WIFE-BEATER RELEASED EARLY DURING PRISON CRISIS KILLED GIRLFRIEND FIVE DAYS LATER
A man murdered his girlfriend after he was released early from prison to ease overcrowding.Andrew Mournian had already served five jail terms when he was jailed for 20 weeks for attacking Amanda Murphy.
But eight weeks into that sentence, he joined the roll-call of 11,000 other inmates given their freedom early.
And five days later he beat Miss Murphy so badly that the mother-of-two died in hospital of her injuries.
The case - which emerged yesterday - immediately triggered demands for the Government to scrap its early-release policy.
Critics last night questioned how many more early-release inmates had committed serious crimes.
After the fatal attack, Mournian, 36, dialled the emergency services and claimed Miss Murphy had fallen down the stairs.
The 48-year-old ex-teacher suffered fatal head injuries along with internal bleeding and fractures to the face and ribs.
Her mother, Elaine, struggled even to recognise her.
In 2005, Mournian served a 12-month sentence and was given an Asbo for attacking a former girlfriend with a beer bottle.
Miss Murphy, in their ten months together, complained to police five times about Mournian's violence.
In June, he was convicted of assault and criminal damage and given a 12-month supervision order.
A day later he attacked Miss Murphy again at their home in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and received the 20-week sentence.
Despite his past history, and with fatal results, he was deemed eligible for the early-release programme brought in by the Government in June after prison spaces ran out.
The scheme is to continue indefinitely while Justice Secretary Jack Straw scrambles to build more jails.
Critics say the scheme needs to be urgently revised to ensure that anyone convicted of violence against their partner is not automatically returned to the same address.
Last week, Mr Straw announced plans to build an extra 15,000 prison places by 2014, taking the total to 96,000.
But the Government's own expert, Lord Carter, said more than 100,000 places were needed by that time, which will mean thousands of criminals being electronically tagged instead of jailed.
Norman Brennan, of the Victims of Crime Trust, said Mournian, who admitted murder, was a 'ticking timebomb' who should still have been behind bars when he carried out the fatal attack.
