Francis Lawrence, Tony McNulty and the Human Rights Act

Until yesterday, I had considerable sympathy with Mrs Francis Lawrence. The death of her husband in 1995 must have been a traumatic experience. But we didn't hear or see her in the media calling for hanging or corporal punishment to be restored. I can find no media report where she complained about the life sentence handed down to her husband's killer.

Yesterday,  The  Asylum and  Immigration Tribunal correctly rejected the Home Office's  ludicrous decision to deport  Mr Lawrence's killer, Learco Chindarmo, to Italy, the country where he spent only a few years of his childhood. Mrs Lawrence then told the press that she was unlikely to survive his release  in the UK. 
She managed to survive long enough to trail round the TV and radio studios having a go at the Human Rights Act, which, when you read her thoughts, she clearly fails to understand.
But the prize for deliberate mendacity must go the the Home Office Minister, Tony (where do they get these idiots) McNulty.
Unlike Mrs Lawrence he ought to have been briefed on the case. But he still came out with this drivel:

"I don't think it's actually the act  [Human Rights Act] that's at fault here.It's like a whole range of these things it's the interpretation of the act."And we're very clear that with rights come responsibilities and I would think that given the serious and heinous nature of this crime, the individual has forfeited any right to domicile in the UK."And I think most people would agree with that, and that's why we'll be asking the tribunal to look again."

In fact the HRA played a minor role in the Tribunal's decision. The decision was  based on a 2006 European Union Regulation signed up to by the Blair government and approved by Parliament. This  prevents an EU citizen from being deported by another EU state unless the deporting state can show that it  is imperative on the grounds of national security.  And as the Parole Board has determined he no longer presents a risk to the public, the Tribunal's decision is hardly surprising. Indeed notwithstanding Justice Minister Straw's  bluster I doubt whether any "appeal" will succeed. Though I suspect his grandstanding has not yet finished.

Comments

[Ronnie]

When I read your quotation from McNulty I thought, "Come back, Prescott. All is forgiven." I have a grouse here also with newspaper and broadcasting people who seem often after a trial to cajole the victim's relations into criticising the sentence for lenience, and thus to try to stoke up anger among us ordinary decent folk. It is a shame that Governments seem reluctant to defend the notion of impartial and consistent justice, even if sometimes shaky and not always to everyone's liking, against the Sicilian alternative.