Pressure on UK govt as judge frees paedophile

By Staff
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LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) A British judge has freed a convicted paedophile after citing a government warning about prison overcrowding, instantly igniting a law-and-order furore that could damage Prime Minister Tony Blair's government.

Blair's Home Secretary John Reid had already drawn fire from opposition Conservative critics and mass-circulation newspapers for writing to judges to warn of prison overcrowding and urge that prison places not be wasted on non-violent offenders.

But a senior judge's decision to free a man who downloaded sexual images of children suddenly catapulted the story to the top of news reports, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the Home Office law-and-order ministry over the past year.

The BBC reported from North Wales yesterday that Judge John Rogers cited Reid's remarks while handing a suspended jail sentence to Derek Williams, 46, who downloaded child pornography.

''As of yesterday, I have to bear in mind a communication from the Home Secretary,'' the judge told Mold Crown Court as he set the man free, according to the public broadcaster.

Politicians are not supposed to be involved in sentencing decisions in Britain, and the judge's decision to refer directly to a cabinet minister's views when handing down a sentence was widely described as an almost unprecedented act.

The Home Office insisted Reid's letter, which it has refused to publish, did not lean on judges to set criminals free.

''It simply reminds judges of the options available to them,'' a spokeswoman said. ''Sentences are a matter for the courts. In the statement that was made yesterday there was no change in sentencing policy.'' Another Home Office spokesman confirmed that Reid's letter discussed ''population pressures'' in prisons, but described it as a ''private communication'' that could not be released.

Opposition politicians leaped at a chance to bash a government hurt by a succession of law-and-order scandals this year. Reid, a cabinet heavyweight, became home secretary last year after Blair sacked his predecessor for mistakenly freeing foreign criminals who should have been deported.

Britain is scrambling to find new places for prisoners after a sharp upsurge in the prison population, with the government suggesting it could house offenders in disused military barracks, police jail cells and on ships.

''We now have a situation where sentences are being dictated by the prison capacity and not the severity of the crime,'' opposition Conservative Home Affairs spokesman David Davis said.

''It looks like the consequences of the government's failure to address the lack of prison places are coming home to roost.'' The government says it is now building 8,000 prison places, but critics say it has been too slow to build jails since Blair took office 10 years ago.

On Tuesday, Reid told a conference of regional newspaper journalists that courts should not be ''squandering taxpayers' money to monitor non-dangerous and less serious offenders''.

''Prisons are an expensive resource that should be used to protect the public,'' he said, according to the BBC.

REUTERS PDS RN0725

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