Sex Offender Convicted of Double Murder After Police Failures
A serial sex offender has been convicted of murdering two women in London and raping a third, in a case that has exposed grave failures by the police and prosecutors. Reporting on the trial found that a series of blunders had left a man known to be dangerous free to kill. The convictions renewed questions about how the justice system handles known offenders.
The case joins a grim roll of killings in which women were failed by the very institutions meant to protect them, and it will intensify pressure on the police and Crown Prosecution Service over how they track and pursue dangerous men. Campaigners have long warned that missed opportunities, poor information-sharing and inadequate risk assessment allow serial offenders to escalate. The government has pledged to halve violence against women and girls, a promise this case makes look distant. A review of the failures is likely to follow. Watch whether the case prompts changes to how known offenders are monitored.