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Straw in talks over bail murders | Straw in talks over bail murders |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Justice Secretary Jack Straw is to meet MPs to discuss a series of killings that have been committed by men who had been released on bail. | Justice Secretary Jack Straw is to meet MPs to discuss a series of killings that have been committed by men who had been released on bail. |
This follows a complaint by Helen Jones, Labour MP for Warrington North, about the release of Adam Swellings. | This follows a complaint by Helen Jones, Labour MP for Warrington North, about the release of Adam Swellings. |
The nineteen-year-old murdered Garry Newlove hours after his release. | The nineteen-year-old murdered Garry Newlove hours after his release. |
Mr Straw will also meet the MP for Hemel Hempstead, where former policeman Garry Weddell is thought to have shot his mother-in-law while on bail. | Mr Straw will also meet the MP for Hemel Hempstead, where former policeman Garry Weddell is thought to have shot his mother-in-law while on bail. |
Mr Newlove, 47, died two days after being "kicked like a football" when he confronted a gang in Warrington in August 2007. | |
One of the conditions of Swellings' bail release had been that he did not go to Warrington. | |
Swellings, 19, of Meredith Street, Crewe, Stephen Sorton, 17 of Honister Avenue, Warrington, and Jordan Cunliffe, 16, were convicted of the sales manager's murder. | |
After the verdict, Helen Newlove, 44, said she was disgusted that Swellings was allowed to go free and later kill her husband. | |
She said: "We knew he had previous convictions but it was a shock to myself and to my family to hear he had been released that day. | |
Garry Weddell was free on bail while awaiting trial for murder | |
"I'm absolutely disgusted. These magistrates - it's unbelievable. They let him out and they walk the streets. He's not taken a blind bit of notice of the conditions of bail. | |
"He's gone out, got drunk and taken drugs and my husband has been left dead." | |
Mr Weddell's body was found near Broomhill's Shooting Club, in Markyate, Herts, on the same day that the body of his mother-in-law, Traute Maxfield, 70, was found in Gustard Wood, Herts. | |
Mr Weddell, a Met Police inspector, had been due to go on trial in May for the murder of his wife, whose body was found in their home in Dunstable last year. | |
The body of Mrs Maxfield was found at a house in The Slype, Gustard Wood, 11 miles from the field where Mr Weddell was discovered. It is thought that he took his own life. | |
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said: "Jack Straw has offered to meet Helen Jones and Garry Weddell's MP to discuss issues of bail. | |
"We are looking to set those meetings up at the moment." |