§ 4.16 p.m.
§ Mr. Eldon Griffiths (Bury St. Edmunds)I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to provide that a sentence of life imprisonment for the murder of a policeman on duty, or of any person going to his aid, shall not be reduced to less than thirty years, except by an order of the Secretary of State; and for purposes related thereto.I am grateful for 10 minutes free speech in order to ask leave to present my Bill, and I want to say at the outset how grateful I am to my hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth (Dame Irene Ward) for her courtesy and unselfishness in giving up her Ten-Minute Rule time to enable me to move this Motion.The fact that my hon. Friend and no fewer than five others of my hon. Friends and a number of hon. Members opposite volunteered to give up their time to me is a measure, I believe, of the very deep feeling in the country—a feeling reinforced by the large number of letters I have received in support. It is eloquent of the feeling that it is necessary and urgent to provide the police service with a greater measure of protection than it has at present.
As the House knows, I have a connection with the Police Federation. The Bill, however, is not a police initiative, but, in the light of present circumstances—those of the House having decided to abolish capital punishment and, as I judge it, being unwilling to reverse the decision—the police have offered to me their unanimous support for the Bill. I am glad to say that I also have the support of the Secretary of the Howard League for Penal Reform. The reason for the Bill is straightforward. A new situation has arisen as a result of the abolition of capital punishment. That new situation has three aspects.
Before abolition, the average policeman believed, and acted on the belief, that, in tackling an armed criminal, he personally was armour plated by the law of capital punishment. The policeman pinned his faith, and risked his life on that faith, on the fact that any criminal who murdered a police officer on duty was virtually signing his own death warrant. It matters little whether that belief was or was not statistically or 1226 morally justified. What matters is that, in that belief, the unarmed police have performed frequent acts of gallantry in the face of criminal gunmen and have done so as a matter of routine.
Today, however, there is a new situation. The House has taken away what the police quite fiercely regarded as the only sure-fire protection against the criminal gunmen. As a result, many policemen have become much more hesitant—and which of us, in the circumstances, will blame them?—about risking their lives to arrest armed professional criminals whose own lives no longer are at risk. I quote from just one of the many letters from police officers. This is from a constable with 12 years' service, in Ipswich:
It now appears that to rob a train with nobody killed can be a more serious offence, 30 years' imprisonment, than to shoot a policeman. I am a married man with three children. If confronted by an armed man I would not any longer jeopardise my life to arrest him.That is a letter from a police officer.This, then, is the first aspect of this new situation. The police believe, all but unanimously, that they have lost the bullet-proof vest of capital punishment. That is why they are asking that if this House will not restore capital punishment for murder then at least we should make haste to put something else, something effective, in its place.
I turn now to the new situation as it affects the professional criminal. I am thinking here of the calculating criminal, the man who, in cold blood, cleans and loads a pistol or sawn-off shotgun, puts it in his coat and sets out with the clear intention of using it if he is caught. Such a man is well aware that it is the statutory duty, laid upon him by this House, of any police officer to prevent his escape. So that man, when confronted by a police officer, must choose between two alternatives. Either he surrenders or he uses that gun in an attempt to escape. Suppose that he surrenders; then, depending on his record, he is likely to be sentenced to anything from seven to 14 years. With remission for good behaviour, the probability is that he will serve between six and eight of those years.
Suppose, however, that he shoots the policeman who very often is the only witness. In that case, there is a chance 1227 of his getting away scot-free; and even if he is caught his sentence on conviction for murder at worst will be life imprisonment; so the question becomes: what does "life" really mean? I agree with the Home Secretary that in the case of the seasoned gunman that sentence would very seldom in practice be reduced to the minimum period of nine years. It was recommended that the Shepherd's Bush killers, for example, should stay in prison for not less than 30 years, but this is exceptional. The man who killed Police-Constable Miles was let out after serving 12 years. The murderer of Police-Constable Edgar was released after 10 years; and I notice that Howard Winson, who was recommended to serve 25 years for the murder of two Glasgow police officers, is reported to have said on leaving the court, "Don't worry. I will be out in 16 years".
Here, at least, is one dangerous gunman who quite clearly does not believe that life imprisonment means what it says. So my second point is that the sentences actually served by recent murderers of policemen are by no means consistently as long as the Home Secretary would have us believe.
The heart of the matter, at least as it concerns the police, is that there is simply not enough difference between the sentence actually served by an armed robber who gives himself up and an armed criminal who commits murder in the hope of getting away. That difference can be as little as three or four years, or five or six years at the worst. In my opinion, that is not enough to set against the risk of a police officer's life. The odds are too one-sided, because at the point when the police officer must decide to tackle that criminal gunman the policeman risks all that he has. He risks his life, his family and his future. But the gunman he confronts no longer risks his life. This House has saved him from that. All that the gunman risks is a few more years tacked on to the end of his gaol sentence. If, by shooting, he can get away he also stands a chance of serving no sentence at all. The two risks are too one-sided.
I turn now to the third aspect of the situation, which is the consistent and alarming increase of lethal assaults on the police. There are no exact statistics, 1228 but I offer these as an illustration of the number of policemen whose cases have gone before the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. In 1965–66, there were just over 200. In 1967, this total had more than doubled to 500; and last year there were nearly 700 cases. So that there has been an increase of more than three times in the number of policemen criminally injured on duty over the last five years. Some of these cases would have been cases of murder, but for the criminals' very poor aim.
Against this background the time has come for Parliament to fill the vacuum left by abolition, and that is precisely what my Bill would seek to do. Essentially, it provides that life imprisonment for the wilful murder of a policeman on duty and those who go to his aid henceforth would mean much more nearly what it says. A life sentence for this type of murder henceforth would not be reduced to less than 30 years and for most practical purposes this would mean that wilful killers of policemen would stay in confinement until, generally speaking, they were incapable of murdering again.
The Home Secretary still would be able to release on humanitarian grounds. Specifically, he could do so if the mental or physical deterioration of a life prisoner had gone to such a point that no useful public purpose would be served by continuing his confinement. I must admit that I should have liked to widen the Bill to include all kinds of criminals who murder with malice aforethought.
I accept that by confining it to the police I may be accused of creating what some may call a special category of murder. But my answer is that the police are a special category. They are unique because they and they alone are required, under discipline, to risk their lives against the criminal; and there is no more eloquent and tragic proof of this than the fact that 13 policemen have been murdered on duty over the past five years, two of them during the last few months. It is, therefore, no wonder that the police and their wives are now asking; how many more police lives are to be placed at risk before this House provides them with more adequate protection?
Perhaps I should head off this last objection, namely, that my Bill would 1229 create a minimum sentence. I assure the House that it would not. If the English language means anything, we already have a fixed sentence. We call it life imprisonment. All that my Bill seeks to do is to set limits on the amount of remission; that is, on the number of years that can be lopped off a sentence of life imprisonment by an act of remission by the right hon. Gentleman the Home Secretary.
Finally, the Home Secretary, to his credit, has set up under Judge Edmund Davies a committee to review the whole question of sentencing. Of course, I welcome this, but this committee is not enough. The need is for speedy action to provide our unarmed police with the protection they need and deserve and which, alas, they now feel they have lost. The right time to have provided that protection was immediately following abolition. I very much regret that 63 months, and 13 policemen's lives, after the Second Reading of the Silverman Bill nothing practical has been done to till the vacuum left by the ending of the death sentence.
I do not believe we can wait either for Lord Justice Davies or for the Home Secretary who, in any event, if he wishes can incorporate the findings of the Davies Committee into the Bill during its Committee stage. Therefore, I appeal to the House to give leave to bring in this Bill. We have, as an act of compassion, saved the lives of criminal gunmen by abolishing capital punishment. Should we not now do as much for the unarmed police who are asked to go up against those gunmen and risk their lives for their duty?
§ 4.30 p.m.
§ Mr. Kenneth Robinson (St. Pancras, North)I rise to oppose the Motion. The hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Eldon Griffiths) made the best case he could in support of a proposition which the House would be ill-advised to support. The hon. Gentleman appealed frankly to our emotions—[HON. MEMBERS: "No."]—but I do not consider that the arguments he put forward will stand examination.
I wish to make it clear at the outset that I fully share the horror that all of us feel on those, happily rare, occasions when a policeman is murdered on duty.
1230 I entirely understand the anxiety of the police and, in particular, of their wives and families that everything possible should be done to safeguard the police.
Needless to say, I yield to no one in my admiration for the police and their courage in the face of danger. However, I do not believe that the proposal of the hon. Gentleman is necessary to achieve the objective he has in mind or that it would contribute to the protection of the police.
In the time I have at my disposal I can refer to only a few of what I consider to be compelling arguments against the Motion. First, a general point, namely, that the House would do well not to fetter the discretion of the courts by attempting to insert precise penalties into legislation. In criminal legislation our job, as I see it, is to define the offence and perhaps to prescribe a maximum penalty, but to leave to the court's judgment the nature of the penalty in a particular case.
Within every category of crime, even the murder of policemen, there are always degrees of culpability and deliberation which make any rigid imposition of a fixed penalty or a minimum term of imprisonment quite unsuitable. True justice requires these sort of considerations, and others, to be taken into account in determining the length of time an offender serves in prison.
It can be argued in a loose sense, as the hon. Gentleman said, that murder already carries a fixed penalty; that of life imprisonment. In practice, however, the actual term served by someone convicted of murder varies between wide limits, at the discretion of the Home Secretary, but in the light of any recommendations that may have been made by the trial judge and certainly in the light of a great deal of advice that he receives.
I cannot think that any Home Secretary—or any court, for that matter—is likely to deal with undue leniency with any case involving the murder of a policeman, which is a crime for which we all have a special abhorrence. This fact alone, contrary to what the hon. Gentleman said, is well enough known among the criminal elements to be a fairly effective deterrent.
I hope that hon. Members have read, the text of a letter which my right hon.
1231 Friend the Home Secretary wrote to the Police Federation and which was published last Friday in HANSARD, at columns 235–8. It dealt with the procedures and safeguards under which life sentences are treated and reviewed by the Home Secretary.
I do not believe that anyone reading that letter would ever again think that prisoners serving life sentences, especially those who had murdered policemen, would be likely, lightly or prematurely, to be released on licence. The elaborate procedures, and the very strong safeguards on which my right hon. Friend insists, in my view form the greatest possible protection of both the public and the police for which anyone could reasonably ask.
For what does the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds ask? Under his proposal any release after less than 30 years served by a prisoner serving a life sentence would be effective only if an Order were laid before Parliament by the Home Secretary. That Order would automatically be debateable. Offhand, I cannot think of a more unsuitable topic for debate in this House than whether a convicted murderer should or should not be released on licence at a particular moment.
I come to what some hon. Members may consider to be the weightiest argument against the introduction of a Bill of this nature at the time. It was briefly mentioned, only, I am afraid, to be dismissed by the hon. Gentleman towards the end of his speech. As was foreshadowed in a speech which he made to the House before Christmas, my right hon. Friend has recently announced that he has asked that very distinguished
§ standing body, the Criminal Law Revision Committee, under the chairmanship of Lord Justice Edmund Davies, to review, in the light of Parliament's decision finally to abolish the death penalty, the whole law relating to, and the penalties for, offences against the person, including homicide.
§ For this House to try to anticipate or pre-empt, even in part, the conclusions of such a committee would, I suggest, be ill-advised in the extreme. Such a step would savour of panic measures in a situation which in no way justifies action of that kind. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds quoted some figures of assaults, but my right hon. Friend published figures recently which demonstrated that there had been no significant increase in England and Wales, since Parliament abolished the death penalty, in incidents involving the murder of policemen.
§ By all means let the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds give evidence to the Criminal Law Revision Committee which, I know, will give full consideration to the case he puts forward. It will then be open to the committee to recommend any steps that it thinks should be taken.
§ Meanwhile, I beg him to withdraw his Motion for leave to bring in his Bill. If the hon. Gentleman is unwilling to do so, then I ask the House, regardless of party—this is no party matter—decisively to reject the Motion.
§ Question put, pursuant to Standing Order No. 13 (Motions for leave to bring in Bills and nominations of Select Committees at commencement of Public Business):—
§ The House divided: Ayes 173, Noes 180.
1236| Division No. 87.] | AYES | [4.38 p.m. |
| Alison, Michael (Barkston Ash) | Blackburn, F. | Clark, Henry |
| Anderson, Donald | Blaker, Peter | Clegg, Walter |
| Astor, John | Boardman, Tom (Leicester, S.W.) | Costain, A. P. |
| Atkins, Humphrey (M't'n & M'd'n) | Bossom, Sir Clive | Craddock, Sir Beresford (Spelthorne) |
| Baker, W. H. K. (Banff) | Braine, Bernard | Crouch, David |
| Baxter, William | Brewis, John | Crowder, F. P. |
| Bell, Ronald | Bromley-Davenport, Lt.-Col. Sir Walter | Dalkeith, Earl of |
| Bence, Cyril | Brooks, Edwin | Dance, James |
| Bennett, Sir Frederic (Torquay) | Buchanan-Smith, Alick (Angus, N&M) | Davidson, fames (Aberdeenshire, W.) |
| Bennett, Dr. Reginald (Cos. & Fhm) | Buck, Antony (Colchester) | d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, Sir Henry |
| Berry, Hn. Anthony | Bullus, Sir Eric | Dean, Paul |
| Bessell, Peter | Campbell, Gordon (Moray & Nairn) | Dempsey, James |
| Biffen, John | Carlisle, Mark | Dodds-Parker, Douglas |
| Biggs-Davison, John | Cary, Sir Robert | Doig, Peter |
| Birch, Rt. Hn. Nigel | Chataway, Christopher | Eden, Sir John |
| Black, Sir Cyril | Chichester-Clark, R. | Elliot, Capt. Walter (Carshalton) |
| Elliott, R.W.(N'c'tle-upon-Tyne, N.) | Kershaw, Anthony | Peel, John |
| Errington, Sir Eric | King, Tom | Percival, Ian |
| Eyre, Reginald | Kitson, Timothy | Pym, Francis |
| Farr, John | Knight, Mrs. Jill | Renton, Rt. Hn. Sir David |
| Fisher, Nigel | Lambton, Antony | Ridley, Hn. Nicholas |
| Fortescue, Tim | Lancaster, Col. C. G. | Ridsdale, Julian |
| Foster, Sir John | Lane, David | Royle, Anthony |
| Fraser, Rt. Hn. Hugh (St'fford & Stone) | Langford-Holt, Sir John | Russell, Sir Ronald |
| Fry, Peter | Lawler, Wallace | Sandys, Rt. Hn. D. |
| Gibson-Watt, David | Lee, John (Reading) | Scott-Hopkins, James |
| Gilmour, Sir John (Fife, E.) | Lewis, Kenneth (Rutland) | Sinclair, Sir George |
| Ginsburg, David | Lewis, Ron (Carlisle) | Smith, Dudley (W'wick & L'mington) |
| Glover, Sir Douglas | Lomas, Kenneth | Smith, John (London & W'minster) |
| Godber, Rt. Hn. J. B. | Longden, Gilbert | Speed, Keith |
| Golding, John | Mackenzie, Alasdair (Ross & Crom'ty) | Steel, David (Roxburgh) |
| Goodhart, Philip | Maclean, Sir Fitzroy | Stodart, Anthony |
| Goodhew, Victor | McMaster, Stanley | Stoddart-Scott, Col. Sir M. |
| Gower, Raymond | Maginnis, John E. | Summers, Sir Spencer |
| Grant, Anthony | Marks, Kenneth | Summerskill, Hn. Dr. Shirley |
| Grant-Ferris, Sir Robert | Marten, Neil | Taylor, Edward M.(G'gow, Cathcart) |
| Hamilton, Michael (Salisbury) | Maude, Angus | Temple, John M. |
| Harvie Anderson, Miss | Maxwell-Hyslop, R. J. | Tilney, John |
| Hawkins, Paul | Maydon, Lt.-Cmdr. S. L. C. | Turton, Rt. Hn. R. H. |
| Heald, Rt. Hn. Sir Lionel | Mills, Peter (Torrington) | Vaughan-Morgan, Rt. Hn. Sir John |
| Heseltine, Michael | Mills, Stratton (Belfast, N.) | Vickers, Dame Joan |
| Higgins, Terence L. | Molloy, William | Waddington, David |
| Hiley, Joseph | Monro, Hector | Wainwright, Richard (Colne Valley) |
| Hill, J. E. B. | Montgomery, Fergus | Walker-Smith, Rt. Hn. Sir Derek |
| Hogg, Rt. Hn. Quintin | More, Jasper | Ward, Christopher (Swindon) |
| Hooson, Emlyn | Morrison, Charles (Devizes) | Weatherill, Bernard |
| Howarth, Robert (Bolton, E.) | Mott-Radclyffe, Sir Charles | Wells, John (Maidstone) |
| Howell, David (Guildford) | Munro-Lucas-Tooth, Sir Hugh | Whitelaw, Rt. Hn. William |
| Hunt, John | Murton, Oscar | Wiggin, Jerry |
| Hutchison, Michael Clark | Neal, Harold | Williams, Donald (Dudley) |
| Irvine, Bryant Godman (Rye) | Noble, Rt. Hn. Michael | Wilson, Geoffrey (Truro) |
| Jackson, Colin (B'h'se & Spenb'gh) | Oakes, Gordon | Wolrige-Gordon, Patrick |
| Johnson, James (K'ston-on-Hull, W.) | O'Halloran, Michael | Wright, Esmond |
| Johnson Smith, G. (E. Grinstead) | Orr-Ewing, Sir Ian | Wylie, N. R. |
| Johnston, Russell (Inverness) | Osborn, John (Hallam) | Younger, Hn. George |
| Jopling, Michael | Oswald, Thomas | |
| Joseph, Rt. Hn. Sir Keith | Page, Graham (Crosby) | TELLERS FOR THE AYES: |
| Kaberry, Sir Donald | Page, John (Harrow, W.) | Dame Irene Ward and |
| Kelley, Richard | Pardoe, John | Mr. Eldon Griffiths. |
| NOES | ||
| Abse, Leo | Devlin, Miss Bernadette | Hilton, W. S. |
| Ailaun, Frank (Salford, E.) | Dewar, Donald | Hobden, Dennis |
| Allen, Scholefield | Diamond, Rt. Hn. John | Hooley, Frank |
| Archer, Peter (R'wley Regis & Tipt'n) | Dickens, James | Horner, John |
| Armstrong, Ernest | Dobson, Ray | Houghton, Rt. Hn. Douglas |
| Ashton, Joe (Bassetlaw) | Driberg, Tom | Howell, Denis (Small Heath) |
| Atkinson, Norman (Tottenham) | Eadie, Alex | Howie, W. |
| Bacon, Rt. Hn. Alice | Edwards, Robert (Bilston) | Hughes, Rt. Hn. Cledwyn (Anglesey) |
| Barnes, Michael | Ellis, John | Hughes, Roy (Newport) |
| Barnett, Joel | English, Michael | Hunter, Adam |
| Bidwell, Sydney | Evans, Fred (Caerphilly) | Hynd, John |
| Bishop, E. S. | Evans, Gwynfor (C'marthen) | Irvine, Rt. Hn. Sir Arthur |
| Blenkinsop, Arthur | Evans, Ioan L. (Birm'h'm, Yardley) | Jackson, Peter M. (High Peak) |
| Booth, Albert | Faulds, Andrew | Jenkins, At. Hn. Roy (Stechford) |
| Boston, Terence | Fe[...]yhough, E. | Jones, Dan (Burnley) |
| Bradley, Tom | Finch, Harold | Jones, Rt. Hn. Sir Elwyn (W. Ham, S.) |
| Brown, Rt. Hn. George (Belper) | Fitch, Alan (Wigan) | Jones, T. Alec (Rhondda, West) |
| Brown, R. W. (Shoreditch & F'bury) | Fletcher, Ted (Darlington) | Judd, Frank |
| Buchan, Norman | Foot, Rt. Hn. Sir Dingle (Ipswich) | Kerr, Dr. David (W'worth, Central) |
| Butler, Herbert (Hackney, C.) | Fraser, John (Norwood) | Latham, Arthur |
| Callaghan, Rt. Hn. James | Freeson, Reginald | Lawson, George |
| Carmichael, Neil | Gardner, Tony | Lee, Rt. Hn. Frederick (Newton) |
| Carter-Jones, Lewis | Garrett, W. E. | Lester, Miss Joan |
| Castle, Rt. Kn. Barbara | Gray, Dr. Hugh (Yarmouth) | Lipton, Marcus |
| Chapman, Donald | Gregory, Arnold | Loughlin, Charles |
| Coe, Denis | Griffiths, Eddie (Brightside) | Lubbock, Eric |
| Coleman, Donald | Griffiths, Will (Exchange) | Lyons, Edward (Bradford, E.) |
| Concannon, J. D. | Grimond Rt. Hn. J. | Mabon, Dr. J. Dickson |
| Conlan, Bernard | Hamilton, James (Bothwell) | McBride, Neil |
| Craddock, George (Bradford, S.) | Hamilton, William (Fife, W.) | McCann, John |
| Crawshaw, Richard | Hamling, William | MacColl, James |
| Grossman, Rt. Hn. Richard | Hannan, William | MacDermot, Niall |
| Dalyell, Tam | Harrison, Walter (Wakefield) | McElhone, Frank |
| Davies, G. Elfed (Rhondda, E.) | Hart, Rt. Hn. Judith | McKay, Mrs. Margaret |
| Davies, Dr. Ernest (Stretford) | Haseldine, Norman | Mackenzie, Gregor (Rutherglen) |
| Davies, Rt. Hn. Harold (Leek) | Hazell, Bert | Mackie, John |
| de Freitas, Rt. Hn. Sir Geoffrey | Heffer, Eric S. | Mackintosh, John P. |
| Maclennan, Robert | Page, Derek (King's Lynn) | Small, William |
| McMillan, Tom (Glasgow, C.) | Pannell, Rt. Hn. Charles | Steele, Thomas (Dunbartonshire, W.) |
| McNamara, J. Kevin | Parkyn, Brian (Bedford) | Strauss, Rt. Hn. John |
| Mahon, Simon (Bootle) | Pearson, Arthur (Pontypridd) | Taverne, Dick |
| Mallalieu, E. L. (Brigg) | Peart, Rt. Hn. Fred | Thomas, Rt. Hn. George |
| Mallalieu, J.P.W. (Huddersfield, E.) | Perry, George H. (Nottingham, S.) | Thorpe, Rt. Hn. Jeremy |
| Mapp, Charles | Prentice, Rt. Hn. Reg. | Tinn, James |
| Marquand, David | Rankin, John | Urwin, T. W. |
| Mayhew, Christopher | Rees, Merlyn | Wainwright, Edwin (Dearne Valley) |
| Mellish, Rt. Hn. Robert | Roberts, Rt. Hn. Goronwy | Walden, Brian (All Saints) |
| Mendelson, John | Roberts, Gwilym (Bedfordshire, S.) | Walker, Harold (Doncaster) |
| Mikardo, Ian | Robertson, John (Paisley) | Wallace, George |
| Milian, Bruce | Robinson, Rt. Hn. Kenneth (St.P'c'as) | Watkins, David (Consett) |
| Miller, Dr. M. S. | Roebuck, Roy | Weitzman, David |
| Milne, Edward (Blyth) | Rose, Paul | Williams, Alan Lee (Hornchurch) |
| Morgan, Elysian (Cardiganshire) | Ross, Rt. Hn. William | Willis, Rt. Hn. George |
| Morris, Alfred (Wythenshawe) | Rowlands, E. | Wilson, William (Coventry, S.) |
| Morris, Charles R. (Openshaw) | Shaw, Arnold (Ilford, S.) | Winnick, David |
| Mulley, Rt. Hn. Frederick | Sheldon, Robert | Winstanley, Dr. M. P. |
| Murray, Albert | Shore, Rt. Hn. Peter (Stepney) | Woof, Robert |
| Newens, Stan | Short, Mrs. Renée(W'hampton, N.E.) | |
| Oram, Bert | Silkin, Rt. Hn. John (Deptford) | TELLERS FOR THE NOES: |
| Orbach, Maurice | Sillars, J. | Mr. Eric Ogden and |
| Orme, Stanley | Silverman, Julius | Mr. Hugh Brown. |
| Owen, Dr. David (Plymouth, S'tn) |