Home Secretary defends not excluding rapists from initial early release scheme
The Home Secretary has defended not excluding rapists from the early release scheme from the start, despite victims saying they were worried for their lives.
Andy Burnham has paused plans to free prisoners early after a public outcry over the release of PC Andrew Harper’s and one of Daejaun Campbell’s killers.
A review of the scheme is set to be published once Parliament is back in session in September, with it expected to still go ahead in October.
But the Prime Minister has removed the right of those convicted of rape, serious child sex offences and grooming to have their sentences cut.
It only came after campaigners delivered a letter to parliament and revealed the extent of their worries.
Metro revealed Carol Higgins, now a mum-of-two, had been told her rapist dad was being considered for early release after just serving a quarter of his 20-year sentence.
She told Metro: ‘Reading that letter just overwhelmed me, I couldn’t stop shaking. It has made me feel how he made me feel for years – completely worthless.’
Carol cried tears of ‘joy and relief’ after she was told her dad, Elliott Appleyard, will most likely remain in prison following Andy Burnham’s intervention.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has defended not excluding rapists and sex offenders earlier, saying there were fewer than 80 prison places available across England and Wales in her first week in September 2025.
Labour’s early release scheme started in September 2024 with the aim of easing overcrowding in jails.
She told The Times: ‘Nobody ever wanted to be in the position of having to release anybody earlier in their sentence than might otherwise be the case.
‘What we’re always trying to do is avoid the worst possible outcome. And the worst possible outcome – and this was true when it was the Conservatives, it was true when it was me, it’s going to be true for every justice secretary, is that you run out of prison places entirely.
‘And if you run out of prison places entirely you will see the collapse of the criminal justice system, the police won’t be able to make arrests and of course there won’t be a trial and that is not a thing that any government can allow to happen.
‘I had to make choices that were about getting the system away from collapse and trying to get to a more sustainable position in the future.’
The rules of the current scheme allow certain prisoners to be released after serving 40% of their fixed-term sentence, rather than the usual 50%.
The 2026 Sentencing Act, which became law earlier this year, allows for an expansion of the early release scheme by reducing the threshold from 40% of a fixed-term sentence to a third.
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