Baby P’s grandmother says her daughter ‘should be in prison for life’ after parole ruling
Comments come after Parole Board said last week Tracey Connelly was suitable for release
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Baby P's grandmother has said she wants her daughter to stay in prison for the rest of her life for her part in the toddler's death, after the Parole Board decided that she was suitable for release.
Mary O'Connor said Tracey Connelly, who was jailed in 2009 for the role she played in her son Peter’s 2007 death in Tottenham, north London, in a case that shocked the nation, should never be freed.
The 72-year-old spoke a week after the Parole Board decided that Connelly should be freed from jail.
Baby P suffered more than 50 injuries despite being on the at-risk register and receiving 60 visits from social workers, police and health professionals over eight months.
Now 40, Connelly had admitted the offence and was handed a sentence of imprisonment for public protection with a minimum term of five years.
Her boyfriend Steven Barker and his brother Jason Owen were convicted of the same offence.
A series of reviews identified missed opportunities for officials to save the toddler's life had they reacted properly to warning signs.
According to a parole report, at the time of her crimes Connelly, then 25, got into relationships quickly, used sex to "help her feel better about herself" and had an "inability to control extreme emotions".
She was also described as "manipulative" and lacking in empathy.
The Parole Board said last week that, “after considering the circumstances of her offending and time on licence, the progress made while in custody, the evidence presented at the hearing and the recommendations of the witnesses, the panel was satisfied that Ms Connelly was suitable for release”.
It was the fourth review by the Parole Board since she was jailed.
Responding to the decision, Ms O’Connor said: “She needs to be in jail for life, she shouldn’t be out.”
“She won’t have changed. To let her out for what she did? You have to be joking,” she told The Sun.
After the decision, the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, said he planned to lodge an appeal.
“I’d love to go up to him [Mr Raab] and say, ‘Don’t let her out’. She’s a b****. Peter died because of her,” Ms O'Connor said .
Mr Raab will contest the ruling under the reconsideration mechanism, which allows the justice secretary and the prisoner to challenge the board‘s decision within 21 days if they believe them to be “procedurally unfair” or “irrational”.
A spokesman said the Parole Board‘s decisions are “solely focused on what risk a prisoner could represent to the public if released and whether that risk is manageable in the community”, adding that reviews “undertaken thoroughly and with extreme care” and that protecting the public is its “number one priority.”
Additional reporting by PA