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ITN
'Human Rights Act is rotten'
'Human Rights Act is rotten'
The widow of murdered headmaster Philp Lawrence has called the Human Rights Act "rotten" after it was used to grant her husband's killer the right to stay in Britain after he is freed.Italian-born Learco Chindamo was 15 when he stabbed Mr Lawrence outside his school in December 1995 as he tried to protect a 13-year-old pupil. At a hearing yesterday his lawyers argued that deporting him to Italy would breach his human rights because he has lived in Britain since he was five.Asked if it was an abuse of Chindamo's human rights to deport him, Mr Lawrence's widow Frances said: "Yes I do, because the way in which I see the law operating at the moment, Chindamo has equal rights for instance to my son whose father he killed. That may sound bizarre but that's how it is."I think my main concern, and my anxiety and my horror, is in the whole framework of the law that seems to allow this and overrides common sense. In that someone (Chindamo) who actually put themselves beyond the law has destroyed one of the most fundamental tenets of the Human Rights Act, that is the right to life."She added: "Now suddenly he can pick and choose how he uses that law himself and how he wishes to live his life. So now justice is working in favour of the offender. It's not working in the interests of my family or anyone in my situation."I have always been a passionate advocate of the Human Rights Act but over the last year particularly I have seen there is something rotten in the core of it."Tory leader David Cameron has called for the Human Rights Act to be abolished, saying it should be replaced with a British Bill of Rights.Mr Cameron said: "The fact that the Human Rights Act means he cannot be deported flies in the face of common sense."It is a shining example of what is going wrong in our country."He is someone who has been found guilty of murder and should be deported back to his country... what about the rights of Mrs Lawrence or the victim?"Chindamo was 15 when he stabbed the headteacher outside St George's Roman Catholic School in Maida Vale, west London, in December 1995. Mr Lawrence, a 48-year-old father-of-four, had been trying to protect a 13-year-old pupil.He was given a 12-year minimum tariff and ordered to be detained indefinitely.© Independent Television News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.
ITN | August 21, 2007
