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A sex offender who went on to brutally murder a schoolgirl went unchecked following his release from prison because he changed his name, a report revealed today. Timothy Cuffy, 39, slaughtered 13-year-old Sandy Hadfield on July 21, 2002, after she called at his home in Usher Green, Lincoln, looking for her school friend. After plying her with vodka, Cuffy led the youngster to secluded woods where he tried to have sex with her before slitting her throat with a 12-inch Gurkha knife. He had moved to the area earlier in the year, going under the name of Timothy Barnett. This, the report found, allowed him to hide his criminal record - specifically a conviction for indecent assault on a minor - from his new partner, her three children and authorities in Lincolnshire. An independent report into how Cuffy came to be in Lincolnshire without any supervision, following his early release from a six-year sentence for burglary and assault on a blind woman, was released today following a two-year investigation by the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board. The report found that vital information about Cuffy was not shared between the Probation Service, the police and health authorities who all had contact with him prior to Sandy's murder. Cuffy, it was revealed, was a Schedule 1 offender following his conviction for indecently assaulting a girl under 16 in 1992. Because of the date of his conviction, he was not listed on the sex offenders' register allowing him, as he admitted to the investigative panel during interview, to "disappear". Despite this conviction when Cuffy - who also has a long-documented history of mental illness - was released from jail in October 2000 his licence period had expired, meaning that he was not under any statutory supervision by the Probation Service. He returned to his home town of Derby and registered with a GP who referred him to a psychiatrist. Again, despite his background and the fact that Cuffy told the psychiatrist he was a sex offender, no risk assessment was carried out and he was released back into the care of his GP. When he moved to Lincolnshire under the name Barnett the information was not passed on to the health authorities in the county and he was able to conceal his dark past. His background also went unchecked during two encounters with Lincolnshire Police and during contact with social services in relation to his partner's children because of his identity change. Reading from the report at a press conference this afternoon Avril Price, who chaired the case review, said: "This key information about him being a Schedule 1 offender should have been communicated between every agency with which he came into contact, from the point he became a Schedule 1 offender in 1995, in the interests of the welfare of any females and children with whom he came into contact. "Another very important factor is that he changed his name when he came to live in Lincolnshire in 2002." Ms Price said the case could be compared to the Soham inquiry into the deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, where it was found that killer Ian Huntley - also a sex offender - was able to move county without being checked. "His extensive criminal record was in the name of Timothy Cuffy," Ms Price said. "He informed Lincolnshire Police and (his partner's) children's schools that his name was Timothy Barnett, which prevented the revelation of his offending history and Schedule 1 status whilst he was in Lincolnshire." Ms Price also revealed that Cuffy, when interviewed by the panel, said that only his incarceration in jail could have prevented the murder. Following the publication of the report, Sandy's mother Jackie James-Clarke, 36, said she was "dumbfounded" that a sex offender was able to change his name and go unchecked. She said: "A lack of communication the key in this investigation. Let us hope that Sandy's death will not be in vain. "This man will continue to be a danger forever and I hope that he will never be released from prison. "I want to say thank you to the board for shedding some light on many of the questions I personally wanted answered. I am still dumbfounded and shocked. It is very disturbing to know that a Schedule 1 offender was able to cross from one county to another. "I think this needs to be addressed. It was a vital piece of information that could have prevented Sandy's death." Cuffy was found guilty of murder in June 2003. In April this year Mr Justice Royce ordered him to serve a minimum of 20 years in prison. Following the Soham Inquiry in 2004, national systems have been established through which the movements of known sex offenders can be traced if they are considered a risk to others. A Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) has also been established in recent years in which the prison, police and probation services work together to carry out risk assessments and establish a framework in which to deal with dangerous offenders. "Had the more robust framework system now in operation been in force in 2000 when Cuffy was finally released from prison unsupervised, the likelihood is that he would have been made subject to MAPPA and thus been subject to statutory oversight," Ms Price said. Mike Shewan, Chief Executive of the Derbyshire Mental Health Services trust, said the psychiatrist who examined Cuffy following his release from prison, did not take the view that he was suffering a mental health disorder "of a level of severity that required treatment from the specialist mental health service." He said: "Patients are only placed on the care programme approach when they have been accepted for ongoing treatment by specialist mental health services. "The trust always attempts to learn important lessons from such inquiries, in addition to policy changes already made, will be reviewing the report's recommendations to determine whether any further action is necessary." http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk (23-11-2006) |
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A sex offender who went on to brutally murder a schoolgirl went unchecked following his release from prison because he changed his name, a report revealed today. Timothy Cuffy, 39, slaughtered 13-year-old Sandy Hadfield on July 21, 2002, after she called at his home in Usher Green, Lincoln, looking for her school friend. After plying her with vodka, Cuffy led the youngster to secluded woods where he tried to have sex with her before slitting her throat with a 12-inch Gurkha knife. Sandy's mother Jackie James-Clarke, 36, said she was "dumbfounded" that a sex offender was able to change his name and go unchecked. She said: "This man will continue to be a danger forever and I hope that he will never be released from prison. "I want to say thank you to the board for shedding some light on many of the questions I personally wanted answered. I am still dumbfounded and shocked. It is very disturbing to know that a Schedule 1 offender was able to cross from one county to another. "I think this needs to be addressed. It was a vital piece of information that could have prevented Sandy's death." Timothy Cuffy moved to the area earlier in the year, going under the name of Timothy Barnett. This, the report found, allowed him to hide his criminal record - specifically a conviction for indecent assault on a minor - from his new partner, her three children and authorities in Lincolnshire. An independent report into how Cuffy came to be in Lincolnshire without any supervision, following his early release from a six-year sentence for burglary and assault on a blind woman, was released today following a two-year investigation by the Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board. The report found that vital information about Cuffy was not shared between the Probation Service, the police and health authorities who all had contact with him prior to Sandy's murder. Cuffy, it was revealed, was a Schedule 1 offender following his conviction for indecently assaulting a girl under 16 in 1992. Because of the date of his conviction, he was not listed on the sex offenders' register allowing him, as he admitted to the investigative panel during interview, to "disappear". Despite this conviction when Cuffy - who also has a long-documented history of mental illness - was released from jail in October 2000 his licence period had expired, meaning that he was not under any statutory supervision by the Probation Service. He returned to his home town of Derby and registered with a GP who referred him to a psychiatrist. Again, despite his background and the fact that Cuffy told the psychiatrist he was a sex offender, no risk assessment was carried out and he was released back into the care of his GP. When he moved to Lincolnshire under the name Barnett the information was not passed on to the health authorities in the county and he was able to conceal his dark past. His background also went unchecked during two encounters with Lincolnshire Police and during contact with social services in relation to his partner's children because of his identity change. http://www.dailymail.co.uk |
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