Criminals on probation commit one murder a week

London: Criminals on probation are committing one murder and one rape every week, the Ministry of Justice has revealed.

In the past two years offenders on licence have been convicted of 105 rapes along with 94 murders, 18 attempted murders and 39 manslaughters.

A report also shows that there were 78 kidnappings, 43 convictions for arson with intent to endanger life and 657 other violent or sexual offences punished by a maximum jail sentence of ten years or more.

The total number of convictions for criminals being monitored by probation staff in the two years to March 2009 was 1,394, or almost two per day. The vast majority of these - 1,034 - were classified as serious offences.

On top of this, last year there were 429 criminals awaiting trial for offences committed while on probation, compared to 57 the year before.

Shadow justice secretary Dominic Grieve said on Friday night: "The public will be shocked to learn that dangerous criminals under diluted probation supervision are convicted of one murder a week.

"Gordon Brown has released serious offenders early and relaxed the monitoring of those on probation. This is further evidence that the government's lax approach to criminal justice is putting the public at risk."

The figures apply to criminals released from jail on licence or on probation while serving a community sentence. Probation arrangements are under scrutiny following a series of high-profile killings by prisoners released on licence and supposedly being closely supervised in the community.

In June, Dano Sonnex was jailed for torturing and killing French students Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez in an "orgy of bloodletting" while on probation.

The serial offender and psychopath was wrongly classified as "medium risk" by probation staff when he was freed halfway through an eight-year jail term.

David Scott, who quit as head of London Probation over the blunders that led to the murders, later warned that problems with staff numbers, training and management meant the risk of a similar tragedy remained.

Other cases include that of knife-obsessed Gary Chester-Nash, who had more than 30 convictions and a long history of violence and threats to women when he walked free from prison in 2006. He travelled to Cornwall and stabbed 59-year-old Jean Bowditch to death after breaking into her house.

Official reports later highlighted 'inadequate performance' by probation officials and voiced particular concerns over sub- standard 'risk of harm' assessments used to gauge the threat from the most dangerous criminals.