19/12/01 - Alarming similarities
with the murder of Sophie Hook
Patrick Fletcher
THE JUDGE'S words will stick in the memory of parents
long after they've forgotten the name of the person who
said it. Mr Justice Richard Curtis told the killer of
eight-year-old Sarah Payne, "You're every parent's
and grandparent's nightmare come true."
Sentencing Roy Whiting last week, he recommended that
the convicted child abuser should stay in jail for the
rest of his natural life. And yet it was not the first
time he has said these words. For Mr Justice Curtis sat
in a court in Chester five years ago and said exactly
the same thing to the man who brutally raped and strangled
seven-year-old Sophie Hook.
He told killer Howard Hughes, "Your crimes are every
parent's nightmare come to pass. "I make it crystal
clear, my recommendation is that you are never, ever released."
Howard Hughes, known locally as Mad Howard, had snatched
Sophie from a tent in her uncle's back garden in Llandudno
in the swelteringly hot summer of July 1995, sexually
assaulting her before killing her and throwing her into
the sea.
The similarities between the murders of eight-year-old
Sarah Payne and Sophie Hook are alarming. And to those
who have campaigned for laws to prevent paedophiles harming
children, they prove that nothing has changed. The Whiting
trial at Lewes Crown Court was told after the verdict
that he had been jailed for four years for a sex attack
on another girl.
After Hughes was sent down Chester Crown Court was told
that he had been linked to a string of sex offences against
children. Police interviewed Hughes every time a child
complained but were unable to proceed against him either
through lack of evidence or because the victim's parents
had wanted to drop the case.
But commenting after he sentenced Hughes to three life
sentences, Mr Justice Curtis said, "There seems to
be nothing in the way of a statutory system that would
enable a responsible citizen to supervise and control
someone like Howard Hughes.
Calling for such a system to be established, he said,
"If such action is taken perhaps Sophie Hook will
not have died wholly in vain." But the sex offenders'
register set up as a direct response to the Sophie Hook
case did not protect Sarah Payne from Roy Whiting.
And yesterday Sarah's parents, Sara and Michael, were
calling for almost exactly the same legislation that Sophie's
father Chris Hook was demanding five years ago. Mr Hook
had said he wanted local authorities to be allowed to
publish names and photographs of known perverts as well
as tougher prison sentences for convicted paedophiles.
"No more debates, no more discussions, no more deliberations.
We expect the Government of today to take direct and firm
action now," he said at the time. "A paedophile
can move around the community without anyone being aware
of the potential danger they pose.
"We must make sure registration and public notification
becomes reality, not just another proposal ignored."
Like Sophie's parents before them, Mr and Mrs Payne want
indeterminate sentences for paedophiles and limited public
access to the sex offenders' register so that children
can be protected.
"We are after people like Roy Whiting that are the
most serious predatory people. This is what they live
for. This is their entire life, living to grab children.
"People like Whiting are never going to change."
patrick.fletcher@wme.co.uk |
