A North East MP backed plans for longer prison sentences as she revealed the man who killed her father was freed after serving just 18 months.
Dehenna Davison, the new MP for Bishop Auckland, has revealed how her father was killed by a single punch when she was just 13.
A man who later admitted he was high on drink and drugs killed her father in a pub.
And the MP, now 27, spoke up in a House of Commons debate to highlight the importance to victims and their families of ensuring serious criminals are punished properly.
She said: “I still remember the day that my nan saw my dad’s killer for the very first time after he was released after just 18 months, and the anger, frustration, confusion and sheer grief that flashed across her face, especially when he raised a glass to her as we drove by, which was a real clincher.
“This experience is shared by far too many, with victims feeling severely let down by the current automatic halfway release point.”
She backed Government proposals to ensure the most serious violent and sexual offenders typically spend two thirds of their sentence in jail, rather than half their sentence, as is currently the case.
Ms Davison said: “What is the purpose of a prison sentence? There are several. The first is to protect the public from the offender. The second is to ensure that victims feel that justice has been done. A serious offender serving just half a sentence does not provide victims and victims’ families with that sense of justice. The third is to act as a deterrent for future offences, but the existing automatic halfway release gives a sense of leniency, which means that it does not necessarily act as a deterrent in the way that it should.”
Justice Secretary Chris Philp said: “The Member for Bishop Auckland spoke movingly about her own tragic experience of a family member who was a victim of a very serious crime, and the terrible circumstance she described is exactly why we are bringing forward this statutory instrument.”
Labour is not opposing the change.
Critics have said that keeping offenders behind bars for longer may not help to cut crime or make the country safer, and will add to pressures on overstretched prisons.
Peter Dawson, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: “Following almost a decade of deterioration, the Government is right to want to restore confidence in our justice system, but so far it is looking in the wrong places.
“Longer sentences haven’t improved public confidence or safety before, and they won’t now.
“But they have helped produce a prison system that fails to deliver either safety or rehabilitation.
“Good soundbites don’t always make good policy - a coherent plan for reform is long overdue.”
In a report commissioned by the trust, researchers suggest England and Wales are already tougher on punishing serious crime than other countries.
