The Parole Board. Working with others to protect the public.
About the Parole Board
This year saw the introduction of the facility for victims or their families to appear at Parole Board oral hearings in order to deliver victim personal statements to the panel. The first ever delivery of such a victim personal statement, by the mother of a 15-year-old murder victim, took place at HMP Lindholme in November 2007. These are observations on that hearing from a number of the participants.
The hearing took place at HMP Lindholme where oral hearings are accommodated in their purpose built hospitality suite within which there are four conference rooms and interview rooms. This meant that appropriate arrangements could be made for witnesses to
remain entirely separate prior to the commencement of the hearing. This was all the more important having regard to the fact that the prisoners mother was also in attendance at the hearing as an observer and that there was continuing media attention surrounding the case.
A female prison officer had been designated to escort the victims mother and her victim liaison officer on their arrival from the gate to one of the conference rooms in the hospitality suite. An additional female officer was also assigned to escort the prisoners mother on arrival from the gate to a different conference room within the
hospitality suite, thereby ensuring that witnesses did not come into contact with each other in advance of the hearing.
The victim's mother delivered her pre-prepared victim personal
statement at the commencement of the hearing and outlined the
impact of the offence and of her son's death on her and her family.
She then withdrew from the hearing, accompanied by her victim
liaison officer, and was escorted out of the prison.
With the assistance of the Governor and staff of HMP Lindholme, all of
the special arrangements that the Board had requested were indeed
put in place. The additional staff assigned on the day ensured that
both the victims mother and the inmates mother were treated
with sensitivity from the moment they entered the prison until
their departure.
In July 2006, details of a scheme to enable victim representation
at Parole Board hearings were announced in the Home Office
Criminal Justice Review. The then Home Secretary pledged to work to
improve public protection and he gave a commitment to improve
representation at oral hearings through representation of victims
views by Public Protection Advocates. He said 'We intend to
introduce a victims voice, which will enable the cases of victims in
the most serious sexual and violent cases to be put powerfully to the
panel hearing the case.'
I am a PPA. Part of my role is to present victim personal statements
at Parole Board oral hearings. I do this on behalf of victims of serious
sexual and violent offences who have a legal right to make
representations at key stages of an offenders sentence, such as when an offender is being considered for release from custody on licensed supervision. We recognise that it could be very daunting for victims or their families to appear in person, so PPAs like me are trained and equipped to deliver the victim personal statements on victims behalf. Just very occasionally, victims or their families feel that
they would like to deliver their statements by themselves.
That happened at a hearing I attended in November last year. To prepare the victim's mother for the hearing, I worked closely with
her and other NOMS staff, in particular the Victim Liaison Officer,
a Merseyside Probation Officer with over 37 years experience. The victims' mother has a very good relationship with him, and this proved to be crucial both during the planning stages and on the day of the hearing. I also liaised regularly with the Panel Administrator at the Parole Board who co-ordinated the whole process and worked hard to deal with complex nature of the case.
On the day of the hearing, all of the staff and particularly the Lifer Unit at HMP Lindholme were extremely supportive. They handled the
situation with sensitivity and had clearly made detailed plans to
ensure that the every aspect of the day ran smoothly.
After the hearing, the victim's mother explained that although she felt very nervous, she felt a sense of pride that she had managed to deliver her statement orally in the presence of the prisoner and the panel members and that in doing so she had represented her son.
My 15 year-old son Michael was attacked, tortured and murdered by
three teenagers in 1999. Recently one of the murderers had a hearing to be re-categorised. This was refused and I had no involvement with this hearing.
My VLO contacted me and informed me that a second member of the group of murderers, who wished to be re-categorised to an open prison, was due to have a hearing. The next day my VLO
contacted me again and with some surprise, told me that I could apply to speak at the Parole Board oral hearing. This was the first time that my VLO had heard of this type of invitation.
I realised that this was a new development and was at first
shocked and upset by the idea. After some reflection I recognised
that I desperately wanted to represent my son. I was allocated
an advocate from the Ministry of Justice to explain the procedures
and support me through the experience.
I arrived at the prison and was treated very respectfully by the staff.
I was allocated a private room in which to wait. Nervously, I stepped
inside the room in which the hearing was conducted. I was able
to speak from the heart and voice my concerns. I was afraid that the
perpetrator would be allowed to visit his mother, who lives not far
fromme. I was afraid that in those circumstances I would have to find
a new home. I did not want to leave my home, the home I once shared with my lovely son.
They listened, it was most important that I felt listened to. The judge ensured that the perpetrator would not be allowed to move to or enter Merseyside. I was informed of this some time after the hearing.
This allows me to keep my home.
I am grateful that I was able to take up this opportunity and believe I
have subsequently taken my first positive step forward since the
brutal murder of Michael. I would particularly like to thank my VLO
from Merseyside Probation Service, who has stood by me through
thick and thin and been a fantastic support, and my advocate from
the Ministry of Justice, for their wonderful help and support.
I would also like to thank the Parole Board for allowing me this
important opportunity to finally have a voice for Michael.
Following the hearing the victims' mother did raise a number of issues about the process that were of concern to her. These included the fact that the prisoner was allowed to have his mother there for support, but she was not allowed a family member to support her. Also that she was not allowed to attend the whole hearing because of objections from the prisoners legal representative.
This first case does highlight some of the inevitable tensions within this very new process. These issues, including all of those raised by the victims' mother in this case,will need to be explored further to see if they can be resolved.
The prisoner had been convicted some ten years previously, when
he was himself a teenager, of the murder of another teenager
in particularly horrendous circumstances. As panel chairman
I was formally asked if the mother of the deceased could attend the
parole hearing.
The panel believed this to be the first time that a victim or their family
member had been permitted to attend a parole hearing and we
discussed at length how to do this properly to ensure that she would
be able to express her views fully in the context of the hearing.
I asked for representations from both the public protection advocate and the prisoner's legal representative. The legal representative did object to the deceased's mother staying for the entire hearing, but not to her making a statement at the beginning and then leaving. The currently laid down procedure is simply that the victim or their family member is entitled to make their statement to the panel. This is
what happened.
The panel asked for the prisoner's mother to be brought in first to
sit at the far end of the room. The mother of the deceased was
brought in, with her VLO, to sit at the opposite end of the room. She
was then informed that before the hearing commenced, she could
make a further verbal statement. We already had a written victim
personal statement fromher in the dossier, which we had considered
carefully.
She then spoke from the heart and with considerable dignity before leaving, after which the hearing proceeded on as normal. The panel understood and appreciated the passion and anger expressed by the mother of the victim and, whilst what she said did not contain any new information about risk, she was able to give us important information that helped us to set appropriate licence conditions for the prisoner.
Grenadier House, 99-105 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2DX
Telephone 0845 251 2220