We all know that jobs in the criminal justice system are challenging, especially at this time with the crippling budget cuts which have left the whole system creaking. The fact that as many as 35% of our courts don’t open every day of the week due to staff shortages and there are people in UK jails who have yet to face jail for over four years is utterly shocking, and not something we should have to accept. But I digress.
In a recent episode of my Uk True Crime podcast, which looked at the crimes of double-murderer John McGeechan, I was pretty critical of the following:
1, The deal made by the lawyers to see McGeechan charged in 1996 with culpable homicide rather than murder, meaning he only got a 10 year sentence for what was to me clearly murder – if you recall he murdered his 24 year old victim in front of innocent children playing for throwing a snowball at his dog, stabbing him through the heart with a 12 inch carving knife;
2, The Parole Board for releasing him after just six years of this sentence – he misbehaved so kept being recalled before being released after nine years. Shortly afterwards, he murdered again;
3, Finally, I criticised the management of the prison that housed initially housed McGeechan as he went to prison for his first murder as a violent, highly dangerous man and left as a violent, highly dangerous man with a serious heroin addiction..
I am often critical of the police and other local authorities as are many others. Events like the recent escape of Daniel Khalife from prison and the various high profile crimes committed by serving Police Officers of course make it almost too easy to be critical.
So let me make one thing clear.
I fully appreciate that all the people working in these professions have often incredibly difficult jobs to do which most do very well a lot of the time. It is because these jobs are so vital to our safety that I feel entirely comfortable in calling them out when they fall below the standards expected.
And in the case of John McGeechan all the bodies I have referenced got it badly wrong and, due to the importance of this work, these errors directly led to the death of another innocent man.
As a true crime podcaster telling stories, we have to give praise where it is deserved but, in my view, we also can’t be afraid of talking about where things have gone wrong. A few times I have not done this and rightly been called out for it.
Many of us don’t like being critical in any part of our lives. However, it is important to be authentic.