My stalker is being freed early, says Loose Women's Denise Welch – I feel sorry for anyone who is now living in fear
09/11/2024 08:08 AM
LOOSE Women star Denise Welch says her stalker is being freed early – adding she feels sorry for anyone who is now living in fear.
Denise said a man who stalked her is set to be released during a discussion on the show about a controversial government scheme.
The scheme allows lags to be released after serving 40 per cent of their sentence rather than 50 per cent, as it was before.
It’s not clear whether Welch’s stalker is being released as part of the scheme, which officials say excludes stalkers.
Welch said: "I myself have a stalker who is in prison and is being released early.
“I am not allowed to see any of his mental health reports as regards to the progress of his mental health.
“When I asked 'Will he be tagged?' they said ‘Well, that depends if his team decides if that's encroaching on his human rights.
“So this is what we're dealing with in this country and I'm glad we're talking about it.
“I feel really sorry for anyone who is now living in fear because of these releases.”
It comes as a machete thug and a yob who paralysed a baby boy are among the next round of prisoners to be freed early in the scheme.
Violent offenders handed sentences of less than four years are included in the early release programme.
More than 140 lags jailed for child cruelty or neglect will also be eligible for early release.
And 2,200 robbers handed sentences of less than four years will also be included.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the Commons: “We have taken every measure available to exclude offences from this measure.
“That includes serious violence, sexual violence, offences connected to domestic abuse, terror offences.
Addressing the release of manslaughter convicts, she said: “The offences and the sentences are both taken into account.”
Lags out - what happens now?
By JULIA ATHERLEY, Home Affairs Correspondent
On a day when we have seen drug dealers and violent offenders popping champagne and dancing outside prisons, you might be asking: what happens now?
More than 1,700 offenders have walked free from prison gates across the country today as part of a Government plan to tackle overcrowding behind bars.
But while criminals celebrate getting let out weeks or months earlier than planned, it is the victims who could pay the real price for this controversial policy.
Many have not been told that their perpetrators are set to be back in the community, leaving them blindsided and fearful for what could happen next.
While it was promised that domestic abusers would be exempt from the policy we know that some are likely to have slipped through the net.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor has already warned that it is a "certainty" that some of those let out today will reoffend.
On average a third of all those released from prison go on to commit another crime within a year of getting out.
Many inmates who were let out today might be finding themselves with nowhere to sleep tonight, despite the Ministry of Justice supposedly providing up to 12 weeks accommodation for all those at risk of homelessness on release.
While many prisoners were celebrating their freedom today, some were pessimistic about their own ability to stay on the right side of the law.
After serving short sentences in overcrowded prisons with little chance of rehabilitation, it is only a matter of time before they find themselves back behind bars.
