OPPOSITION politicians have joined forces to back the family of a father-of-three who are seeking answers to “legitimate and series questions” surrounding his murder.
The family of Craig McClelland insist there should be a inquiry into the circumstances of his death in July last year.
The 31-year-old was stabbed to death in his home town of Paisley by James Wright, who had previously been released from prison on an electronic tag, and at the time of killing was “unlawfully at large”.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has described his murder as “awful” and said she was not surprised the family was seeking answers.
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said on Friday that the Scottish Government will continue to do all it can to support the family to ensure that lessons are learned and improvements are made.
Police and prison inspectors both carried out reviews of systems following the incident, but McClelland’s family said these failed to explain fully why his killer was out on
the streets. Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr, his Labour counterpart Daniel Johnson and Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie all met McClelland’s partner Stacy and his father Michael.
Afterwards the three politicians sent a joint letter to Yousaf, calling for a full independent inquiry into the circumstances of the killing.
They told him: “We welcome your personal commitment to ensuring
lessons will be learned but it is impossible for this to be done until there is full transparency about what occurred. There is no such transparency at present.”
They added: “There must be clarity about the circumstances, in particular the grounds and process for releasing James Wright in the first place and how he was allowed to be unlawfully at large when he broke the rules and should have been returned to prison. Craig’s family deserve to know and we believe an inquiry would also undoubtedly be in the public’s interest.”
Home Detention Curfews (HDCs) have been used in Scotland since 2006. They allow prisoners to serve part of their sentence in the community while being monitored via an electronic tag.
Scottish Prison Service chief executive Colin McConnell told MSPs on Tuesday that a presumption against HDCs for those convicted of violent offences -–which has been brought in following the reviews – had reduced the number of prisoners freed in such conditions from 25 to 30 a week to just seven.
Yousaf said: “While nothing can take away the grief of the McClelland family, the Scottish Government will continue to do all it can to support the family to ensure that lessons are learned and improvements are made. I will reply to the letter as soon as possible, and will be meeting the family again shortly.
“After the publication of the independent inspectorate reports into the curfew scheme, I met with the family and advised that the Scottish Government, the Scottish Prison Service, and Police Scotland had accepted all of the reports’ recommendations, including considering making it a specific offence to remain ‘unlawfully at large’. Our focus is on ensuring that relevant make real and demonstrable progress.”
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