'Media scrutiny' increases risk after release

The killer of head teacher Philip Lawrence was considered a "continuing risk to the public" according to Home Office documents handed to an immigration tribunal.

A letter outlining the reasons for deporting Learco Chindamo said it was "unlikely" he would re-offend, but warns that he should be subject to the highest level of protection arrangements because of the likely media attention on his case.

The letter - submitted to the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, which on Monday ruled that Chindamo could not be deported to Italy if he is released from a life sentence for Mr Lawrence's murder - argued "that risk factors might increase because of media and public scrutiny" and warned that he would "need to be excluded from certain parts of the country".

The tribunal ruled on Monday that Chindamo, 26, could not be deported to Italy in part because it would breach his right to a family life, sparking renewed fury about the operation of the Human Rights Act.

Chindamo is serving a life sentence for stabbing Mr Lawrence to death outside his school in Maida Vale, west London, in 1995. He will be eligible to apply for parole from next year.

Details of the letter emerged as the dispute over the Human Rights Act sparked by the case intensified. The verdict of the tribunal was furiously condemned by the widow of Mr Lawrence. In an emotional interview, Frances Lawrence attacked human rights legislation as working in the interests of her husband's killer.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "In Article 2 of the Human Rights Act my husband had the right to life. Chindamo destroyed that right, yet he has used the legal process to enable him to live as described in Article 8. The Act works in his best interest. It is ill-equipped to work in my family or for people in my situation."

Jack Straw, the Secretary of State for Justice, insisted the Government would "very vigorously" appeal against the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal's decision and offered to meet Mr Lawrence's wife.

The Tories' leader, David Cameron, called for the Act to be scrapped.

Interesting? Click here to explore further