Vigilante warning as mother hits out at jail terms

HOME secretary Alan Johnson was warned Britain's streets will be patrolled by vigilantes looking to take the law into their own hands if tougher sentences are not imposed on murderers.

Lorraine Fraser – mother of 16-year-old Tyrone Clarke who was battered and stabbed to death in Leeds in 2004 – told the Home Secretary that as a lifelong Labour supporter she did not know how to vote on Thursday such was her anger at the potential for her son's killers to be released.

Liaquat Ali, now 22, who was one of four jailed for life in March 2005, is attempting to have his minimum tariff reduced from nine years and 47 days to just five years.

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Mrs Fraser took her opportunity to confront Mr Johnson during a BBC 5live debate on crime at Yorkshire County Cricket Club's Headingley stadium, Leeds, between him and shadow home secretary Chris Grayling for the Tories and Chris Huhne home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats.

"He is now appealing to a judge after serving five years to have his tariff reduced – you get five years for burglary," she said. "Now my son's life doesn't mean anything in this country and I am very angry.

"Your Labour Government has been in power for 13 years. We're talking about murderers – can you understand how angry people are in this country? If you don't deal with sentencing and justice what you are going to find on these streets are vigilantes taking the law into their own hands.

"This justice system stinks. I have been Labour all my life, I don't know here to go now."

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Responding, Mr Johnson said: "As far as sentencing is concerned we do lay that down in law. You put the case into the criminal justice service, the magistrates or judges and make the decisions based on all the circumstances, we can't interfere in that. The sentences are about reacting to how serious the crime is."

The maximum sentence for carrying a knife has been increased from two years to four under Labour. Since the change in 2007, however, just six offenders of 34,000 reported knife crimes have received the maximum tariff.

Mr Grayling said there needed to be a "zero-tolerance" approach to carrying a knife.

"It is about changing the sentencing guidelines," he said. "At the moment we have a situation where a third of people caught with a knife receive just a caution, at the very least they need to be in front of the courts.

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"If you tolerate a climate where people can carry a knife on a Friday and Saturday night then not surprisingly people will carry on possessing them."

The three MPs clashed over how spending cuts would affect policing in the UK.

Mr Huhne said the Lib Dems would create 3,000 new officers if elected with Mr Grayling promising to cut back on police paperwork. Mr Johnson said Labour were committed to current levels of police funding for the next three years but admitted he could give no guarantee on officer numbers due to shrinking budgets.

Mr Huhne said his party would seek to reduce the number of people on short-term sentences which he said were merely resulting in offenders attending a "crime college" when in jail. "

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"We need better ways of dealing with young offenders rather than banging them up," he said.

He also attacked the Tory's zero-tolerance approach to knife crime saying that imprisoning everyone would add a penny to the basic rate of income tax.

Elsewhere Mr Grayling said there was a need for greater regional collaboration between police forces.

JOHNSON ATTACKS 'MAD' LIB DEMS

Alan Johnson has torn into "barking mad" Liberal Democrat policies and claimed Nick Clegg's party is suffering a "slow puncture" as support ebbs away.

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Insisting he has "no criticisms" of Labour's election campaign, he also said it was "remarkable" that David Cameron had failed to win the election already given problems the country has been through and accused the Tories of feeling an "entitlement" to win.

The Home Secretary, fighting for re-election in Hull West and Hessle, claimed: "Since the first debate there's been a slow puncture for the Lib Dems –the air is definitely coming out."

Mr Johnson branded the Lib Dems "downright dangerous" on security.

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