Almost 100 sex offenders committed further crimes while out on licence from prison

Almost 100 sex offenders went on to commit more attacks while being monitored post-release from prison. According to newly released data from the Ministry of Justice, a total of 98 offenders committed further crimes while out on licence. The serial attackers include men who carried out repeated rapes and paedophiles with multiple convictions.
All of the offenders were let out of prison before their original sentence had come to an end and were released on licence and monitored by probation officials. David Spencer, Research Director at the Centre for Crime Prevention said to The Mirror: “Early release from prison should be the exception, not the norm, especially when it comes to serious sex offenders.
“These figures illustrate all too clearly the huge risks to public safety that are taken by routinely releasing these offenders early. This policy has to stop and offenders guilty of this type of offence should serve their full sentence unless there is an overwhelming reason for them not to.”
Officials at the MoJ have admitted all 98 offences committed by these repeat offenders were considered so serious that a review of each case was carried out. One of the offenders last year was a person convicted of raping a child following an early release from a sentence handed out for sexually abusing a child.
The ‘on-licence’ scheme typically means that offenders who are jailed are released halfway through their prison sentence and are allowed to serve the rest of their time under watch while out in the community. This means they are living outside prison but may have conditions on what they do and where they live, as well as being monitored by probation officers.
The crimes in the report were all committed while the sex offenders were in their licence period, meaning had they have served their full sentence, they would have been in prison at the time of the attacks.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Fewer than 0.5% of offenders go on to commit serious further offences. Our new laws will keep the most serious sex offenders behind bars for longer and we’ve invested an extra £300m into the Probation Service to make the public safer.”

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