The scars left by the murder of headmaster Philip Lawrence were deepened by the failure to deport his killer. Here, Jason M Hadden and Craig Barlow discuss the issues
A mid hysterical press coverage, on 21 August 2007 the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) held that the home secretary could not lawfully deport convicted murderer Learco Chindamo from the UK to Italy (IA/13107/2006).
That day on BBC News 24 the junior minister, Tony McNulty MP, informatively opined to viewers that by reaching that conclusion the AIT had misunderstood or misapplied the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998). Similarly, on 16 September 2007 the former home secretary, Dr John Reid, writing in the News of the World, suggested that public confidence in HRA 1998 had been damaged citing, among other examples, the Chindamo decision.
The reality, however, is that HRA 1998 has little to do with the outcome in Chindamo, the result was sadly inevitable and the culmination of a legislative and public policy fiasco that promises to repeat itself.
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