ANN WIDDECOMBE SAYS SHE IS ‘VERY COMFORTABLE’ WITH A RETURN TO THE DEATH PENALTY

REFORM UK spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe has said she is “very comfortable” with reintroducing the death penalty in the UK after the victim of the UK’s longest miscarriage of justice was released from prison.

Speaking on GB News, Ann Widdecombe said: “My view has always been that if you do restore death penalty, and I am in favour of that, you need to say that for the death penalty to be enacted, there must be direct evidence, either clear and irrefutable DNA evidence, or somebody being caught in the act, or somebody like some of the terrorists having done it and then boasted about it afterwards.

“If you have that then you have a safeguard. What you have here, and DNA was in its infancy in 1986, it was the first year it was ever used and convicted Colin Pitchfork.

“It wasn’t used in this case and now it is DNA which has exonerated him.

“What is more is all the evidence was circumstantial. People had seen him coming from a fire, and the fire in question concerned the dead girl’s clothes.

“It was circumstantial. He’d been seen in that area. There was nothing direct at all, except that he did confess, and then withdrew the confession and then confessed again and then withdrew it.

“But that aside, there was no direct evidence. I’m very comfortable with having the death penalty back.

“The parameters are very clear. When we did have the death penalty, not every murderer was executed. There were very clear lines on what constituted capital murder and what constituted other murder, very clear lines indeed.

“Obviously it would be very difficult; it always is difficult telling the relatives. In this case, a man has been in jail who isn’t guilty. The man who is guilty may well still be wandering around.”