Exclusive: Family’s anger grows over plan to let killer live in community

Mark Webster, 21, was stabbed to death outside a pub in Addingham, near Ilkley, on April 1, 2002, as he went to the aid of a woman being threatened with a knife by West Indian immigrant Leroy Griffith.

Griffith was jailed for life in December 2002 and told he must serve a minimum of 14 years with a recommendation that he be deported on his release.

Instead, the Websters have learned that Griffith is being considered for a move to a category D “open” prison as a precursor to periodic release on licence, three years short of his minimum tariff, although he would be barred from an “exclusion zone” including Addingham, Keighley, Ilkley, Menston, Otley and Skipton.

Griffith’s wife is understood to live in Menston and work in Ilkley, however, and the Websters say it is inconceivable he would not try to visit her, raising the spectre that they may soon bump into him. Mr Webster’s father Tim lives in Ilkley, his mother Valerie in Addingham, while his brother Alastair lives in Menston with his children.

Mr Webster’s father is now planning to attend Griffith’s parole board hearing in April to deliver his victim statement in person, arguing against the prison transfer – despite being warned it is “unlikely” to make a difference.

“I will read it to the parole board,” he said.

“It’s got to be a fight to stop him getting out on licence in West Yorkshire.”

Mr Webster has written to the Home Secretary Theresa May asking for her help and is being supported in his campaign by his MP Kris Hopkins, who said he stood “shoulder to shoulder” with the family in their wish to see Griffith sent back to Barbados.

Mr Hopkins, the Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, who is due to meet Mr Webster again tomorrow to discuss the case, said: “The murder of his son, Mark, was a horrific incident and I will certainly stand shoulder to shoulder with the family in their desire to have Leroy Griffith removed from our country.

“For me, Griffith lost any right he had to be here as soon as he attacked Mark Webster. I understand that at the time of his sentencing the judge said that he should be deported immediately following his release. For the peace of mind of Mark’s family, and indeed, the welfare of my constituents, this direction must be made to stand.”

Mr Webster also says the probation service stopped informing the family of Griffith’s location in the prison system because it “breached his human rights”, and that Griffith is also using Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights – the right to a family life – to avoid being deported and to be near his wife.

Asked about his own human rights, Mr Webster said: “I haven’t got any. This character’s wife lives in Menston – with the best will in the world, if anybody thinks he’s not going to come to Menston, of course, he’s going to do it.

“At the trial the judge said he would be deported and we were told by the probation service he would not be allowed to do rehabilitation courses until he accepts his crime. They have put in writing to me that he has not accepted his crime at all so they have already changed the rules.

“When he first went to prison, the Probation Service used to write to us and say he’s in Armley, then he’s in Wakefield, then he’s in Gartree, then they stopped telling us where he was. I asked why and they said ‘Because of European Human Rights we can’t tell you where he is in case you try to get to him’. It’s against his human rights for us to know where he is.”

He added: “I don’t believe it’s fair and proper that we should have to chase this all the time. Within six years he could come and move in next door to me and that’s what I find unbelievable. I don’t want him anywhere near my grandkids or my family.”

A Probation Service letter seen by the Yorkshire Post, however, discusses the parole board hearing, and says of Mr Webster’s victim statement: “... I do not give priority to this as I am wary of raising expectation as such a submission is unlikely to have much influence when a transfer for rehabilitative purposes is proposed.”