Latest news with #probationservice
The Guardian
24-07-2025
- The Guardian
Letter: Lord Blair of Boughton obituary
During Ian Blair's time as chief constable in Surrey, I was the director of social services there. He excelled in working with colleagues from closely related public services. Together, and with colleagues, we worked to reopen once 'buried' difficult child abuse investigations, and to try and track down suspected perpetrators in residential care. With the probation service he introduced successful reparatory justice initiatives. He was a model of a new style of police leadership: personally and professionally open and engaging with colleagues.
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Daily Mail
The tragic final moments of mother-of-six Anita Rose as she walks her dog oblivious to her killer prowling the streets behind her
Chilling footage shows a mother-of-six walking her dog down a quiet country lane oblivious to her killer prowling behind. Anita Rose, 57, was enjoying a stroll near her home in Brantham, Suffolk when she was randomly attacked by Roy Barclay, 56, an occult-obsessed drifter who had been living off-grid to avoid being recalled to prison. Video shows Barclay appearing to change direction and follow Ms Rose along a path as she walked her springer spaniel, Bruce, on the morning of July 24 last year. Moments later he rushed the grandmother before punching, kicking and stamping on her during a 'vicious and brutal assault'. She was found by passers-by on a footpath beside a sewage works but died four days later. Barclay will now receive a 'very lengthy' life sentence after a jury at Ipswich Crown Court took just two-and-a-half hours to convict him of murder. The fiend left Ms Rose with a dog lead wrapped around her neck, a 'calling card' he also used in an earlier 2015 attack where he left an 82-year-old man with serious head injuries. He had been released from prison in February 2020 but had not been living at a fixed address. Speaking after yesterday's verdict, Ms Rose's eldest daughter, who gave her name as Jess, fought back tears as she said the probation service urgently needed change. 'We will now look towards changes that need to be made within the probation services and the justice system,' she said. 'We need to make sure that our communities are safe and that people are monitored, that criminals are taken back to prison when they break the terms of their probation. 'Criminals cannot remain at large. There's too much at stake and our communities need protecting.' It is understood that the Probation Service issued a recall notice for Barclay following a breach of his licence conditions. When a person's licence has been revoked, the relevant local police force will be notified, and the individual will become wanted by police. The Mail previously revealed that Barclay was a follower of the late David Farrant, the President of the British Occult and Psychic Society. Farrant was best known for helping to spark panic in the 1970s about the sightings of alleged vampires in Highgate cemetery, north London. Barclay was a keen amateur artist who drew cartoons satirising the rivalry between Farrant and self-proclaimed exorcist Sean Manchester, which once made tabloid headlines. But he apparently broke off links with Farrant's supporters at least 20 years ago, leading to rumours that he had 'disappeared in mysterious circumstances', according to one blogger. In fact, he had become a homeless drifter as his mental health deteriorated, living in makeshift camps and in temporary bedsits, while surviving largely on food scavenged from bins. Barclay was living off grid when he viciously attacked Leslie Gunfield, then 82, who had threatened to inform security about him going through rubbish bins at the back of a Co-op supermarket in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex. Mr Gunfield was on his way to buy a newspaper just before 7am on February 22, 2015, when he spotted Barclay with an armful of pizzas and made an 'innocuous' remark to him, saying: 'You had a good haul tonight'. Barclay's response was to punch him repeatedly in the face and head, out of sight of CCTV cameras, leaving Mr Gunfield with multiple fractures to his nose, eye sockets and cheeks, and his jaw detached. The pensioner nearly died in the attack but survived after having ten titanium plates screwed into his skull in operations at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. Barclay, who was known for his love of dogs, left what the prosecution would suggest was a tell-tale calling card by tying the lead of Mr Gunfield's terrier around the foot of his victim to ensure the pet would not run away. He would later wrap Ms Rose's dog's lead around her leg after the fatal assault. He denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent against Mr Gunfield but changed his plea to guilty on the day his trial was due to start and he was jailed for ten years at Chelmsford Crown Court in August 2015. His release from prison on February 24, 2020, was on condition that he stayed in touch with the probation service but he effectively disappeared in 2022 and avoided contact with the police or authorities. It was his failure to obey the conditions of his licence that meant that he was wanted on recall for prison for two years. Barclay avoided being reincarcerated by living 'off grid' in a variety of camps, including one hidden in deep undergrowth close to a local beauty spot called Decoy Pond in Brantham, Suffolk, and in a clump of trees underneath the Orwell Bridge in nearby Wherstead. He attacked Ms Rose early in the morning of July 27 last year while she was walking her springer spaniel, Bruce, on an isolated path between the main Ipswich to London railway line and a sewage works around 200 years from Decoy Pond. Prosecutors suggested that he may have carried out the 'vicious and brutal' assault after Ms Rose saw him breaking into the sewage works to use its washroom, and possibly confronted him about what he was doing. The court heard Barclay subjected her to 'numerous kicks, stamps and blows' in a 'vicious and brutal' assault. Barclay displayed a surprisingly erudite side in a letter he wrote to the Halifax Evening Courier in May 2001, bemoaning the 'national scandal' that the burial place of Robin Hood at Kirklees Priory, near Brighouse, West Yorkshire, was not being promoted more by the local council She was found by passers-by on a footpath beside a sewage works but died four days later. Barclay, of no fixed abode, had denied murder. But a jury at Ipswich Crown Court took just two-and-half hours to convict him of Ms Rose's murder. Prosecutor Christopher Paxton KC said Barclay had kept a 'treasure trove' of Ms Rose's items including her jacket and phone. Mr Paxton said Barclay's walking boots, which 'amounted to the murder weapon', were found in one of the defendant's camps. Earlier in the case, jurors were told how 'cunning' convict Barclay tried to trick police into arresting an innocent man by leaving his victim's phone in a public place. The killer swiped Ms Rose's phone and distinctive pink jacket before then reading media reports on his mobile detailing how both items were 'key' to the police investigation, the court heard. Mr Paxton told the jury how the report was 'a signal to Roy Barclay that he had to get rid of the phone'. Barclay attempted to dump the phone to 'set a false trail for the police, throwing them off the scent', he added. Barclay was arrested by police at Ipswich Library on October 21 last year. He is due to be sentenced at a later date.
Sky News
15-05-2025
- Health
- Sky News
Politics latest: PM says 'I have no choice' but to change prison recall rules
Government's prison reforms could have 'deadly' consequences, warns commissioner The domestic abuse commissioner has called for an urgent meeting with the government, as she fears new plans to overhaul the use of recall in prisons could be "deadly". Dame Nicole Jacobs has written to the justice secretary about her proposals to make more prisoners eligible for fixed-term recall, announced yesterday. The plans would see most prisoners sentenced to four years in prison or less serve a maximum of 28 days behind bars if they are recalled, rather than having to wait until they can be assessed by a parole board. Previously, this only applied to prisoners serving sentences of up to a year. 'Victims will be harmed' Jacobs has written she believes "it is clear that victims' safety has not been considered in this decision". She added that the reforms will increase pressure on the probation service, and she is concerned about the "knock-on impact that this will have on the safety of victims and survivors". She added: "Shifting the pent-up pressure within the prison service on to the underfunded and under resourced probation service is not an effective solution to this crisis and will lead to victims being harmed." The government has said prisoners jailed for domestic abuse and sexual offences will be exempt, but admitted not all of these will be covered. Jacobs said: "If they are recalled, at a minimum they must be risk assessed before they are re-released." Recall changes will lead to 'something appalling' The Conservatives have backed the domestic abuse commissioner's call. Following Jacobs' letter, Robert Jenrick said: "Sick domestic abusers and prisoners so menacing that the parole board kept them behind bars will now be released." The shadow justice secretary added: "It's only a matter of time before they go on to do something appalling."
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bold spending needed to halt prison crisis
The government's efforts to fix the prison crisis may not work without "bold investment decisions", the leading union for the probation service has said. Ian Lawrence, general secretary of Napo, said a review of sentencing policy by former Conservative Justice Secretary David Gauke "may come to little effect" if the probation service was underfunded. The union boss said he supported proposals to scrap short sentences for some offenders and toughen up community orders supervised by probation officers. But he said probation staff were already "overworked" and suggested any "cost cutting" could increase pressure on the service. "I'm struggling to see how a package of sentencing reform can work without the necessary support," Lawrence told the BBC. A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said a "crisis" in the justice system had "put a huge strain on the probation service". "We are hiring 1,300 new probation officers, investing in technology to cut back on admin, and increasing focus on those offenders who pose the greatest risk to the public," the spokesperson said. "This will ease pressure on the service, help cut reoffending and keep our streets safe." Gauke is understood to be considering recommending the idea of scrapping short prison terms as part of the sentencing review. The review comes as prisons across the country are struggling to deal with overcrowding after the number of offenders behind bars hit a new high. In an interim report, Gauke warned that unless radical changes were made, prisons in England and Wales could run out of cells by early next year. Gauke's sentencing review is expected to be published this month, before the government sets out its spending plans for departments in June. "Napo would welcome any initiatives to reduce the numbers of people in our prison estate," Lawrence said. "But that can't come without the lord chancellor absolutely recognising the pressures that the probation service is now facing and will in the future. "And that's why we need brave, bold investment decisions by this government and not more of the same." The prisons and probation budget fell by 12% when inflation was accounted for between 2007–08 and 2023–24, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has outlined plans for efficiency savings and in her spring statement, said day-to-day government spending would fall by £6.1bn per year by 2030. But the chancellor has not yet stated which departments will have less money to spend, meaning it's not clear how the probation service will be affected. The money allocated to government departments for the three years beyond 2025-26 will be set out in the spending review in June. Lawrence said a reduction in funding for the Ministry of Justice, which oversees the probation service, could mean less funding to support offenders in the community and worse outcomes. "In other words, they go out of prison and they've got no option but to commit crime because they have no means of supporting themselves," he said. "They're back in prison within weeks. And so it goes on and that costs the taxpayer millions." A source at the Prison Reform Trust, a charity, said the probation service would need to be resourced properly if there was more community sentencing. They said the government may have to divert funding from prisons towards probation and community solutions. "It needs to make a strong economic case for why this would be a spend-to-save policy," they said. In a national inspection report, the probation watchdog said there was a high shortfall of officers in some regions and workloads were a problem. Lawrence said Napo was in dispute with the prison and probation service over pay progression and workloads. He said the union had submitted a claim for a 12% pay rise for probation staff this year. That's way above the increases independent pay review bodies have advised the government to give teachers (4%) and NHS workers (3%). Lawrence said probation workers going on strike was a possibility if the pay offer was too low. "We think senior leaders in [the service] have a responsibility to let ministers know the gravity of the situation," he said. "And that worries me as to whether ministers are truly sighted on the operational crisis that exists in probation right now." In a speech in February, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out her vision for reforming the probation service. She said probation officers were "responsible for caseloads and workloads that exceed what they should be expected to handle". The changes she announced included 1,300 new trainee probation officers by next March, and an £8m investment in new technology to reduce the administrative burden on staff. Probation: 'Too few staff, with too little experience, managing too many offenders' 'Women and children not protected from male harm' More offenders could be tagged, as minister insists he's 'not soft on crime'
BBC News
10-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Bold spending needed to halt prison crisis, union says
The government's efforts to fix the prison crisis may not work without "bold investment decisions", the leading union for the probation service has Lawrence, general secretary of Napo, said a review of sentencing policy by former Conservative Justice Secretary David Gauke "may come to little effect" if the probation service was union boss said he supported proposals to scrap short sentences for some offenders and toughen up community orders supervised by probation he said probation staff were already "overworked" and suggested any "cost cutting" could increase pressure on the service. "I'm struggling to see how a package of sentencing reform can work without the necessary support," Lawrence told the BBC.A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said a "crisis" in the justice system had "put a huge strain on the probation service"."We are hiring 1,300 new probation officers, investing in technology to cut back on admin, and increasing focus on those offenders who pose the greatest risk to the public," the spokesperson said."This will ease pressure on the service, help cut reoffending and keep our streets safe."Gauke is understood to be considering recommending the idea of scrapping short prison terms as part of the sentencing review comes as prisons across the country are struggling to deal with overcrowding after the number of offenders behind bars hit a new an interim report, Gauke warned that unless radical changes were made, prisons in England and Wales could run out of cells by early next sentencing review is expected to be published this month, before the government sets out its spending plans for departments in June."Napo would welcome any initiatives to reduce the numbers of people in our prison estate," Lawrence said."But that can't come without the lord chancellor absolutely recognising the pressures that the probation service is now facing and will in the future."And that's why we need brave, bold investment decisions by this government and not more of the same." Tight budget The prisons and probation budget fell by 12% when inflation was accounted for between 2007–08 and 2023–24, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Rachel Reeves has outlined plans for efficiency savings and in her spring statement, said day-to-day government spending would fall by £6.1bn per year by the chancellor has not yet stated which departments will have less money to spend, meaning it's not clear how the probation service will be money allocated to government departments for the three years beyond 2025-26 will be set out in the spending review in said a reduction in funding for the Ministry of Justice, which oversees the probation service, could mean less funding to support offenders in the community and worse outcomes."In other words, they go out of prison and they've got no option but to commit crime because they have no means of supporting themselves," he said."They're back in prison within weeks. And so it goes on and that costs the taxpayer millions."A source at the Prison Reform Trust, a charity, said the probation service would need to be resourced properly if there was more community said the government may have to divert funding from prisons towards probation and community solutions."It needs to make a strong economic case for why this would be a spend-to-save policy," they said. Pay dispute In a national inspection report, the probation watchdog said there was a high shortfall of officers in some regions and workloads were a said Napo was in dispute with the prison and probation service over pay progression and said the union had submitted a claim for a 12% pay rise for probation staff this way above the increases independent pay review bodies have advised the government to give teachers (4%) and NHS workers (3%).Lawrence said probation workers going on strike was a possibility if the pay offer was too low."We think senior leaders in [the service] have a responsibility to let ministers know the gravity of the situation," he said."And that worries me as to whether ministers are truly sighted on the operational crisis that exists in probation right now."In a speech in February, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out her vision for reforming the probation said probation officers were "responsible for caseloads and workloads that exceed what they should be expected to handle".The changes she announced included 1,300 new trainee probation officers by next March, and an £8m investment in new technology to reduce the administrative burden on staff.
