Labour MP in attempt to pervert the course of justice

Labour MP in attempt to pervert the course of justice

On the 1st of November 1967, Robert Mone, a 19-year-old soldier on leave from the Gordon Highlanders, went to St John's RC High School, Dundee, armed with a shotgun, and seeking revenge for being expelled 3 years earlier. He sexually assaulted one girl, and raped another girl "in front of the class teacher, Nanette Hanson, 26, who was then shot in the back" and killed.

Mone "was judged to be insane and incapable of standing trial and was sent to Carstairs Secure Hospital for the murder, from where he staged an escape in 1976...and killed PC George Taylor with an axe...When he was caught he was deemed a risk to national security and jailed for life, but in 2002 his sentence was revised to 25 years, and earlier this year he was photographed shopping in Crieff, Perthshire, on an outing from prison".

Whilst I can understand that some peoples memories are still as fresh as the day these events happened, we are talking about 40 and 30 years previously. Time has moved on. Justice allows for Mone to be released from prison if he is deemed to be an acceptable risk to the public.

However, justice does not allow for this kind of interference "Politicians have said that he should never be freed, and a leading Scottish Tory said European human rights legislation was to blame". Nor this "Jim McGovern, the Labour MP for Dundee West, who was at primary school in Dundee when the attack happened, said: "The feedback from my constituents is that, given the crime, this is one person who should never be released. This is a man who has shown no remorse and will never be anything other than a danger to the public. If there is a groundswell of public opinion and political intervention is strong enough, any decision to release Robert Mone can be reversed".

What is the point of appointing an independent quasi-judicial body such as the Parole Board, if we are just going to allow politicians to dictate the odds when they feel like scoring cheap political points to make themselves feel good? Perhaps, it should be pointed out to the Labour MP, Jim McGovern, that attempting to pervert the course of justice is a criminal offence, and is not the sort of conduct a Member of Parliament should be engaging in?