The government’s early release policy is aimed at reducing pressure on oversubscribed jails. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy View image in fullscreen The government’s early release policy is aimed at reducing pressure on oversubscribed jails. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy Prisons and probation More sex offenders in England and Wales could be released amid court system crisis, police sources say Sources tell the Guardian they are braced for more offenders being bailed into the community ahead of October’s early prisoner release
Prefer the Guardian on Google More sexual predators in England and Wales could be freed instead of jailed because of the pressure on courts and prisons, police sources have told the Guardian.
The warning comes after the Metropolitan police commissioner, Mark Rowley, on Thursday condemned the release on bail of a man after he admitted taking pictures of children and women, and then using AI to sexualise them.
Zafer Dogan was bailed to his flat overlooking a children’s playground, from which he committed some of the offences he admitted, despite prosecutors and police saying he should be remanded in custody.
One of his victims said they had to move after courts declined to send him to jail ahead of his sentencing on Thursday, where he was imprisoned for two years.
Read more A senior police source said they feared more such cases across England and Wales , where charged suspects are released rather than jailed: “We are bracing ourselves for more of this across the country, that is, offenders who should be remanded, instead being freed on bail, to the distress of their victims.
“Some forces are better resourced to deal with this than others. It is going to be a nationwide issue.”
The government’s early release policy, to ease pressure on prisons where places are on the verge of running out, is expected to start next Thursday.
The police source added: “Probation is crumbling, policing is having to pick up extra offender management work which it has not had to do before. Something has got to give.
“The work that will be created because of increases in crime and the management of offenders in the community will take away from regular frontline crime fighting.”
Some in policing suspect courts are more reluctant than before to send suspects to prison.
A senior Met source said they believed courts were increasingly reluctant to remand knife crime suspects in custody as cases progressed, because they suspected the final sentence would not be custodial. “On knife crime we are seeing less imprisonment, possibly the effects of a mindset of courts where they think if suspects are not going to custody at the end [when convicted], why remand them to prison,” they said.
The Met released details on a new case to show the crisis the system faces.
The force said a 17-year-old boy had been bailed five times between June and September, and when released breached conditions for his electronic tag twice and committed four further crimes, including two robberies and making and distributing indecent images of children.
Officers worked 23-hour shifts hoping to see him remanded in custody, only for him to be bailed, the Met said.
DS Wess Kalam, who led the investigation, said: “It is incredibly frustrating for those officers to see him repeatedly released on bail, only to be arrested again for further alleged offending or breaches.
“We continually work to make decisions which prioritise victim safety, but when an individual we have…