From the Daily Telegraph
Arsonist let out of jail by accident
By Stewart Payne
Last Updated: 1:46am BST 14/04/2007
An administrative blunder by prison staff led to a police hunt yesterday for an arsonist who was released after 30 days instead of 320.
Christopher Pocock, 53, was jailed for a string of attacks, including setting fire to a hostel with 17 residents inside.
A nationwide police alert has been issued for his recapture. It is understood prison staff at Camp Hill on the Isle of Wight misread court documentation.
A Prison Service spokesman said: "Christopher Pocock was released in error on Thursday.
"He was sentenced to 320 days but was given an indeterminate public protection sentence and should not have been considered by the parole board for release until early next year."
An investigation to find out how the error happened is under way.
Comment: There might just be a satisfactory explanation for the Prison Service mistaking 30 days for 320 days. The missing digit in the middle might have been a typo. It seems like a waste of resources for a police man hunt, given that the sentence is less than a year. For a string of arson attacks? This appears to be lenient. I am not a fan of the indeterminate public protection sentence. It allows the Parole Board to have sentencing powers which it is not meant to have.
A mixture of law, politics, autobiography and humour. Once described as "The Devilish Advocate" (Guardian), I do have the ability to provoke a response. Sometimes it comes from someone who uses a thought process, and sometimes from jerks usually associated with the knee.
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3 comments:
That string of arson offences seems to relate to his own flat and a bandstand...
http://tinyurl.com/2auk9d
... maybe they've only issued the press release to distract us from the fact that he was actually released on Tuesday, with a travel warrant for Nashville.
That sounds about right maneatingcheesesandwich. The mainstream media trying to make more of a minor story.
Typically tactics to encourage the public to inform of his whereabouts, thus saving police time by getting Joe Public to do the dirty work. Inflate the nature of the crime and make it appear as if the man is a grave danger.
A bit similar to the "This person is missing" ads you sometimes see on TV. It's not that anybody actually cares if the person named is "missing", in fact there are thousands of missing people out there who never get a look in on the box. It is usually because they are wanted by the police for something or other. Another tactic is to put an ad in the paper stating that said person has inherited a sum of money from a relative's estate and needs to come forward to claim it. Some do-gooder would then be tempted to tell the police where the person is, thinking that they are doing aforementioned a big favour.
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