European Court ruling gives hope to 'lifers'

Home Secretary David Blunkett today vowed to fight any attempts by murderers sentenced to "whole life" prison tariffs to exploit a new ruling by judges at the European Court of Human Rights.

Murderers such as Myra Hindley could use today's decision in their legal attempts to remove the Home Secretary's powers to decide how long serious criminals remain in jail, he said.

It comes after the judges in Strasbourg ruled that former Home Secretary Jack Straw breached the human rights of convicted murderer Dennis Stafford by keeping him in jail longer than recommended by the Parole Board.

The judges said the power of a government minister to overrule the Board was used illegally.

Mr Blunkett said he was "disappointed" with the judgment, which he said "has the effect of removing the Home Secretary's statutory power to decide the release – on Parole Board recommendations – of adult murderers whose tariff has expired".

He added: "However, it does not directly affect the status of adult murderers whose tariff has not expired, including those on whole life tariffs.

"But I am concerned that this judgment may serve as encouragement for those who would like to remove the Home Secretary's powers to set tariffs for adult murderers.

"If this judgment were to be used to support a legal process to achieve this, I would seek to use domestic legislation to enshrine the power of Parliament to provide adequate punishment for the guilty – including life meaning life.

Today's unanimous verdict will force a review of the 1991 Criminal Justice Act, under which Mr Straw decided to extend Mr Stafford's prison term.

Mr Stafford, now nearly 70, from Co Durham, was released on licence in 1979 after being jailed for life in 1967 for murder.

He was jailed again in 1989 for breaching his licence conditions and released once more in 1990.

Then in 1994 he was convicted of cheque fraud and given a six–year jail term. At that stage his "life licence" was revoked by the then Home Secretary Michael Howard.

The Parole Board recommended his release in 1997, stating that he had previously made the transition from jail to the community without violent reoffending.

But the Home Secretary at the time, Jack Straw, rejected the recommendation, and the House of Lords rejected a challenge to the Secretary of State's decision.

Mr Stafford was eventually released on licence in 1998.

He then went to the Strasbourg judges claiming his detention beyond 1997 – the normal expiry time for his six–year sentence – was "arbitrary", and that he was kept inside not on the basis of his potential for violence, but because he might commit another offence of dishonesty.

This, he claimed, breached his right to liberty, guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

The judges said there was no "causal connection" as required under the Convention, between the possibility of Mr Stafford committing more non–violent offences and the original murder sentence in 1967.

"In the court's view, Mr Stafford had to be regarded as having exhausted the punishment element of his offence of murder – if this were not the case, it is hard to understand why the Secretary of State had allowed his release in 1979," said today's ruling.

"When his sentence for the later fraud offence expired on July 1 1997, his continued detention under the mandatory life sentence could not be regarded as justified by his punishment for the original murder."

The Home Secretary had expressly relied on the risk of non–violent offending by Mr Stafford, despite the lack of a link to the murder offence, said the judgment.

"The court could not accept that a decision–making power by the executive to detain the applicant on the basis of perceived fears of future non–violent criminal conduct unrelated to his original murder conviction was in the spirit of the Convention, with its emphasis on the rule of law and protection from arbitrariness."

Mr Stafford was awarded nearly £10,500 in damages and £17,865 in legal costs and expenses.