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Tories licence to kill burglars

21 December 2009

Tories' licence to kill a burglar: Homeowners using self-defence should escape prosecution, says shadow minister. Homeowners would be handed a licence to kill burglars by a Tory government.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling raised the election stakes on crime by promising law-abiding citizens extra rights to defend themselves.

If the Tories win the election, he said, they would tear up the law which lets householders use only 'reasonable force' to defend their families against intruders.

The move comes amid public outrage at the 30-month sentence handed last week to Munir Hussain, who chased and beat a member of a gang who had held his family at knifepoint in their home.

Mr Grayling said homeowners should escape conviction even if they kill a burglar - unless they use 'grossly disproportionate' force.

His intervention put the government on the back foot and forced Home Secretary Alan Johnson into a pledge to review the law.

Mr Grayling made it clear that killing a burglar would not necessarily be classed as 'grossly disproportionate'.

He said: 'If somebody breaks into your house with a knife and goes for you and you end up defending yourself and killing them, arguably in many cases that wouldn't be.

'It's got to be clear that the householder has gone way beyond what any reasonable person would expect to be the case to defend yourself.'
The Tory promise is a key plank in plans to overhaul the failing criminal justice system which will be at the centre of a New Year policy blitz.

Mr Grayling refused to comment on the case of 53-year-old Mr Hussain who left the burglar with brain damage after hitting him with a cricket bat - because it is going to appeal.

But he said: 'It raises genuine concerns around the country. It reinforces the sense that the law doesn't work on behalf of the householder.'
Mr Johnson said he instinctively felt 'uncomfortable' about the jailing of Mr Hussain. He said he was sure Justice Secretary Jack Straw would want to look again at the law in the light of public concern.

But Mr Johnson insisted that judges had adequate discretion to decide whether the force used by householders was 'proportionate', and it was not for politicians to 'second guess' them.

The Commons has twice rejected attempts by Tory MPs to change the law.

Four years ago, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Crown Prosecution Service issued guidelines telling homeowners they could follow their 'instincts' in 'the heat of the moment'.
But critics say the advice has done little to clarify the law and shift the balance in favour of law-abiding citizens.

Mr Grayling said: 'I want it to be absolutely clear to the householder that if something happens to you the law will protect you if you defend your interests.

'People aren't clear on that at the moment.'

As part of the Tory focus on crime, Mr Grayling will today publish a dossier showing a huge rise in the number of criminals escaping with a caution for violent and sexual offences and a fall in detection rates for the same crimes.

It accuses the government of creating a 'caution culture' under which the number of serious offenders given a caution rather than charged has risen from 150,000 in 2003 to 205,000 in 2007.

The dossier reveals that a third of cases involving violence against the person are cleared up with a caution and one in six of sex offences that are solved ends in a caution.

The detection rate for sex offences has dropped by a quarter since 2001 and nine out of ten burglaries now go unsolved.

The dossier asks: 'How did we get ourselves into a position where it is the criminal whose rights seem to come first, and where the victim is all too often forgotten or ignored?

'And how did we get ourselves into a position where all too often the offender just gets away with it?'

Mr Grayling said the government's own figures showed why voters have lost faith in the justice system.

He said: 'We desperately need change if we are to rebuild public confidence.'