HC Deb 17 October 1968 vol 770 cc568-70
29. Mr. Hugh Fraser

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has yet received a report on the circumstances in which Sidney Williams was released on parole; and if he will now make a statement.

Mr. Callaghan

Yes, Sir. Sidney Williams' case was examined by two separate bodies before he was recommended for parole, and they were both uanimous in making a favourable recommendation which I then accepted. This case shows the element of risk inherent in any parole system, but I know that all concerned with these matters recognise the heavy responsibility they carry.

Mr. Fraser

The right hon. Gentleman and the House must be very alarmed by the carnage which resulted from this release. Surely the time has come to do something more than to be satisfied? Would it not be a good thing if this report were published or at least made available to those members serving on parole commissions? One cannot release a man when the consequences are two murders and a suicide and then hope that the parole system will be generally accepted

Mr. Callaghan

That shows a rather superficial approach. This man would in any case have been released in July of next year, and I assume that the right hon. Gentleman is not saying that he should be kept in detention indefinitely. I agree that there are heavy responsibilities here in the light of what happened, but I do not think that one can say that if there had been no parole system the result would have been very different.

Mr. Hogg

All of us are very anxious that the parole system should prove a success, and we hope that it is doing so. Will the right hon. Gentleman accept that if it is to be a success and command public confidence very great care should be adopted in paroling men who have shown a tendency to homicide?

Mr. Callaghan

I have attended a meeting of the Parole Board and heard and seen the care which it gives to the cases it considers. This man was found at the time of his release to be mentally and physically fit. He needed no psychiatric treatment or advice during his sentence, and no further crime was thought likely. Clearly, the judgment of the Board was wrong, but this is inevitable and inherent in a parole system.

Parliament has acceded to this system, and I can only enjoin the Parole Board to do what I know it is doing, and that is to exercise maximum care. The House may be interested to know that of the 900 prisoners who were recommended for release on licence it has been necessary to recall 15 so far.