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News

News Archives: Index

October 7, 2010: Probation Set For Industrial Action

October 5, 2010: Turning Prisoners Into Taxpayers

October 4, 2010: Murder Changes Now In Force

September 20, 2010: Probation Programmes Face Cuts

August 24, 2010: Victorian Poor Law Records Online

August 10, 2010: Justice Job Cuts

July 28, 2010: Prison Violence Growing

July 22, 2010: Police Numbers: Latest Figures

July 22, 2010: New Jurisdiction Rules

July 16, 2010: CCJS On Prison And Probation Spending Under Labour

July 15, 2010: Latest Statistics On Violent And Sexual Crime

July 15, 2010: Latest National Crime Figures

July 15, 2010: New Chief Prisons Inspector

July 14, 2010: Hard Times Ahead For Prisons: Anne Owers

July 14, 2010: Prison Does Not Work: Ken Clarke

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform: Sentencing and Rehabilitation

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform Priorities

July 12, 2010: What Price Public Protection, Asks Probation Chief Inspector

July 12, 2010: NOMS has failed, says Napo

July 10, 2010: IPCC To Investigate Death of Raoul Moat

July 9, 2010: Women In Prison: New Report

July 9, 2009: Unjust Deserts: Imprisonment for Public Protection

July 8, 2010: Police Search Powers Change

July 7, 2010: Make 'Legal High' Illegal, Says ACMD

July 2, 2010: Failing Children In Prison

July 2, 2010: Police Buried Under a Blizzard of Guidance: HMIC

July 1, 2010: Freedom To Change The Law?

June 30, 2010: A New Outlook On Penal Reform?

June 30, 2010: Revolving Door Of Offending Must Stop, Says Clarke

June 30, 2010: Ken Clarke: Speech on Criminal Justice Reform

June 29, 2010: No More Police Targets

June 26, 2010: Family Intervention Projects Questioned

June 25, 2010: Cutting Criminal Justice

June 24, 2010: Napo on Sex Offenders Report

June 23, 2010: Closing Courts: The Cuts Begin

June 23, 2010: Strategy To Tackle Gangs

June 15, 2010: Courts and Mentally Disordered Offenders

June 8, 2010: Working With Muslims in Prison

June 1, 2010: Your Chance To Nominate a QC

November 21, 2005: Former Met Commissioner Calls for Death Penalty

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens has called for capital punishment to be reinstated for those who kill police officers. He was responding to the murder of WPC Sharon Beshenivsky in the course of an armed raid on a Bradford travel agents’ premises. WPC Beshenivsky is the first policewoman to be murdered in the line of duty since WPC Yvonne Fletcher was shot at the Libyan embassy in London 1984.

Lord Stevens wrote in yesterday’s 'News of the World' that:

"All my life I've been against the death penalty. But after the cold-blooded murder of policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky, I've changed my mind. For the first time in my life, despite 40 years at the sharp end of policing, I finally see no alternative. Such an extreme act of pure evil can only be met by the most extreme of responses - and that can only be death.”

"I never thought I'd say this, but I am now convinced that the monster who executed this young woman in cold blood should, in turn, be killed as punishment for this crime. For the first time in my life, despite 40 years at the sharp end of policing, I finally see no alternative. Such an extreme act of pure evil can only be met by the most extreme of responses - and that can only be death."

Lord Stevens now believes that if death penalty is not imposed then:

"wrong really has finally totally triumphed over right, and all civilised society, all we hold dear, is the loser".

Lord Stevens can call on a wide range of experience in policing. He was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for distinguished service in 1991 and during his career has been commended on 27 occasions for outstanding detective ability or courage.

He was Metropolitan Police Commissioner until February 2005. He served in the Police for 42 years. He began his career in the Metropolitan Police where he was involved in a range of activities from leading successful murder enquiries and leadership of crime squads, and was commander of the busiest CID office in London. In 1986 he was became Assistant Chief Constable of Hampshire Police, then l3 years later he was appointed Deputy Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Constabulary. In 1991, he became Chief Constable of Northumbria Police. In September 1996 he was appointed one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary. He took up his post as Commissioner in February 2000.