A parole board member has revealed the sickening questions he has to ask paedophiles when they want to leave prison.
Since 2012, Rob McKeon has helped decide the fate of more than 5,000 prisoners during his career, including one person who told him he “liked to strangle people.”
As a member of the Parole Board of England and Wales decides whether it is certain that prisoners serving sentences for heinous crimes will be released.
Among the inmates to be assessed by Mr. McKeon are child molesters and sex offenders.
It is during the parole board hearing that he is forced to ask questions that the public would find particularly distressing.
A parole board official has revealed the disgusting things he had to ask paedophiles when they wanted to leave prison (file image)
About 0.5% of prisoners who are released on parole commit other crimes (file image)
In one particular circumstance, he recalled having to ask a child sex offender ‘how often do you masturbate in prison and what do you think about?’
But Mr McKeon said he was forced to set aside the nature of the crime and focus solely on whether they still posed a risk to the public.
He said: “I think everyone deserves a chance to show whether they can reform or not. It’s not up to me to decide the sentence.”
Last year, more than 4,000 prisoners were released from prison and 11,300 remained in prison.
Of the prisoners McKeon released, only three were charged with felonies, while in total about 0.5% of prisoners released on parole commit other crimes.
Talking to him GuardianMcKeon also explained how some cases were straightforward, such as the man who admitted he “liked to strangle people,” but others were much more complex.
Speaking about the possibility of a criminal he allowed to be released from prison reoffending, the former parole officer said he is not losing sleep over the decision, explaining: “I’ll be pretty sure of what I think is the right decision.”
McKeon went on to explain that the goal of parole is to give people the opportunity to change.
“People do horrible things, but some of those people won’t do it again, and the important thing is to be able to identify those people,” he said.
‘I sometimes worry that the knee-jerk reaction is of the ‘lock them up and throw away the key’ kind. There are some crimes where life should absolutely mean a lifetime, and we see that with life sentences. In others, there is an opportunity to change.’
Last year, McKeon served on the panel of infamous prisoner Charles Salvador, aka Charles Bronson, who was denied parole.
Throughout his career he has had to deal with manipulators and liars. Explaining how he deals with this, he said: ‘Go where the evidence tells you, because making decisions based on intuition is a terrible way to do things and you will get it wrong.
“Every story has two sides and you always need proof. Don’t just take anyone’s word for it.”
Last year, more than 4,000 prisoners were released from prison, and 11,300 remain in prison (file image)
Parole board member Rob McKeon said: “There are some crimes where life should mean life, and we see that in life sentences. In others, there is an opportunity to change” (file image)
“I am not influenced by newspaper headlines, or what politicians say, or the opinions of the government at a given moment, or what may outrage the public on social media. I make decisions based on risk.”
Earlier this month it was revealed that domestic abusers will be freed from jail under Labour’s new early release scheme.
The government’s ‘SDS40’ plan could see prisoners automatically released after serving 40-45 per cent of their time in prison, as ministers try to tackle the overcrowding crisis in UK jails.
Among the 1,700 people to be freed are a man who told his partner he “enjoyed” attacking her and another who strangled his partner and broke her jaw, The Times reports.
Under Sir Keir Starmer’s new plan, Connor Shaw will only serve 13 months of his prison sentence after subjecting his partner to years of mental and physical abuse.
He was originally sentenced to 32 months in prison after breaking her jaw, strangling her and threatening to throw acid in her face.
Another abuser who will be released after serving just half of his prison sentence is Shane Riley.
The man, then 44, said he “enjoyed” assaulting his partner when he punched, kicked and headbutted the victim at their home in Soham after she broke off their relationship on June 8, 2020.
He was sentenced to 23 months in prison for causing bodily harm, common assault, threatening to kill and criminal damage. He will serve less than nine months.
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