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??/??/?? - Reggie Kray to
remain in jail after 30-year sentence is up
BY RICHARD FORD HOME CORRESPONDENT
The Times
THE gangland killer Reginald Kray is to remain in jail
for several more years, despite psychiatric reports suggesting
he is fit to be released in May after serving 30 years.
The Parole Board is due to consider his case within the
next few weeks, but will not recommend that the 64-year-old
prisoner be released immediately.
Even if it did, the final decision would rest with Jack
Straw, the Home Secretary, who must also take into account
the wider issue of maintaining public confidence in the
criminal justice system.
Kray and his twin brother, Ronald, were convicted in 1969
for the murder of Jack "The Hat" McVitie and
given mandatory life sentences with a recommendation that
they serve a minimum of 30 years for "retribution
and deterrence".
Ronnie Kray died of a heart attack in jail in 1995; Reggie
Kray's tariff will have been completed on May 9, as he
was arrested in 1968. The Parole Board can recommend that
he should or should not be released, or that he be transferred
to an open prison.
It is not expected to recommend his immediate release,
as almost all prisoners who have served such a long period
in jail must first spend some years in open conditions
in preparation for the day they are eventually freed.
Kray has already been transferred from Maidstone jail,
a category B prison, to the category C Wayland jail in
Norfolk.
A spokesman for the Prison Service said: "Life-serving
prisoners are only ever released from an open prison,
and we would expect a prisoner to have been at an open
prison for a number of years before he was released -
a minimum of two.
Reggie Kray has only recently been transferred from a
category B prison to a category C. An open prison would
be category D, so nothing is going to happen overnight."
In normal circumstances, Kray's case would come up for
review about two to three years before the expiry of his
sentence.
A dossier including reports from psychiatrists, prison
staff and probation officers has been prepared for the
formal Parole Board hearing this spring.
A report in the dossier says there is no reason why Kray
should not be released. However, others within the Prison
Service are not certain that Kray has fully addressed
his offending behaviour and remain unconvinced about his
expressed regrets. |
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