Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has backed a Newcastle mum's campaign to keep her son's killer behind bars. Seven-year-old Archie York died in an explosion caused by an illegal drugs lab operating in the flat beneath his family home in Benwell in 2024.
Mum's fight against early release
Mum Katherine Errington has been fighting to ensure that the man responsible for his death is not released earlier from his jail sentence, amid a national controversy surrounding the Government's plans to free up more space in overcrowded prisons. Drug dealer Reece Galbraith was handed a 14-year sentence after admitting to manslaughter in connection with the Violet Close blast.
Katherine was told recently that Galbraith could be among the offenders released after serving just half of his sentence, rather than the original two-thirds, due to changes under the Sentencing Act. She has urged Andy Burnham to ensure that Galbraith, along with other criminals responsible for the death of children, are not eligible for early release.
Badenoch's letter of support
She wrote to Mrs Badenoch earlier this month to tell her Archie's story and said that grieving families like hers “should not have to endure the additional pain and anxiety of seeing those responsible released before they have served the sentence the courts deemed appropriate”. The opposition leader, who last week urged Mr Burnham to go further in exempting more serious offenders from early release, has now backed Katherine's call.
In a letter seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mrs Badenoch wrote: “What happened to your son was appalling. Archie should have had his whole life ahead of him, and nothing can undo what was taken from him or the devastation inflicted on your family.”
She added: “You are absolutely right that serious crimes must carry serious consequences. When a court passes a sentence following the loss of an innocent life, victims and their families should not then have to watch that sentence being substantially shortened because the Government has failed to provide enough prison capacity.”
Campaign and government response
More than 3,000 people have now signed a petition Katherine launched, which calls on the Government to exclude those convicted of manslaughter or of serious child abuse or neglect offences from eligibility for early release. That also backs the campaign to keep Dana Carr, the mum of murdered County Durham toddler Maya Chappell, from being released early.
Mr Burnham had ordered a review into the Sentencing Act changes and announced last week that rapists, child sex offenders and those guilty of grooming gang offences would be ineligible. However, the PM has since promised further action and said he had instructed justice secretary Alex Norris to fast-track plans to create more headroom within the prison system.
Those plans, expected to be presented to Parliament in September, will include increasing the rate of removal of foreign national offenders from prisons to their country of origin and having male offenders housed in cells currently reserved for female prisoners. The Government has come under heavy pressure over the PC Andrew Harper case. He was fatally injured in 2019 when he became caught in a strap attached to the back of a car and was dragged down a country road in Berkshire as his killers fled the scene of a quad bike theft.
Two of his three killers, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole, are currently set to be released halfway through their 13-year manslaughter sentences next year. Mr Burnham said this week that he “wouldn't forgive myself” if he did not seek to lessen the “anguish” of PC Harper's family.
The Makerfield MP wrote on Tuesday: “I have not accepted that it is impossible to do more. As a result, I have asked the Justice Secretary to fast-track the development of a plan for presentation to Parliament early next month to create more headroom within the prison system.”
