One of the most notorious serial killers in the UK was presented with a COVID-19 jab in front of millions of British and defenseless Britain – a move that is reportedly condemned as a ‘national scandal’.
Levi Bellfield – who killed three people, including 13-year-old Milly Dowler – has received a letter in the coming weeks offering a vaccine, even though the program has just been introduced to those over 70.
David Spencer, of the Center for Crime Prevention, calls it “a national scandal.”
“The idea that criminals are prioritized over law-abiding citizens says it all about the way our criminal justice system is currently governed,” he told The Sun.
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett said it violated the belief “that prisoners, let alone a child killer, should be given any opportunity to vaccinate an early dose.”
“I hope that the Minister of Justice will step in immediately and find out why rare vaccine doses are used in this way and whose idea it was.”
Bellfield, 52, is serving two life terms, meaning he will have to spend the rest of his life behind bars with the chance of parole.
Most ordinary Britons are under strict lock in their homes due to the raging pandemic, and some residents in the care home are among the millions of vulnerable people still waiting for their shots.
The killer received the offer in a letter sent to him in the Frankland prison, Co Durham, with the highest security, where he allegedly moaned because he had not received it earlier because the pandemic could ‘like a wildfire’ spread ‘and’ endanger ‘prisoners, “The Sun said.
It was not clear which other inmates received the same offer in the jail, in which another notorious child killer, Ian Huntley, as well as the terrorist who beheaded soldier Lee Rigby in the street received.
The former policeman who captured Bellfield – and whose memories are the basis of the TV show “Manhunt”, calls the offer of an early jab “horrible.”
“Prison staff, police officers, teachers, shopkeepers and delivery managers – people who keep us going – need to be put first,” Colin Sutton, former detective chief inspector, told the British newspaper.
After the outrage, a Justice Department source at The Sun insisted that “there is no advanced vaccine priority, nor will there be.”
“No minister has seen this letter or thinks that criminals should have better access to vaccines than the law-abiding majority,” the source said.
A ministry spokesman also insisted: “Suggesting that prisoners be treated differently from the general public is completely nonsense.”