Paedophile Mitchell Harrison met a macabre and grisly end after being disemboweled in a prison attack by fellow inmates.
Look away if you’re squeamish, but the serial sex attacker was butchered with makeshift weapons, thought to be razor blades melted into toothbrush handles, after allegedly boasting about his sick crimes
Our gut instinct may well scream that a man who brags about raping a 13 year-old girl may have deserved such a bloody and hideous death. That this was justice in its most primitive sense.
However, this is England, 2011, a so-called civilized society where the rule of law still governs. And though it may be hard to swallow, what’s morally right and legally acceptable can be mutually exclusive.
The authorities at Frankland Prison in County Durham should face a full criminal investigation and Harrison’s family have a right to claim compensation for his unlawful death .
Every prisoner is entitled to full state protection, however horrible their crimes – indeed the greater the horror the more they need protecting.
How on earth can such a violent atrocity ever occur in one of Her Majesty’s prisons? Especially when this place has previous – Soham killer Ian Huntley had his throat slashed in the same jail only last year.
Defendants like this are prime targets for in-house vigilantism. Have the authorities learnt nothing?
Last year I supported Ian Huntley’s right to sue for £100,000 when he was attacked.
And that’s why I support Harrison’s family in suing the prison for every penny it can get.
Breaking the law is a costly business.
This mistake will probably cost the hard-pressed tax payer millions.
Only the other day the High Court ruled that banned extremist Sheikh Raed Salah could claim compensation for unlawful detention by immigration officers because they failed to explain to him ‘in a language he could understand’ precisely why he was being detained – a technical breach of the rules. The pro-Palestinian hardliner, described in the Commons as a ‘virulent anti-Semite’ is banned from this country.
His entry was illegal. But nevertheless now he is here, is entitled to being protected by the law of the land.
It’s essential that those responsible for those protecting us uphold that law. Otherwise we have to pick up the tab.
And until State protectors do their job properly, we’ll keep on paying. Now, where’s the morality in that ?
Things will get worse if cop shops close
Thanks to the Tory roadshow, there’s no problem finding a Bobby on the beat in central Manchester this week. But as more than one in three police stations face cost-cutting closures, what are the chances of getting hold of a copper when you really need one ?
It`s bad enough as things currently stand: if you get your car nicked or your house broken into, there’s more chance of me winning the X Factor than the culprit being caught. And I can’t sing.
Things can only get worse if the local cop shop closes down or operates on reduced hours – after all, how many burglars just work 9 – 5?
Instead, the local crims are likely to target areas where the police station has been replaced by a Tesco Express. After all, every little helps. I want to see more police on the street. Not just when they’re pointing a speed gun at passing traffic.
Effective policing needs to be high on the agenda over at Manchester Central this week.
The delegates have got the police protection they need – and then some. Don’t the rest of us deserve some too?
Slow drivers are a menace
Congrats to Phillip Hammond, the current road transport minister, on proposing to increase the motorway limit to 80mph.
Actually, if I were road transport minister, I’d make it 90mph – but, like the French, have a variable limit in inclement weather.
I don’t buy any of the arguments about faster speed being more commercially productive. Or that going slower is better for the environment.
The truth – if only those behind the wheels of power would admit it – is that today’s cars are built with speed, safety and economy in mind. And people want to go faster because they can.
Speed does not kill. Bad driving does. And that includes going too slowly and being in the wrong lane.
Why can’t these women be prosecuted? Oops. I mean, why don’t the police start to prosecute this kind of unlawful driving?
I have still not defended one such case in more than 30 years, and I’m not short of business.
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What if it it was your child mr freeman ? what tosh!!!! stick to getting criminals off on slim technicalities. proper justice given metted out.
Erm. no they shouldn't !
tell that to the 13yr old and her parents, you will get no sympathy here!!!
whilst i can see that protection should be given, this is still a criminal who has molested other peoples innocent children.
it cost the taxpayer large amounts of money to keep these criminals in prison each year and then are released to potentially reoffend?
sex crimes against children(or anyone else) are vile and these so called criminals are clothed fed and kept warm for the crimes they commit.
put them on a small island together and let them fend for themselves with other perverts.
what justice did the goverment give the children they attack?
maybe you would think differently if it was you child they molested ? maybe you would want him protected? i doubt it very much.
Naievity !! A stunning lack of knowledge of what is going on in prison! I wonder if Mr Freeman knows just how many prison officers are on duty at any one time, especially following the cut backs. It's fair enough to blame the state who ultimately has the responsibility, but it is not fair to blame a handful of individuals hopelessly outnumbered by inmates who by their very nature are not the nicest of people.
I believe the death penalty should be re introduced
Our so called punishments in the UK certainly do not fit the crime!
"not short of business"...possibly because this country is full of fat cats and overpaid "stars" who think nothing of spending £17k on a bottle of Cristal Champagne, decide they are competent to drive home whilst drooling over themselves, get stopped and arrested by the police then Lawyer in Shining Armour turns up and says "sorry boys, although he was doing 130 mph and is ten times over the legal limit, the sun wasn't shining in his direction, causing a lack of vitamin D, depression occurred and he needed to get home fast to watch Corrie". What a load of BS. Money buys freedom and leniency.
I always have to laugh when solicitors quote morality as I don’t think they quite interpret the meaning like the rest of us mere mortals do.
Its thanks to slimey lawyers like this that the taxpayers money is being wasted on lawsuits instead of being put to good use
I think Mr Harrison pretty much got what he deserved here and hopefully this might serve as a deterrant where clearly the kind of pathetic sentences handed out for similar crimes don't seem to be acheiving this. I think people need to be able to send their children to school safe in the knowledge that something like this dosn't happen to them on the way home. I'm glad the guards had an "off day" in that respect. But then, I guess they're only human. Not like Harrison.
If the family get any money off the prison can the 13 year old rape victim then sue the family for destoying her life?
Paying extra money to protect these monster is insulting. How about building a prison in the midlands somewhere just for registered sex offenders?
Mr Freeman, you say the evil mans family who was brutally murdered by his fellow inmates has the right to compensation. my question is this, Is it morally right to gain compensation for the attack when the reason he was attacked was for the most inhuman crime I and I and many others can think of? Law is law and I adhere to it. However you reap what you sow. And his violent death will be a splinter to the pain he caused his victims and heir families. I do not feel his family have the right to be compensated for his unlawful death as his unlawful actions put him I'n that position in the first place.
"Last year I supported Ian Huntley’s right to sue for £100,000 when he was attacked."
Are you insane Mr Freeman? You do know that you're writing in the MANCHESTER Evening News, don't you?
I'm not sure if my opinion of you can sink any lower.
And how can the prison guards protect each prison 24/7? have them stand in their cells for that time? In prison at anyone time their might be 30 guards to look after 1,200 prisoners so how can they protect everyone? If they were watching each prisoner 24/7 you can bet solicitors like Nick Freeman who say the prisoners are having their Human Rights abused. It's like saying the police should have stopped all the crimes in society. It juast doesn't happen. No doubt one of your colleauges will defend the murders at tax payers expense.
Our gut instinct may well scream that a man who brags about raping a 13 year-old girl may have deserved such a bloody and hideous death. That this was justice in its most primitive sense. BUT IT WAS justice... HE GOT WHAT HE DESERVED..
If it had been in Saudi he would have lost his head.
IF IT STOPS ONE YOUNG GIRL BEING RAPED then its done more than his jail term would ever do sentance would ever do
How on earth can you (Nick Freeman) back the likes of Ian Huntley into claiming £100K from the prison service? You must be sick!
I agree that these VILE monsters should not be attacked in prison, but at the end of the day, prison is prison, & things like this are going to happen, & will never stop happening under the roofs of prisons. But the likes of Mitchell Harrison & Ian Huntley should never be able to claim a penny in compensation from H M Prison service. Their rights to claim should be stripped away as soon as they set foot in prison.
Wake up and smell the coffee Mr Freeman.
Can I be the first woman driver to comment on this - and say I totally agree with you! Yes I am a woman driver, but I really believe that some women drivers are absolutely awful, and give the rest of us a bad name! In fairness, a lot of men are bad drivers too, but mention driving on the motorway and so many women will tell you they are scared to drive on it, or will 'go on it but I will go slowly'. And if there is someone on the motorway and you think 'I bet that is a woman driving', then it usually is! No, I do not proclaim to be the best driver ever, but I do a lot of motorway driving up and down the country, and I would not be the one you are calling names!
Mr Freeman. Once you've crossed a certain line e.g Raping, molesting children you enter a different realm. Your no longer human. It's called the law of the jungle!
Why do you think they call people who sex offend beasts?
Primitive? What do call raping and killing a child?
QUOTE "This mistake will probably cost the hard-pressed tax payer millions."
Oh dear what a shame. If it's about money I'd contribute to a whip round for Ian Brady if anything similar happened to him. I have been paying for his incarceration all my working life so what's a few more quid.
and your point is???
We have the technology to keep prisoners in their cells 365/24/7. Walking machines for exercise, robotised food delivery systems and other machinery could easily achive this. TV links could be used for visiting.
Not only would this eliminate all prison violence, drug taking etc, it would mean we could run prisons with many fewer staff and therefore more cheaply.
I don't advocate this regime for every prisoner, but it would be useful for those convicted of very serious crimes.
I reckon the public would support it.
From "A Man for All Seasons":
Sir Thomas More
-- There's no law against that.
William Roper
-- God's law!
Sir Thomas More
-- Then God can arrest him.
William Roper
-- While you talk, he's gone!
Sir Thomas More
-- Go he should, if he were the Devil, until he broke the law.
William Roper
-- Now you give the Devil benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More
-- Yes, what would you do?
William Roper
-- Cut a road through the law to get after the Devil? Yes. I'd cut down every law in England to do that.
Sir Thomas More
-- And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned on you...
...where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?
This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast...
...Man's laws, not God's, and if you cut them down...
...and you're just the man to do it...
...do you really think you could stand upright in the wind that would blow then?
Yes. I give the Devil benefit of law for my own safety's sake.
Reading the responses regarding the views of Mr Freeman I would say it is not the general public that are out of step but the likes of Mr Freeman and any colleague of his that hold the same views. In my view he is right in one point though ‘Breaking the law is a costly business’ Costly for those who have obscene amounts of money to buy their innocence or as in the cases Mrs Freeman mentions, costly to the tax payer who funds the legal aid system that pays for their representative. I wonder, would Mr Freeman be as eager to support me as a normal working man who is too well off to be eligible for legal aid but too poor to employ the likes of him and his expertise and therefore subject to the law he so vigorously procrastinates about. Likely not I would guess.
Mike Freeman - self publisist - show how low the requirements at the MEN are