledged in March to appeal against the board’s recommendation to free Tracey Connelly, 40, from prison
Responding to the decision, Mr Raab said Connelly’s actions were ‘pure evil’ and added: ‘The decision to release her demonstrates why the parole board needs a fundamental overhaul – including a ministerial check for the most serious offenders – so that it serves and protects the public.’
A series of reviews identified missed opportunities for officials to save the toddler’s life had they reacted properly to warning signs.
Connelly was handed a sentence of imprisonment for public protection with a minimum term of five years after admitting her crimes.
She was released on licence in 2013 but recalled to prison in 2015 for breaching her parole conditions.
In March the Parole Board decided she was suitable for release, having rejected three previous bids.
Today, the Parole Board announced the application had been rejected and the original decision upheld.
A spokesman said in a statement: ‘Following the reconsideration application from the Secretary of State, a judge has ruled that the decision made by independent Parole Board members to release was not irrational, as stated in the reconsideration application, and the original decision is upheld.’
The reconsideration mechanism, introduced in July 2019, allows the Justice Secretary and the prisoner to challenge the board’s decision within 21 days if they believe them to be ‘procedurally unfair’ or ‘irrational’.
Victims and members of the public can also make a request via the minister.
But the threshold is high and is the same as is required when seeking a judicial review in court.
The provisions also make clear that ‘being unhappy’ with the decision is not grounds for reconsideration.
Mr Raab intervened on the grounds that the decision to free Connelly was ‘irrational’, arguing it had failed to take proper account of some information surrounding the case and did not provide sufficient reasons for its conclusion.
The Parole Board added: ‘In summary, the judge has concluded that the panel did take into consideration all evidence mentioned by the application and made rational conclusions.’
Connelly will be subject to restrictions on her movements, activities and who she contacts, and faces 20 extra licence conditions.
They include living at a specified address, being supervised by probation, wearing an electronic tag, adhering to a curfew and having to disclose her relationships.
Baby P, was tortured to death in 2007 by Connelly’s lover Steven Barker (left) and his brother Jason Owen (right) at their home in Tottenham, north London
Her use of the internet and a phone will be monitored, and she has been told she cannot go to certain places to ‘avoid contact with victims and to protect children’.
Peter and three other children were sharing the four-bedroom house with their mother, her boyfriend and his brother when he died.
A series of reviews identified missed opportunities for officials to save the toddler’s life had they reacted properly to warning signs.
Three of the children, including Peter, were on Haringey’s Child Protection Register because of fears they were being neglected.
Connelly, who covered up the abuse of her son, was jailed in 2009 for a minimum of five years after admitting causing or allowing the death of her son Peter.
She was then freed on licence in 2013 but later recalled to prison in 2015 after it was found she had sent indecent images of herself to people obsessed with her notoriety.
The Parole Board considered her case for a third time in November 2019, following previous reviews in 2015 and 2017, and refused to either release her or move her to an open prison.
In 2019, the convict launched a bid to be freed from prison so she could try to spend Christmas with her lover.
She became besotted with a 37-year-old insurance salesman named Paul and told fellow prisoners she want to move in with him in Reading.
The abuser said she believed she was ready to leave prison a ‘changed woman’.
Connelly insisted her relationship was genuine because she had known him for many years.
Mr Raab has insisted the case for reform of the parole system is ‘clear and made out’.
Offenders who are subject to life sentences, indeterminate sentences for public protection, extended sentences and certain recall cases are all subject to the parole process, meaning their release must be directed by the Parole Board.
The proposed reforms could see ministers override the Parole Board when it comes to the release of dangerous criminals from jail, with an aim to focus on protecting the public rather than the rights of offenders.
This could include cases involving murder, rape, terrorism and causing or allowing the death of a child.
Connelly, pictured in 2013, when she was released on licence in 2013 before being ordered back to jail
Victims are also expected to be given the right to attend parole hearings in full for the first time, in a nod to the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto.
The Parole Board will now be required to take into account submissions made by victims and they will be allowed to ask questions.
The new rules could also see more police, and other people with ‘enforcement experience’, recruited to sit on Parole Board decision panels.
Mr Raab said it was ‘striking’ that as of last year only 5% of all Parole Board panel members come from a law enforcement background, telling MPs he believed this was a ‘significant deficit’.
Setting out his review of the parole system earlier this year, Mr Raab said: ‘Our reforms will ensure that those offenders who present the highest risk to public safety are reviewed more rigorously with additional ministerial oversight.
‘Protecting the public is the Government’s top priority. The proposals in this review will enforce public safety.’
He added: ‘Following the review we have conducted and published today, I believe the case for reform is clear and made out.’
Mr Raab also said a ministerial check would be introduced in cases which involve ‘those who have committed the most serious crimes’.
He said: ‘I believe the focus in this critical decision-making has become adrift from its original moorings. So this Government will anchor Parole Board decision-making back to the cardinal principle of public protection.
‘When it comes to assessing the risk to victims and public safety, we will introduce a precautionary principle to reinforce public confidence in the system and in cases which involve those who have committed the most serious crimes, we will introduce a ministerial check on release decisions exercised by the secretary of state for justice.
‘The package of reforms published today will strengthen the focus on public protection at every stage.’
Outlining his plans further, Mr Raab said: ‘It is striking that as of last year only 5% of all Parole Board panel members come from a law enforcement background.’
He added: ‘But I do point to what I believe is a significant deficit. I believe it is wrong and that our reforms will ensure that those who we charge with making finely balanced assessments of future risk have greater first hand operational experience of protecting the public from serious offenders.
‘So we will change this imbalance by mandating the Parole Board to recruit more members with operational or enforcement experience.’
Catflap rapist, child killer and sex predators: High profile criminals set free to strike again
John Worboys
Black cab rapist John Worboys
The board faced widespread criticism over its handling of the case of the Black Cab rapist – a serial sex offender convicted in 2009 for attacks on 12 women. He was recommended for release in 2018, but just weeks later, the decision was overturned after it was challenged by two of his victims.
Double child killer Colin Pitchfork
Last year the board allowed the release of Pitchfork, who raped and murdered two 15-year-old girls in the 1980s. However, he was recalled to jail less than three months later after he was caught ‘approaching young women’.
Christmas Day killer Steven Ling
The farm worker was jailed for life in December 1998 after admitting murdering 29-year-old Joanne Tulip in Stamfordham, Northumberland on Christmas Day 1997.
The Parole Board recommended earlier this year that he be transferred to a lower security jail, however this was overruled by Justice Secretary Dominic Raab.
Steven Ling
Catflap rapist Paul Robson
Robson was given two life sentences in August 2000 after he broke into a 23-year-old woman’s house in Oxford through a cat flap and sexually assaulted her while holding a knife to her throat. He fled an open prison in Boston, Lincolnshire earlier this year and was on the loose for four days, which led to the MoJ insisting Mr Raab will have more control over the transfer of prisoners in the most high-risk cases.
Double killer Paul O’Hara
O’Hara murdered new girlfriend Cherylee Shennan in 2014 two years after he was freed early from a life term for killing his ex Janine Waterworth, whose parents said their protests that he was still dangerous were ignored by the Parole Board.
Paul Robson
Jailmate thugs Stephen Unwin and William McFall
Stephen Unwin and William McFall, were jailed for raping and murdering a young Vietnamese mother who they had tortured for four hours. They met while serving life for killing OAPs during burglaries. Each was paroled after only 13 years.
Drug addict killer George Johnson
Long-term drug addict George Johnson killed a hotel worker in 1986 for just £3. Freed in 2006, he battered to death an 89-year-old widow five years later to steal £25 to feed his heroin and crack cocaine habit.
The ‘Devil’s Child’ Damien Hanson
Damien Hanson murdered a banker in 2004, three months after winning parole. He was seven years into a 12-year term for trying to kill a teenage boy. Known as ‘the Devil’s Child’, he was freed despite a report saying he was a 91 per cent reoffending risk.
Douglas Vinter
Bodybuilding killer Douglas Vinter
Fitness fan Douglas Vinter knifed his wife Ann White to death after kidnapping her and holding her hostage in 2008. They had married soon after he was freed in 2005 – just ten years into a life sentence for murdering a workmate in a railway cabin.
Pub landlord murderer Ian Simms
Last year the Parole Board freed murderer Ian Simms, despite his refusal to reveal the whereabouts of the remains of his victim. Clerk Helen McCourt, 22, disappeared on her way home in Merseyside in 1988. Her mother lost a legal bid to keep Simms behind bars but a new rule, known as Helen’s Law, now makes it harder for killers to get parole if they refused to reveal where a victim’s body is.
Serial rapist Joseph McCann
Blundering probation staff missed a series of chances to recall McCann to jail before he attacked 11 victims. He was given 33 life terms and jailed for at least 30 years for kidnapping, raping and sexually assaulting women and children aged 11 to 71. McCann had been freed from prison by mistake two months before his two-week rampage fuelled by vodka and cocaine when he forced victims into his car at knifepoint.
