One of the UK’s most famous serial killers has been offered a COVID-19 blow in front of millions of elderly and most vulnerable British people, an action condemned as a “national scandal”, according to a report.
Levi Bellfield, who killed three people, including 13-year-old Milly Dowler, received a letter offering him a vaccine in the coming weeks, though the program has only been released to people over 70, he said. The Sun.
David Spencer, of the Center for Crime Prevention, called it a “national scandal.”
“The notion of prioritizing criminals over law-abiding citizens says everything to do with the functioning of our criminal justice system right now,” he told The Sun.
Former Interior Minister David Blunkett said he challenged the belief that “prisoners, let alone a child killer, should be given any opportunity to get an early vaccine.”
“I hope the Secretary of Justice will intervene immediately and find out why few doses of vaccine are being deployed in this way and who the idea was.”
Bellfield, 52, is serving two periods of his entire life, meaning he has to spend the rest of his life behind bars with the possibility of parole.
Most regular Britons remain strictly locked up at home due to the rapid pandemic, and some care home residents among the millions of vulnerable people still waiting for their shots.
The killer received the offer in a letter he sent to Frankland Prison for maximum security, in Co Durham, where he would have regretted that it would not be obtained sooner because the pandemic “can spread like wildfire”, putting the prisoners “in danger,” The Sun said.
It was unclear which other prisoners got the same offer in prison, which houses another child killer, Ian Huntley, as well as the terrorist who beheaded Private Lee Rigby on the street, according to the British newspaper.
The former police officer who caught Bellfield and whose memoirs are the basis of the TV show “Manhunt” – called the offer of a first punch offensive.
“Prison staff, police officers, teachers, shop workers and delivery drivers (people who keep us going) should be prioritized,” the former chief inspector told the UK newspaper of Detective Colin Sutton.
Following the outrage, a Justice Ministry source insisted to The Sun that “there is no vaccine priority for prisoners, nor will there be.”
“No minister has seen this letter nor does he believe criminals should get better access to vaccines than most law-abiding people,” the source said.
A ministry spokesman also insisted: “Suggesting that prisoners be treated differently from the general public is total nonsense.”