This week an answer arrived to a question which I had put to the Home Secretary admitting that over 50 people who had been sentenced to life imprisonment since 2000 have already been released back onto the streets. Nothing could better demonstrate the extent to which the public are being deceived over prison sentencing. Life should mean life, most people think it means ten years or more, but all too often it can mean less than five.

If our system of justice was working properly than Craig Sweeney, who had already been convicted of a serious sexual assault against a child and released from prison only to abduct another little girl would face spending the rest of his life behind bars. Instead he could be back on the streets within five years. Judges, parole boards and the Home Office are failing us.