Cardiff mum calls for national inquiry following son's murder
A mum from Cardiff, whose son was murdered in 2015 by a known offender serving two probation supervision orders, is launching a new petition to get 'transparency' from the probation service.
A mum from Cardiff, whose son was murdered in 2015 by a known offender serving two probation supervision orders, is launching a new petition to get 'transparency' from the probation service.
Nadine Marshall created the campaign group VOICE after her son Conner was killed.
She wants initial an Independent Panel Investigation to "uncover the real scale of systemic failings and inadequate supervision of offenders in England and Wales, leading to catastrophic and traumatic consequences for numerous families".
The National Probation service is not accountable to any independent ombudsman or inspectorate:
Unlike other government agencies, The National Probation service is not accountable to any independent ombudsman or inspectorate.
In an interview with Greatest Hits Radio, Nadine says she's already suffered a nightmare and just wants information.
"I feel with every single fibre that runs through my blood that the probation service has catastrophically failed my family and hundreds of other families- we've already suffered the worst nightmare you can imagine."
Data from last years Serious Further Offence review showed one person a week is killed in the UK by someone on probation.
The campaign group VOICE, made up by hundreds of families from across the UK who's loved ones have been murdered, say they have "many unanswered questions relating to the circumstances surrounding the supervision of the perpetrators.
"Families deserve and demand transparency and full disclosure of all information held, regarding how and why their loved ones were brutally murdered - despite probation services being responsible for offender supervision at the time of death of their loved one".
"Every murder is one too many"
Nadine continues by explaining why transparency would help her and her family,
"As a family, we were not made aware of the probation contact with the offender as no trial was heard.
"Conner had a life full of ambition and hope. He was popular, bright and full of fun.
"He didn’t deserve to die. He shouldn’t have died. But he did - and probation services allowed his death.
"We just need to know every single bit of information that is relating to our loved one.
"We can have their medical records, we can have their school reports but we can't have the reports that lead to their death, which to me seems totally unacceptable."
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said:
“This Government inherited a Probation Service under immense pressure.
"We took immediate action to address the problem by recruiting 1,000 trainee probation officers, and we will go further by recruiting another 1,300 this year and increasing funding for probation by up to 45%.”
£8m in new technology is set to be invested to "lift the day-to-day admin burden on frontline staff so they can get on with managing offenders", according to the government.