One of Britain’s most notorious serial killers has been hit by COVID-19 in front of millions of elderly and the most vulnerable in Britain – a move condemned as a “national scandal”, according to a report.
Levi Bellfield – who killed three people, including 13-year-old Milly Dowler – received a letter offering a vaccine in the coming weeks, even though the program has just been launched for those over 70, said The Sun.
David Spencer of the Center for Crime Prevention called it a “national scandal.”
“The notion of prioritizing criminals over law-abiding citizens says it all about how our criminal justice system is run at the moment,” he told The Sun.
Former Interior Minister David Blunkett said he had defied the belief that “prisoners, let alone a criminal killer, should be given every opportunity for an early dose of vaccine.”
“I hope that the Secretary of Justice will intervene immediately and find out why rare doses of vaccine are used in this way – and whose idea it was.”
Bellfield, 52, is serving two full terms of life, which means he has to spend the rest of his life behind bars with the chance of parole.
Most ordinary Britons remain under strict deadlock in their homes due to the raging pandemic, with some nursing home residents among the millions of vulnerable people still waiting for their shots.
The killer received the offer in a letter sent to him at Frankland High Security Prison, Co Durham, where he allegedly lamented that he had not received it earlier because the pandemic “can spread like wildfire”, putting prisoners in danger, “said The Sun.
It was not clear what other detainees received the same offer in prison, which houses another notorious murderer, Ian Huntley, as well as the terrorist who beheaded Private Lee Rigby on the street, according to the British newspaper.
The former police officer who caught Bellfield – and whose memoirs are the basis of the TV show “Manhunt” – called the offer of an early jab “terrible”.
“Prison staff, police officers, teachers, store workers and delivery drivers – people who keep us moving – should have priority,” former Chief Detective Inspector Colin Sutton told the UK newspaper.
After the uprising, a source in the Ministry of Justice insisted to The Sun that “there is no vaccination priority for detainees and there will not be”.
“No minister has seen this letter or believes that criminals should have better access to vaccines than the majority who abide by the law,” the source said.
A ministry spokesman also insisted, “To suggest that prisoners are treated differently from the general public is complete nonsense.”