Met Police chief ‘flabbergasted’ as knife and gun crime suspects get bail amid prison overcrowdingCriminals carrying 18-inch blades are being released pending trial, head of Metropolitan Police warns
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Niva Yadav2 minutes ago
Individuals accused of serious knife and gun crimes are being granted bail because of prison overcrowding, the country’s most senior police officer has warned.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley cautioned that tougher laws on knife crime and firearms in the last 25 years are being challenged by the overcrowding of prisons, which are not “executing on the back of those laws.”
He said he was “flabbergasted” that criminals carrying 18-inch swords were being released pending trial, despite facing several charges for serious crimes.
According to Sir Mark, far fewer knife crime defendants are being held in custody while awaiting trial, meaning the same offenders are repeatedly being charged and bailed over the same offences.
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He said: “An overloaded justice system is not executing on the back of those laws in the same way, as the government has to make difficult choices based on prison capacity and other areas, and we’re now seeing the consequences of that.
“We are seeing rapidly reducing imprisonment for people sentenced for knife crime offences, knife crime possession, even repeat knife carriers, so that’s going down.
“That is then anticipated at the start of the process, so far fewer are being remanded in custody.
“So routinely now we’re seeing people charged again and again and again with carrying knives, and they’re being bailed again and again and again, and that really concerns me.”
One such example, he said, was an individual who attempted to take an 18-inch blade into Notting Hill Carnival. According to Sir Mark, it was that individual’s fourth knife offence of the year.
“He tries to take something that looks like a small sword into carnival, and he’s been bailed again,” the Met Commissioner added.
“That is deeply concerning to me, the message that sends, and that fundamentally undermines offender control.”
Sir Mark said the force is also seeing the same pattern with firearm offences, adding: “And I’m flabbergasted by this.”
According to Sir Mark, there are around 34 cases of individuals charged with firearms offences in the city who are all on bail pending trial.
He said that in nine of those cases, the accused had fired shots in confrontation.
Sir Mark said that a few years ago, before the justice system was struggling, this “just wouldn’t have happened”.
“This overloaded justice system is getting weaker and weaker in the support of what we’re doing for what I would call ‘offender control,” he added.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been tasked with tackling prison overcrowding by freeing thousands of offenders early. Currently, men’s prisons are believed to be at 98% capacity. More than 15,00 of the 97,00 prisoners in jails are on remand – equivalent to nearly one in six inmates.
Mr Burnham has scaled back Labour’s early release scheme by excluding thousands of offenders, including rapists and child sex abusers.
Around 1,500 of the 6,000 offenders set to be freed early in the 10 months from October, will no longer be released.
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