The government have suggested moving some prisoners overseas (Credits: PA)
Convicted predators guilty of heinous sexual offences have been spared jail as the prison system is so overcrowded.
The UK prison population has ballooned to a record 88,000, as of last October, and is expected to exceed 110,000 by 2028.
Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons has warned that the prison population crisis ‘will mean more deprivation, squalor and the risk of further violence’.
The British government has shared their plans to build more facilities and legislate for suspending short sentences.
A key manifesto of the Conservative Party’s pledge at the 2019 election was to build 20,000 new prison places, however it has been quietly dropped.
Due to this lack of space, many are being spared jail, including men who are guilty of heinous sexual offences, including crimes that involve children.
These men are all convicted sex offenders, who have never been to prison.
Paul Riozzi
Riozzi celebrated online that he had passed his paediatric exams before being caught with horrific images of children (Picture: X/Paul Riozzi)
Paul Riozzi, a medical student from Dulwich who was caught with Category A, B and C images of children on his phone.
Category A images are the most severe, and involve penetrative sexual activity.
The 40-year-old was sentenced to eight months suspended for 12 months after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images.
Gordon Lane
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The retired banker lives in Pinner (Picture: North Harrow Stroke Group)
66-year-old paedophile Gordon Lane was spared jail after he was caught by police officers who were posing as children.
The ‘respected charity worker’ who founded North Harrow Stroke Group had attempted to engage in sexual communication with two children that he knew were under 16 years old.
Lane, of The Lawns in Pinner, masturbated as he asked police decoy ‘Maisie’ if they had ‘touched penis’, told them they would ‘get them wet’, and spoke about ‘the tightness of the vagina’.
Lee Deeks
Lee Deeks has been allowed to walk free
Charity shop worker and ‘poo fantasist’ paedo was caught by paedophile hunters on his way to ‘tie up’ and abuse a 14 year old boy, reports MyLondon.
The 37-year-old sent Facebook messages to who he believed was a young boy, but instead was talking to a decoy.
In the explicit messages, he spoke about his defecation fantasies calling the youngster ‘sweetheart’ and ‘cutie’.
He also penned ‘You are going to pull down my pants and spank my a**e, and stick your p***s up there,’ sending an image of a male tied up.
Deeks was sentenced to eight months suspended for 18 months.
John O’Keefe
The Islington man was confronted by paedophile hunters (Picture: COBRA UK)
John O’Keefe said he was planning on sexually abusing young girls because he was ‘bored, lonely and stupid’.
The 57-year-old had promised the decoys, whom he had believed to be young girls, that he would take one to the zoo, and they could stay in his ‘nice’ double bed.
The man, who lives on Caledonian Road, Islington, was spared jail as he had care obligations to his 88-year-old mother and was looking for someone to be ‘nice to’, argued his barrister.
He was sentenced to two years suspended for two years, and 180 hours of unpaid work.
Ministers are also considering letting current criminals out of jail early (Credits: Susannah Ireland/REX/Shutterstock)
Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: ‘Prisons are overcrowded and have become breeding grounds for more crime.
‘The government has been warned time and again about the challenges with prison population and conditions.
‘It is an abject failure on their part that after 13 years in government, they have done nothing to address this problem.’
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘The criminal justice system has seen unprecedented growth in the prison population, following the pandemic and barristers’ strike, particularly among those awaiting trial, with 6,000 more prisoners on remand than pre-pandemic.
‘The prison service has already put in place measures such as rapid deployment cells and doubling up cells to help manage these pressures, and the government is carrying out the biggest prison building campaign since the Victorian era to build 20,000 new places, making sure we always have the places we need.’
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