Revealed: Home Office tried to gag Chindamo's character witnesses

The Home Office tried to suppress evidence that revealed Philip Lawrence's killer was a model prisoner who had made such excellent progress that he was now suitable for release into the community.

Two senior prison officers, including the deputy governor of Ford open prison in West Sussex, were banned from expressing any opinion on the rehabilitation of 26-year-old Learco Chindamo, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of the west London headmaster in 1995, it has been alleged.

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Chindamo's lawyers claim that both key witnesses were also prevented from attending the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal which this week ruled Chindamo could not be deported to Italy.

The intervention, which happened at the beginning of the year, was portrayed yesterday as a deliberate ploy to try to skew the evidence in favour of the Home Office, which had told Mr Lawrence's widow that Chindamo would be sent back to Italy upon his release.

Glyn Hughes, the deputy governor of Ford, and an unnamed female officer who has worked closely with Chindamo, had told his solicitor in January they wished to help the court understand the progress the prisoner was making. Their testimony directly countered the Home Office suggestion that Chindamo, due to be considered for release next year, still represented a serious and present threat to the public.

The female officer had helped to prepare Chindamo for day release during his time at Ford.

But the Home Office had argued that the notoriety of Philip Lawrence's murder and Chindamo's association with it, meant it would be difficult to release him back into the community.

Nigel Leskin, Chindamo's solicitor, described the action as a "cynical attempt" to influence the tribunal.

In the end, it took the intervention of the governor of Ford open prison before the officers were allowed to give their opinion in the case and tell the court how well they thought Chindamo had responded to rehabilitation during his sentence. But the Home Office refused to let either of the witnesses attend the tribunal in person, although both officers had made it clear they were prepared to do so in their own time.

"I can only assume that it was intended as an obstruction to the defence putting its case properly. This was a very serious issue and one on which the tribunal should have been able to hear directly from the witnesses who knew most about my client's progress in prison," said Mr Leskin. "It would have allowed both sides to cross-examine them and so create a fairer impression of what they had to say."

The judgment in the tribunal shows that Mr Hughes's evidence, contained in a written statement to the tribunal, was crucial in determining the risk posed by Chindamo.

Senior immigration Judge Allen said in the judgment: "Of particular significance was what was said by Mr Hughes, the deputy governor of Ford Prison, in his letter to the appellant's solicitors of 8 March 2007. He had been in the Prison Service for 30 years and had dealt with numerous offences. There were only a small minority who had demonstrated a change for the better and gone on to lead lawful and purposeful lives and he strongly believed that the appellant was a changed person who had realised the gravity of his index offence and if given a chance would prove himself worthy of trust. All the reports on him had been very positive and the parole board had been very impressed."

The Home Office declined to comment on the allegation that it had tried to mislead the tribunal by suppressing evidence. A spokeswoman said the Government intended to appeal against the tribunal ruling so that Chindamo could be deported to Italy, where he was born. Yesterday, the Tory party continued to argue that the case showed it was time to abolish the Human Rights Act.

The Conservative leader David Cameron said after the ruling: "The fact that the murderer of Philip Lawrence cannot be deported flies in the face of common sense. It is a glaring example of what is going wrong in our country. What about the rights of Mrs Lawrence? We ought to abolish the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights that we can write ourselves - that sets out clearly our rights and responsibilities."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said Mr Cameron had misunderstood the Human Rights Act. "This case is about European Union law, not the Human Rights Act. It is wrong for David Cameron to suggest otherwise."

She called on Mr Cameron to "correct his error and apologise to Mrs Lawrence for letting her think all it takes is a tweak to the Human Rights Act for her husband's killer to be deported to Italy".

The Labour MP Andrew Dismore, who chairs the Joint Committee on Human Rights, said the Human Rights Act had become a "convenient scapegoat" in the case, which was about an issue of European law.

Crime and punishment

December 1995 - Philip Lawrence, headmaster of St George's Catholic School, west London, is murdered by 15-year-old Learco Chindamo.

1996 - Chindamo sentenced to life imprisonment.

2001 - Lord Woolf, the former Lord Chief Justice, asks the Home Secretary to impose a tariff, minimum of 12 years in prison before parole.

2005 - Moved to Ford open prison in preparation for his release on licence.

2006 - Moved from Ford open prison to a closed prison near Redditch after scandal in which foreign prisoners had been released without consideration for deportation. Home Office puts Chindamo on deportation list.

2007 - Asylum and Immigration Tribunal rules that the Government cannot deport Chindamo back to Italy.

2008 - Chindamo will be eligible for consideration for release by the parole board.

The case is now to go before an appeal court in which the Government will try to overturn the tribunal decision and send Chindamo back to Italy.