Crime: Law 'prevented Ministers revealing killer's location'

Ministers were unable to tell headmaster's widow Frances Lawrence where her husband's killer was living because it would have meant breaking the law, Downing Street said yesterday.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said that David Cameron was "very concerned" about Mrs Lawrence's distress over the recall to prison of Learco Chindamo, just months after his release from a life sentence.

Chindamo was put back behind bars after being arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of robbery, but he was released on bail yesterday.

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He had left jail under licence in July, 15 years after knifing Philip Lawrence at the gates of his west London school as the headmaster sought to defend a pupil.

Mrs Lawrence has voiced frustration that the authorities did not tell her which part of London Chindamo was living in, despite letters to Ministers requesting information.

Mr Cameron's spokesman yesterday said he had seen correspondence between Mrs Lawrence and the Ministry of Justice, in which officials explained why they could not release Chindamo's address.

He told reporters that the Prime Minister was "very concerned about the ongoing distress that she and her family are suffering".

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But he said the law gave the Ministry of Justice no choice but to withhold details of Chindamo's address: "It is not a question of giving more rights to criminals than to victims. It is an issue about compliance with the law.

"Providing further information would very likely have been unlawful and clearly the department can't do something that breaks the law.

"We are concerned about the rights of victims, but there is a position which is long-established, and departments don't go around breaking the law."

Mrs Lawrence has called for changes to the Human Rights Act, which prevented Chindamo's deportation to Italy where he was born.

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She said: "I think the Human Rights Act needs revision. It omits the notion of responsibility, without which we are less than human. I don't think this is a mere philosophical point."

Learco Chindamo, 30, was arrested on suspicion of mugging a young man after he used a cash machine in Camden, north London.

Detectives said they suspect a gang of people may have been threatening people who used the machine in the early hours.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said three men and a woman were suspected of mugging the victim, aged in his 20s, near a branch of Sainsbury's.

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The attack took place in Belmont Street at the junction with Chalk Farm Road, on Saturday, November 13, at 3.40am.

Investigators want to speak to anyone who saw the group acting suspiciously or others who may have been approached or threatened near the cash machine.