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Killer: Anthony Joseph |
Report attacks blunders that allowed ‘chip’ killer to go free
Courts and police are accused of having a lax attitude to bail conditions
THE casual attitude shown by courts and police to bail conditions allowed a knifeman to be at large when he killed a Kentish Town bus passenger, a damning report has found.
The report also criticises “sloppy” paperwork, revealing that a fax went missing en route to a Camden police station.
Richard Whelan, 28, from Gaisford Street, was repeatedly stabbed on the top deck of a 43 bus in Holloway in July 2005 after he told a fellow passenger to stop throwing chips at his girlfriend.
His killer, Anthony Joseph, also known as Anthony Peart, from Delancey Street in Camden Town, was a serial bail-jumper with a string of convictions and a record of missed court appearances. He had been wrongly freed from police custody hours earlier.
Joseph, now 23, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is in Broadmoor secure hospital.
The blunders leading up to Joseph’s freedom on the day he killed Mr Whelan sparked a comprehensive investigation by Solicitor General Vera Baird, which reported on Monday.
Although the report makes clear no one could have predicted that Joseph would become a killer, it paints a damning picture of the attitude shown by courts and police to accused people released on bail.
“There seems to be too ready an acceptance of the commission of offences while on bail, insufficient rigour in respect of checking the validity of proposed bail conditions and an apparent acceptance of the continual breach of bail conditions,” it says.
While Joseph’s address had been wrongly recorded at a Liverpool court as “Deleyney Street, NW1”, no one ever carried out checks which would have revealed that it did not exist.
Nor were Joseph’s bail conditions, which initially included reporting daily to Kentish Town police station, ever complied with or checked, the report found.
A fax was sent by Merseyside police to Kentish Town police station detailing the bail conditions, but, the report continues: “It is unclear whether the fax transmission to the area control room was successful. Merseyside Police have no record of the transmission failing, but neither Kentish Town police station, nor the area control room, has a record of ever having received the fax from Merseyside detailing the bail conditions.
“As before, there is nothing to suggest they ever carried out any checks or verification that this was the defendant’s address or that it was suitable, or indeed, that they were ever asked to carry out these checks.”
This week, Camden borough police commander Dominic Clout told the New Journal that breaches of bail were a national problem being addressed at government level and that the report had found no evidence that errors or omissions at Kentish Town police station had led to Mr Whelan’s death. |
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