THE family of a woman murdered in her own home by a violent re-offender has taken its campaign for whole of life sentences to Holyrood in a bid to protect other families from similar situations.
Isabelle Sanders, 51, was stabbed to death by Paul McManus, 20, during a robbery at her home in Crookston, Glasgow, in April last year.
He was given a life sentence with a minimum term of 26 years before he can apply for parole.
Sanders’s siblings James and Lindsay Dougall want the Scottish Judiciary to be given the option to sentence violent re-offenders who commit murder to a whole-life custodial sentence.
They have lodged a petition at the Scottish Parliament calling for the change and gave evidence at the Public Petitions Committee yesterday.
During McManus’s trial, it was heard that he stabbed Sanders 37 times. He was also convicted of attempting to murder her partner Norman Busby, 86.
Afterwards, it emerged he had been released from serving a previous sentence five weeks before the murder.
James Dougall told MSPs that statistics show about five per cent of life prisoners who are released by the parole board after completing their minimum jail term go on to re-offend.
“The five per cent will be deterred by nothing – that is the whole point. The public needs to be protected from this five per cent,” he said.
Dougall continued: “He (McManus) was 19 when the offence occurred and will be released when he is 45 assuming that he get through the parole board.
“That’s six years younger than Isabelle when she was murdered in her own home.
“This individual has already had opportunities to reform, how can we be sure that if we do release him that he won’t offend again?
“We raised the petition to protect other families from similar situations.”
Dougall suggested Scotland could follow the English sentencing model, which allows judges to impose a whole-life custodial sentences.
Scots law already allows for the possibility that the minimum period of custody set by the judge may exceed the prisoner’s life expectancy, but it must be specified in years and months.
MSPs agreed to write to the Scottish Government to ask if the matter would be appropriate for the new Scottish Sentencing Council to consider.
The council is due to be established by October to provide clear sentencing guidelines for Scotland.
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