Leading legal charity, Centre for Women's Justice, have today released this statement in response to the report by chief inspector of probation, Justin Russell, which highlighted several serious failures by the probation service before the murder of Zara Aleena:
"It is devastating to hear about yet another murder that could have been avoided but for failures by the probation service. As the report highlights, McSweeney was wrongly assessed as medium risk which in turn meant he was not adequately supervised, or he would have been recalled to prison before this horrific attack. The failure to identify the level of dangerousness this man presented and the failure to adequately supervise him has resulted in the tragic loss of life of a young woman who had so much to offer society.
This is outrageously only one of a series of murders that might have been avoided over the last few years if the systems in place to protect the public had been working. The criminal justice system is in collapse, women are not being protected from violent men and at least part of the problem is down to chronic underfunding and disastrous attempts to privatise by the government that has left this appalling legacy. Dominic Raab, having commissioned this investigation now needs to take urgent action to transform the system."
Harriet Wistrich, director of Centre for Womens Justice