Prison staff should have protected paedophile who was disemboweled by inmates

10-4-2011 United Kingdom:

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? ..Source.. by Nick Freeman