Jail-bound prisoner walks free after Devon court mix-up

A prisoner waiting to be taken to jail after being sentenced at a Devon court walked away free because there was nobody there to transport him to prison and the building was closing.

He was only arrested later after being involved in a machete attack.
The claim was made in the House of Commons by Torbay Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling during a session of questions to Justice Secretary David Lammy.
Mr Lammy said the process of getting prisoners from court to jail would be part of an urgent review of the justice system being carried out by retired senior judge Sir Brian Leveson.
Mr Darling said the incident had been highlighted to him by a Torquay solicitor.
He said: “He told me of multiple occasions where there has been a lack of security staff to convey convicted criminals from Newton Abbot magistrates court to prison.
“On one occasion an individual started self-harming, while on another an individual waited and then absconded because they were locking up the building.
“He was then arrested at a later stage following a machete attack.”
Mr Darling asked Mr Lammy how often this was happening across the UK, and what was being done to stop ‘this failure within the system’.
Mr Lammy said Mr Darling was right about the problems of getting prisoners to jail from courts, which were part of a backlog of issues inherited from the previous Conservative government.
“We are demanding that our police arrest more people and bear down on crime,” he said. “The criminal justice system is phenomenally hot, and all of this will affect the prison system.
“That is why we have asked Brian Leveson to look at the issues of efficiency, particularly those that relate to the court backlog.
“Part of that is the relationship between security and the movement of people from our courts to the prison system.”