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Wendell Baker: Family did not know of 'dangerous' rapist release
Jun 5, 2020
A "dangerous" rapist was cleared for release from prison without relatives of his late victim being informed, BBC News has learned.
Wendell Baker was given a life sentence in 2013 for attacking 66-year-old Hazel Backwell and locking her in a cupboard.
The Parole Board announced last month Baker was "suitable for release" following a hearing in April.
But, Mrs Backwell's son said he only learned about the outcome from a newspaper reporter.
The Ministry of Justice has apologised to Mr Backwell for failing to contact him and has asked the Parole Board to reconsider the decision to free Baker, claiming it was "irrational" and not in line with the evidence.
He was convicted in 2013 at a second trial, made possible by changes to "double jeopardy" laws, having been acquitted in 1999 when a judge wrongly excluded vital DNA evidence.
Image copyright Metropolitan Police Image caption Hazel Backwell was left too afraid to live alone, following the attack
Mrs Backwell died in 2002, five years after Baker had broken into the pensioner's east London house where he beat and raped her and locked her in a cupboard.
Sentencing him to life imprisonment, Judge Peter Rook said Baker had carried out a brutal and vicious attack and was a "dangerous man" who would remain so for many years.
But by April, the 63-year-old had served the eight-and-a-half year minimum term of his sentence, including time spent on remand, so a parole panel held a telephone hearing to decide if he could be safely freed.
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