Philip Lawrence murder: The case for redemption?

Philip Lawrence was a widely respected headmaster. Learco Chindamo was a truant, a violent teenager who found acceptance among a gang of self-styled Triads who roamed the arcades and burger bars of west London. And on 8 December 1995 he was responsible for the brutal murder of Mr Lawrence, who had intervened in a scuffle outside his school gates.

The appalling wanton brutality of that act has earned Chindamo notoriety for the rest of his days. But how those days are spent, and where they are spent, is now the subject of an impassioned, complicated and vital debate about British notions of crime, punishment, and rehabilitation. Upon his release (he is eligible for parole next year), the Home Office wants him to be deported to Italy, a country he has not lived in since he was five. But a court has ruled that this would breach European law.

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The decision provoked outrage among the Lawrence family, ministers and the Conservative Party, whose leader, David Cameron, described the case as "a glaring example of what is going wrong in our country".

But should Learco Chindamo be given a second chance in British society?

Prison reports show that the 26-year-old Londoner has made excellent progress and in many ways has become a model example ofcustodial rehabilitation. Those who have worked with him during his sentence regard him as a model prisoner who is very unlikely to re-offend.

His solicitor, Nigel Leskin, said last night: "He is a genuinely reformed person and one of the best prisoners the prison has had. He knows he made a terrible mistake and regrets it very much."

Such comments from the young man's chief advocate are perhaps to be expected. But there is also hard evidence that Chindamo has already begun to make a contribution to society by helping other prisoners.

"He tells other youths that they should learn from his mistakes and have the strength to not be so stupid. He does as much as he can in prison but his progress has been hampered by moving him to a closed prison," says Mr Leskin.

Should he be released, Chindamo has said he wants to continue this mentoring work with members of inner-city gangs. At a time when the headlines are dominated by references to "anarchy" and "knife crime", such a commitment, if genuine, could be invaluable.

Then there are Chindamo's apparent regrets in relation to his appalling crime. He has expressed on many occasions a desire to write to the Lawrence family to express his deep regret for what he did. Each time he tried to put pen to paper he was defeated by his profound illiteracy.

Today Chindamo has conquered his illiteracy and passed four GCSEs, including maths and English.

He has now written a letter to Mrs Lawrence setting out his feelings. It is a letter he has never sent. His family says there are complex reasons for this.

According to Mr Leskin: "The prison authorities told him it was a bad idea. But in the end he didn't want to send it either. Not because he doesn't want Mrs Lawrence to know of his regret but because he didn't want her to think he was trying to help himself. Nor did he want the letter to be interpreted by the media as a way of trying to influence the Parole Board". He now intends to post his letter to the Lawrence family.

Deportation, say opponents of that course of action, could be the catalyst for a new downward spiral. Should he be deported to Italy, where he does not speak the language and has no known family, he has a much greater chance of returning to violence.

Justice, the human rights group, said last night that the fairest thing to do was for the Government to drop its opposition to Chindamo's release in this country. Dr Eric Metcalfe, its director of human rights policy, said: "We should not confuse deportation with justice. Nor should we export unrehabilitated prisoners to other EU countries.

"Mr Chindamo is rightly serving a life sentence for the murder of Mr Lawrence. If he is ever released from prison, though, the best prospects for his rehabilitation are in the country he has lived in since childhood, not in a country he doesn't speak the language of."

Deportation, say his supporters, would also further destabilise his life. Learco Chindamo was born in Italy to an Italian father and a Filipino mother in 1981. When he was five his mother, who had by this time become separated from his father, decided to move the family to Britain. They settled in Maida Vale, west London, where Mrs Chindamo struggled to bring up Learco and his two brothers.

Chindamo drifted in and out of school until he fell in with a group of youths who modelled themselves on the violent Triad gangs. By the time he was 15 he had established himself as an influential member of the juvenile Wo-Sing-Wo gang, roaming the shopping centres of west London.

The brutal killing that eventually followed, of a headmaster outside his own school, not only deprived a family of a loving father and devoted husband but also shocked a nation.

Frances Lawrence's admirable campaigning against violent crime and for better support for children from disadvantaged backgrounds has ensured that her husband's death has rarely been out of the news. Now Chindamo is back in the headlines, most of them expressing outrage at the possibility that he could remain in Britain. Is it too much to hope for, or aspire to, his full rehabilitation in the country where he caused such pain and grief?