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Registered
Learco Chindamo
Philip Lawrence
Outrage
THE killer of headmaster Philip Lawrence has been let out of jail early --despite an emotional warning it would destroy his victim's family twice.
Former teenage gangster Learco Chindamo, now 25, was allowed an unsupervised day outing from Ford Open Prison in West Sussex.
In 1996 he was sentenced to life with the recommendation that he serve at least 12 years for stabbing Mr Lawrence to death outside his own school.
When he appealed for a shorter minimum tariff in 2001, Mr Lawrence's w
idow Frances pleaded with a top judge NOT to free him any earlier.
In an emotional letter to then Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf, Frances wrote: Any lessening of his recommended sentence will be to destroy my fa
mily twice over.
Lord Woolf did reject Chindamo's appeal --yet last week, less than ten years after his conviction, the killer was given permission for his outing.
Police and probation officials met and decided to allow him out of jail for a day without any escort.
He strolled out of the prison last Saturday and spent 11 hours at large.
He went up to London to meet family and friends, who treated him to a slap-up meal.
On his way back to Ford the car he was a passenger in was stopped by police.
Cops had been tailing the car, being driven by his brother Rocco, on the M25.
They were astonished to find Chindamo inside --and even more amazed when he produced the licence authorising him to be out for the day.
Mrs Lawrence was consulted about Chindamo's release and was told that it was part of his rehab programme.
The killer had been banned from going anywhere near her home in West London or to Brighton, where her four children are at college.
From t
he end of next month Chindamo will be allowed to stay out of prison overnight.
At the beginning of 2008 he will be assessed for parole and ultimate release.
Last night his trip to London triggered a storm of protest.
An officer at Ford Prison said: There is no way he should have been allowed out for the day without any supervision. He has shown no signs of remorse at all.
Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: At Chindamo's trial the judge deemed that he would be a danger to society for a long time to come. If any villain is to be allowed out of prison on licence, he should be last.
Mr Lawrence died in December 1995, when Triad-style thug Chindamo,
then 15, knifed him through the heart as the head broke up a fight.
Last night the Prison Service told The Sun: Resettlement day releases are predominantly used to maintain and develop prisoners' contact with their families and friends and to prepare them for their eventual release.
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