MONMOUTH MP David Davies has written to the Ministry of Justice asking for an investigation after a convicted murderer who absconded from an open prison in Monmouthshire in 2006 went on to kill again.
David Cook was sentenced to life in prison at Reading Crown Court in 1988 for strangling a Sunday school teacher with a dressing gown cord in a robbery.
In June 2006, he failed to return to HMP Prescoed, near Usk, after being released on temporary licence. He spent more than a week on the run before handing himself in and was sentenced to seven days imprisonment for escaping.
Cook was released back into the community in 2009 on life licence under the probation service.
Earlier this month, he was jailed for a second life term at Newport Crown Court after being found guilty of murdering his elderly neighbour in Rhymney.
Mr Davies said it was “vitally important” to know who assessed Cook as being safe to release on licence and subsequently monitored him.
A serious case review has been ordered by Wales Probation Trust.
“To my mind it is an absolute disgrace how a convicted murderer was freed from jail only three years after absconding from an open prison,” said Mr Davies.
“Prisoners held at open prisons are supposed to be rigorously risk assessed and it beggars belief that Cook was placed at Prescoed in the first place.
“Even more difficult to understand is that he was spent just seven extra days behind bars for absconding.
“Serious questions must be asked as to the amount of extra time put on his sentence as a result of him escaping and who assessed this man as being safe before he was let loose and allowed to kill again. I will be calling on the Ministry of Justice to launch an immediate investigation.”