HC Deb 25 March 1965 vol 709 cc728-30
26. Mr. Wall

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what were the offences for which Mr. Niven Craig and Mr. K. E. Holmes were sentenced; how long were the sentences, how long has each served, and how long each has served in a prison hostel.

Miss Bacon

Craig received sentences totalling 12 years' imprisonment for shop-breaking, assault with intent to rob and possessing housebreaking implements by night. These sentences, of which he has served 4 years 3 months, began when he had served 8 years of an earlier sentence. He has been in a prison hostel since 22nd December, 1964. Holmes has been detained for a total of 9 years 8 months on a sentence of life imprisonment for rape; he was in a prison hostel for two weeks in February, 1964.

Mr. Wall

Since Craig has a long series of sentences for serious crimes and Holmes, as the hon. Lady says, has been sentenced only once, is there not a strange discrepancy in the treatment afforded to these two men? Why has Holmes's licence been withdrawn? When will it be restored?

Miss Bacon

These two cases are not similar at all. Holmes was serving a life sentence; he was let out on licence and, as the hon. Gentleman knows, he failed to comply with the terms of the licence. Craig, who was not serving a life sentence, has been continuously in prison for 12 years, which is most exceptional, except in the case of a prisoner serving a life sentence.

Mr. Mawby

Could not the hon. Lady admit that Craig in fact is now for the second time on the hostel scheme? Is not this rather extraordinary, since at the moment the term of his sentence should in fact take him to about 1973?

Miss Bacon

Yes. Craig has been treated exceptionally and, as I tried to point out in the previous reply on the case, this is an exceptional case in that he has been in prison for 12 years and, as far as I am aware, there is no other prisoner in any prison in the country who has been in that number of years other than a life prisoner. Although he may have been treated exceptionally, this was a rather exceptional case.