• Luke Pollard MP commends Prisoners Bill’s strengthened restrictions on releasing sex offenders from prison, that came after his campaign on Vanessa George
  • George refused to identify the babies and toddlers in Little Ted’s nursery in Plymouth that she abused
  • Luke praised the cross-party work on the Prisoners Bill having met repeatedly with Ministers to lobby for a change in the law.

Luke Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, has today welcomed the Government’s proposed change in the law that would prevent child sex abusers from being released if they refuse to name children in indecent images. Luke’s campaign for a change in the law started after it was announced that child abuser Vanessa George was to be released from prison. Luke tried to prevent her release from jail citing her refusal to name the children she abused at the now closed Little Ted’s nursery as a sign of her not showing adequate remorse for her crimes.

Luke has met with Ministers repeatedly over the last year to make the case for the law to be tightened. He also made the case for the voice of victims to be heard louder in the Parole Board’s decisions and today proposed new measures to make it easier for victims.

The Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Bill has cross-party support and also enacts the Helen’s Law campaign that seeks to prevent early release of prisoners convicted of murder if they don’t tell authorities where the body is.

Luke Pollard MP said:

“Vanessa George should not have been released. Her crimes against the most vulnerable in our city disgust me and everyone I represent. The fact she was released while still refusing to name her victims shows there was something very wrong about the criminal justice system. I am pleased that my campaign to change the law has been a success. This new Bill means that someone who refuses to name the children in indecent images of abuse will not be eligible for early release. It is a small bit of good to come out of a horrible situation.

 

“The parents of Vanessa George’s victims and I want to make sure no other family goes through what they have had to endure of not knowing if it was their child that was abused or not. Today we took a major step towards that becoming law as it always should have been.

 

“Those parents of those babies and toddlers were let down twice, firstly by a system that didn’t protect their children in a place where they should’ve been safe, and secondly that Vanessa George was released while still refusing to name the kids she abused.”

 

“Now Vanessa George has been released from jail, she may have been watching today’s debate and to her I say simply: name the children you abused and give those families the peace of knowing.”

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