The System Is Broken

Fifty Six year old Paul Robson, has a long history of sex attacks on children and women. 

Paul Robson - Lifetime History Of Sex Attacks

In any right minded society this pattern of offending would have been spotted, and his very obvious permanent danger to females recognised, certainly by at least the time of his second conviction for a child sex attack, and he would have got a whole of life sentence, with no possibility of release.

But instead, after a total of at least five sex attacks, by 2022 he was on the run after he absconded from an open prison in Lincolnshire, England (Thankfully recaptured, but only after 3/4 days). HMP North Sea Camp near Boston, in Lincolnshire, the category D men’s open prison where he had just walked out from, is actually a scary place to live near to, particularly if your a woman or child.

It reportedly holds a large proportion of sex offenders and those serving indeterminate sentences, according to an inspector’s report in June 2021. The report said that 70 per cent of the prisoners were assessed as “presenting a high risk of harm to others,” and more than half were convicted of sex offences.

Given that assessment you would think that there would be a little more security, but apparently not. Detective Chief Superintendent Andy Cox, of Lincolnshire Police confirmed that “Robson is a dangerous sex offender and while he presents a particular danger to women and young children, I believe he can cause real harm to anyone he comes across."

It almost beggars belief that men like him can ever be considered safe enough to be released in to the general population. It makes you question the whole point of the justice and prison system, which should surely serve just three purposes.

1. Protect the general population from those who would harm them.
2. Punish by loss of liberty, those who who have broken the law.
3. Rehabilitate those who can be reformed.

But primary amongst those three aims, should always be protecting the general population from those who would harm them. In this they need the courts to help, by sentencing offenders with that always in mind. 

So a man who has committed sex attacks on women or children should be locked up, and stay locked up until they present no danger or threat of danger to the rest of us. If that means the whole of their life, then so be it. If this can't be done, then it brings the whole idea of prison instead of the death penalty in to question.

Robinson's arrest and conviction record confirms that the courts are not working with point 1 above in mind:

• 1988: Robson was sentenced for assaulting a 12-year-old girl in Lancaster. He was jailed for 42 months (three and a half years).
• 1990: Robson had not served more than half his last sentence before being freed. He then abducted and assaulted a girl of eight years old in Morecambe after the early release for his previous offences. He was now handed an eight-year prison sentence.
• 1995: But after serving just five years of that sentence, Robson approached two girls aged nine in Carlisle, Cumbria who fled. Magistrates gave him a conditional discharge after he admitted resisting a police officer and breaching the peace. He should of course have been sent back to prison to serve the remaining three years of his previous sentence.
• 1996: So of course he then went on to commit a sex attack on a 31-year-old woman in Reading, Berkshire. This time Robson was handed just a five-year prison sentence.
• 2000: Once again he was out early but after fleeing a bail hostel in Oxford (following a fight with another offender), Robson carried out yet another a vicious attack on a woman in her home. Robson had broken into the 23-year-old woman's house through a cat flap, and sexually assaulted her at knifepoint.
• 2000: Robson pleaded guilty to two charges of attempted rape and two of indecent assault. He was handed a life sentence (with a minimum term of nine years before parole could be considered), and has spent an additional 20 years in prison, being refused parole.

So why was this dangerous animal in an open prison by 2022 and able to go on the run?  ..... 

Yes you guessed it, our friends on the parole board. During his fifth parole review in 2021, Robson was thankfully refused release again, but the Parole Board instead recommended him for a move to a Category D open prison.

A spokesman for the Parole Board said that  “This was a recommendation only and the Secretary of State for Justice considers the advice before making the final decision on whether a prisoner is suitable for open conditions. We will only make a recommendation for open conditions if a Parole Board panel is satisfied that the risk to the public has reduced sufficiently to be manageable in an open prison. A move to 'open conditions', involves testing the prisoner’s readiness for any potential return into the community in future. Prisoners moved to open conditions can be returned to closed conditions if there is concern about their behaviour."

Now that he has been recaptured he has gone back to a closed prison, and won't be able to be considered for parole again for two years .... my question is 'Why So Soon?'