Murderers and rapists could get full state benefits if a case at the European Court of Human Rights is successful in challenging the British Government.
It means criminals like Moors Murderer Ian Brady and the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, could qualify for pensions.
The test case involves four patients at secure hospitals and one former patient who went to the European Court in Strasbourg after they failed to overturn the current rules.
The case is among a series of claims being considered.
Murderers: Ian Brady (left) and Peter Sutcliffe could both claim benefits if the case is successful
Other applications include a convicted terrorist who said it was 'inhuman and degrading ' to increase his jail sentence and a paedophile who said his 'right to a family life' was breached when the Prison Service banned visits from his infant son.
The claims will put more pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron after he pledged to review the influence the European Court has over British law following the row over
whether prisoners should get the vote.
Convicted patients detained at Broadmoor and other psychiatric hospitals claim it is unfair that they are unable to benefit from Jobseeker's Allowance, Income Support and Pensions.
None of the applicants involved in the court case have been identified however, it could lead to Brady, who is now 73, claiming up to £132.60 a week in pension credits
and Sutcliffe claiming a similar figure when he reaches pension age in June this year.
Patients brining the case forward involve:
- FA who was convicted of murder in 1995 and jailed for a minimum of 22 years. He is 44. He was transferred to Broadmoor, Berkshire, in 1996 where he was convicted of trying to murder a fellow patient.
- HB, was jailed for life with a minimum of 19 years in 2001. He is now 63 and is also at Broadmoor.
- ALF, 40, was convicted of rape, attempted rape and indecent assault in 1999 and was jailed for life. His minimum 10-year tariff expired last year but he is still detained.
- EM, who will turn 65 this year, was jailed for life for grievous bodily harm in 2003 and is a patient at Thornford Park Hospital in Berkshire.
- SS was released in 2007 from a 12-year sentence for an unknown crime. He is 33 and receives Income Support and Disability Living Allowance. He is seeking damages for benefits he could have received while in detention.
Patients at psychiatric hospitals currently receive a weekly 'pocket money rate' of £18 to £21 to spend in the hospital shop or by mail order.
They now want Strasbourg to rule that they should get full income support - £65.45 a week - or pension credits if they qualify plus damages to make up what they have lost since current European Parliament rules came into force in 2006.
Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire where both Ian Brady and Peter Sutcliffe are patients
Solicitor Peter Mahy, who is representing SS, said: 'People who are in mental health establishments should be entitled to the same benefits whether or not they have been
in prison before.
It is believed there are 780 patients who are paid at the pocket money rate because they were jailed for crimes and later transferred to secure hospitals or were sent
to hospitals at the time of being sentenced.
Patients who have not been convicted of a crime, or who were sent to the hospital by the courts rather than being sentenced, are entitled to full state benefits.
The taxpayer could pay out up to £2m a year if the case is won.
Former shadow home secretary, David Davis MP, said: 'Yet again this is not an issue of human rights but of lawyers trying to play the system on behalf of their clients.
"It is to be hoped that when the state tried to do the best possible thing, both for society and to rehabilitate criminals, that these efforts are not crippled by the meddling
of the European court.'
Last year the claimants failed to overturn the current rules at the Court of Appeal and were refused Legal Aid for an appeal to the Supreme Court.
They then took the full application to Strasbourg the next day.
A claim by Shaun Stokoe, 30, from Derby, is also being considered by the European court.
He was convicted of a sexual offence against a minor and jailed for three and a half years in 2008.
The Prison Service ruled that he could not have contact with his son, aged 2, while in jail however, Stokoe claims it interfered with his right to a family life.
In the terrorist case, Waseem Mughal, was jailed in 2005 for his involvement in websites inciting Muslims to wage war against non-believers.
He was sentenced to seven and a half years after changing his plea to guilty part way through his trial but it was later increased to 12 years by the Attorney General.
dailymail.co.uk
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου