When someone jailed for life is released we assume they have been rehabilitated and are safe to be back in society.
But a Sunday People investigation today reveals a huge number of people are serving SECOND life sentences.
We can reveal 122 criminals are back inside – for murder, rape, child abuse or other grave crimes.
Most took place AFTER parole chiefs had cleared them for release – just like lifer Stephen Unwin who, as we reported last week, killed again while back out on licence.
Jailed for life in the 1990s for killing OAPs in burglaries, he was released – then tortured, robbed and murdered mum-of-two Quyen Ngoc Nguyen, 28.
David Spencer, of the Centre for Crime Prevention think tank, said: “These figures are a damning
indictment of the Ministry of Justice’s serious offender policy.
“Astonishingly they come at a time when they’re trying to make it even easier for lifers to get out early. It’s unforgivable anyone convicted of crimes of this magnitude is let out if there’s even the slightest doubt they won’t re-offend.”
Our figures, found using freedom of information laws, show some also got second life terms for crimes committed in jail or historic offences.
The Parole Board said: “It is very rare that someone released on life licence by the Parole Board goes on to commit a further offence so serious as to warrant a second life sentence.
“However we take such cases extremely seriously and review each one to seek to learn lessons to help prevent tragedies.”
Ian Birley
Birley, 43, served 18 years of a life sentence for the murder of Maurice Hoyle, 69, in his home in Barnsley in 1995.
After being released he breached his licence conditions several times in 2014 but was not sent back to jail.
In 2015 the crack cocaine addict and his girlfriend Helen Nichols murdered John Gogarty, 65, at his home in the South Yorks town.
Mr Gogarty was robbed and stabbed 69 times to pay a £500 drug debt. Birley got a whole life term, Nichols was jailed for 20 years.
David Mitchell
Twisted David Mitchell, 51, was originally given a life sentence for the murder in 1990 of his girlfriend, Kathleen McKenzie.
He served almost 23 years before being released in 2013 – and within four months had killed his gay lover, 46-year-old Robert Hind, in a drunken rage.
He then dismembered Robert’s body and dumped his remains in a canal close to his home near Huddersfield, West Yorks.
Paul O'Hara
Brutal Paul O’Hara, 46, murdered two girlfriends.
In 2014 the second-hand furniture seller attacked Cherylee Shennan in her home after she called police over his domestic abuse. After two officers arrived O’Hara chased 40-year-old Cherylee out of the house and stabbed her to death in the street.
Only a year earlier he had been released from a life sentence after killing Janine Waterworth in 1998.
O’Hara ambushed Janine, 20, as she was waiting for a bus and repeatedly stabbed her.
Gary Vinter
Bodybuilder Gary Vinter, 49, stabbed work pal Carl Edon, 22, to death in 1995, knifing him 37 times – but was freed after a ten-year minimum term.
In 2008 he murdered mum-of-four Anne White, 40,who he had moved in with, and was given a whole life term.
In 2016 he got yet another life sentence – for trying to murder fellow double killer Lee Newell in the exercise yard at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
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