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Sir James Molyneaux: My hon. Friend the Member for East Londonderry (Mr. Ross) apologises for having to leave to catch a flight.
Mr. Moss: I had noticed that he had gone, but I did not refer to it. I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that comment.
The subject of asbestos cement pipes was raised by the hon. Member for East Londonderry and by a number of hon. Members who represent the Belfast area. I hope to make an announcement on that very soon. My Department has received a report from the water research centre. We are looking at it very carefully and hope to make an announcement in the near future, at which time the report will be made available in the Library. I shall write to the hon. Gentleman on the matter of income support for a student in his constituency.
Finally--I do not think that I have missed out any hon. Members--the hon. Member for Belfast, West spoke of the Belfast hills. The Department of the Environment is anxious that we should have a policy on the hills because
they are--I would not say that they are a hidden asset, because one cannot miss them--a unique asset and much under-utilised by people in Belfast. I shall refer back his question about the LaSalle and St. Genevieve schools. The hon. Gentleman asked for a little extra money, but I believe that the capital programme for both of them has already been more or less agreed.
The hon. Gentleman also raised the issue of home closures. I can assure him, and the hon. Member for Belfast, North, who also raised the matter, that those are not related to the present economies. The closure of statutory homes takes place because, although we need sufficient beds in the public and private sectors to accommodate those who need residential and nursing home care, the emphasis now is on care in the community, with people being looked after in their own homes. So we do not need so many beds in either the statutory or the independent private sector. We are simply rationalising the provision to ensure that we have sufficient beds, with a mixed provision of care across the two sectors--or rather, across the three sectors. I have not mentioned the voluntary sector, which is also important.
I have not seen the paper on the economic position in north and west Belfast. The hon. Gentleman held up a copy, and if he would like to give it to me afterwards, I shall take it away and consider it. We can liaise with the IDB in that respect, because we are interested in finding a sensible way of measuring deprivation, not only in the hon. Gentleman's constituency but throughout Northern Ireland, so that funding in, say, the health service, can be targeted under the heading of social need for those key areas in our overall policy.
I have answered as best I can most of the questions that have been raised, and I shall write to hon. Members about those that I have not answered. I commend the appropriation order to the House.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
Mr. William McKelvey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun):
I am grateful for the opportunity to air problems of great concern not only to my constituents, but to people throughout Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. I have a sad story to tell.
A young constituent of mine, Mhairi Julyan, a schoolgirl innocently making her way home from a pantomime just before Christmas last year, was set upon by a vile pervert, a man who hated women, who preyed upon defenceless women and was violent in the extreme. He subjected her to torture and sexual assault and then murdered her. As with all crimes of violence and every tragic loss of a young life, the people of Kilmarnock were--and remain--shocked and distressed. I am sure that the House will have great sympathy for Mhairi, for her parents, the rest of her family and her friends.
What sets this hideous crime apart from many others is the fact that the perpetrator, Gavin McGuire, had been allowed to return time and again to the community, sometimes committing the same types of crime for which he had been committed to prison, but sometimes committing even worse crimes. That fact poses a number of questions that my hon. Friends and I believe require a full and independent inquiry in public.
We must ask the following questions. What treatment did McGuire undergo while in prison? What assessment was made of any such treatment? Why were police and social services not alerted when he was released from prison? What procedures are in place to oversee the behaviour of sex offenders, especially those who have shown violence, to try to prevent recidivism?
Last week, I visited the Lord Advocate, Lord MacKay of Drumadoon, and the Solicitor-General for Scotland, Mr. Paul Cullen, with my hon. Friend the Member for Cunninghame, South (Mr. Donohoe), who is with me in the Chamber tonight, and my hon. Friend the Member for Dumbarton (Mr. McFall), our Front-Bench spokesman. We were seeking an independent public inquiry, which all right-minded believe is now imperative.
We were promised an inquiry, but it will not be held in public; it will be carried out internally by the Crown Office. Although that is better than nothing, it can in no way replace the fullest of inquiries, whose participants would come from outside the Crown Office system. An independent public inquiry would provide a fresh view and a comprehensive study in order to make recommendations that might prevent a known vicious serial rapist such as Gavin McGuire from ever being free to terrorise, to mutilate and to kill again.
It is important that the House be made aware of the evil within that man, which spiralled over the years and appears to have gone unchecked, other than during his periods of incarceration.
It is said that Gavin McGuire was always a loner, an outsider with few social skills and unable to make close relationships. He was the eldest of three sons of a working-class family in Stevenston in Ayrshire. His father was made redundant when Gavin was a child and seems to have spent a lot of his time drinking and gambling, leaving the three brothers to fend for themselves.
McGuire's parents separated when he was young, and he first went into care at the age of eight--that sounds like something out of Charles Dickens, but it is not. During his 25-year career of crime, and even before, since the age of eight, he had done time in every form of institution--assessment centre, borstal, list D school, young offenders institution and eventually prison, including the top security Peterhead gaol, where he shared segregation with some of Scotland's worst sex offenders.
In 1976, McGuire was arrested for assaulting three young women in Stevenston, one of whom he sexually attacked. In each of those cases either the victim fought him off or he was disturbed by a passer-by. The first attack took place five months after he left the list D school.
McGuire's first victim was a 15-year-old schoolgirl from Auchenharvie academy. He knocked her to the ground, punched her in the face and bit her nose before her screams alerted help, and he ran off. In the second attack, a 15-year-old holidaymaker was dragged on to a patch of waste ground, where he punched her repeatedly and dragged her by the hair before sexually assaulting her. Again, he ran off when passers by came to her aid. The third victim in McGuire's first phase was attacked just two days later, when he pushed an 18-year-old girl against a wall, but she escaped after hitting him with her shopping bag.
I relate those details to demonstrate that even early in his perverted career, McGuire showed no mercy and no restraint towards the women he attacked. In fact, in all three of those cases, only good fortune prevented even more serious harm.
When McGuire initially came to court in Kilmarnock, the sheriff court--rightly in my opinion--refused bail, but bail of £10 was granted on appeal to the High Court. While out on that £10 bail the following month, he assaulted a pregnant woman, kicking her to the ground, and robbed the garage in which she had been working. He also robbed another garage.
One week later, he followed a woman, grabbed her and tried to pull her to the ground, but she ran off when a car approached. Later the same day, he held a piece of glass at the throat of a 23-year-old woman whom he had grabbed in a shopping arcade. He dragged her behind a store, stripped her and raped her.
When McGuire finally came to court, he admitted eight charges, including rape, serious assault with sexual intent, assault and robbery, theft of a motor car and theft of money. For those offences he was sentenced to 10 years in a young offenders institution. His Member of Parliament at that time, John Corrie, demanded an inquiry to discover why he had been bailed for the first three offences, which had left him free to carry out further vicious attacks--but Corrie had no success in bringing about an inquiry. More is the pity.
McGuire was released on licence seven years later. Within months, that monster subjected a holidaymaker in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, to a terrifying three-hour ordeal in the dead of night. He brutally attacked, beat and raped her, then threw her into Saltcoats harbour. I do not believe that his intention was other than murder, but the murder charge was dropped, although he had watched the woman floating in the harbour for some time. During that time she feigned unconsciousness and kept herself afloat until he left the scene. She then swam for the shore and for
help. It was stated in court that had she not been a good swimmer she would not have not survived that hellish ordeal.
Despite his obvious intent, the charge against McGuire was reduced from attempted murder and rape to assault and rape, for which he was sentenced in August 1986, again for a period of 10 years. The presiding judge, Lord Dunpark, in sentencing McGuire, described him
The next victim we know about was a young woman who was set upon by McGuire. When defending herself, she bit his finger very hard and drew a lot of blood. She alerted the police, and drew their attention to the fact that she had injured him. He was arrested eight days later after the victim recognised him in the street. He appeared at Kilmarnock sheriff court on 21 August 1995 on a charge of assault with intent to rape and robbery. He was remanded in custody while the police and the procurator fiscal investigated.
On 28 November 1995, McGuire was liberated by the Crown on the ground that there was insufficient evidence in law to provide corroboration, which is required by Scots law. Nineteen days later he murdered Mhairi Julyan.
It was necessary to go over this man's offences--at least those that we know of--in some detail to demonstrate not only his evil intent, but the continuing nature of his crimes. For at least 20 years, he has been raping and brutalising women whenever he gets the chance. It is only very good fortune for the woman concerned that he was not facing a murder charge in 1986. Indeed, that might even be said of the other women he abused who escaped when he was disturbed. He showed no humanity to his victims, and his disregard led to escalating violence that culminated in the death of Mhairi Julyan. Forty-seven different injuries were found on this lovely young girl's body, the combination of which led to her death.
I am aware that the Secretary of State for Scotland believes that he has found a solution. "Two strikes and you're out," I think it is called. That is to say two sex offences and then prison for life, but is that really an acceptable solution? I believe it is a knee-jerk reaction of a Secretary of State backed into a corner because of criticisms of our system of justice in Scotland. The policy has not been thought out, nor has it been tested on the many strong and able legal minds in Scotland. Many organisations in the penal system are likely to have strong opinions which may be of use, and psychiatrists and others may be able to provide a much better and less wasteful solution at an early stage.
It is for that reason that my colleagues and I are again calling on the Government to set up an independent public inquiry. As well as looking at the particular circumstances of this horrific case, it could include changes that add any remission to later sentences. I believe that it is essential that the inquiry investigates the treatment of offenders and makes the compulsory completion of psychological treatment and assessment of the possibility of recidivism the main criteria for release, thus bringing about a stark change in sentencing policy for sex and violent offenders.
I am also convinced, as are my colleagues, that an inquiry must look at the law of evidence in Scottish courts regarding sex offences with a view to abolishing the
mandatory requirement on the prosecution to provide corroborative evidence before a case can proceed. The tragic consequences of that requirement protected McGuire from prosecution and led to his liberation on28 November last year. He was then free to go out and murder just 19 days later.
That the draft Appropriation (No. 2) (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, which was laid before this House on 5th June, be approved.
13 Jun 1996 : Column 487Crown Office (Gavin McGuire Case)
Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.--[Mr. Brandreth.]
7.51 pm
"as a menace to society, and particularly to women."
Again he was released on licence after having served part of his 10-year sentence, and again he preyed on vulnerable women soon after his release.
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