Out in two years: Fury as judges cut sentence on Baby P tormentor because he 'does not pose significant risk'

By Vanessa Allen for the Daily Mail
Updated: 04:37 EDT, 28 October 2009

Low risk: The Court of Appeal said Jason Owen was not likely to be a serious risk to the public in future

A paedophile jailed over the death of Baby Peter will walk free in less than two years after judges slashed his prison sentence yesterday.

Child protection campaigners accused judges of 'spitting on Baby P's grave' after the Appeal Court ruled that Jason Owen was not dangerous enough to be locked up indefinitely.

A panel of judges admitted that Owen, 37, was 'feckless and irresponsible', that he posed some risk of offending again and that he could be a danger to the public after his release.

But they still cut his jail sentence for his role in Baby P's horrific abuse and death to just six years because they did not believe he posed a ' significant' risk.

This means he will serve only three years - and he will be out on licence in less than two years.

Owen, who is a former crack cocaine addict and convicted arsonist, will be freed in August 2011, because of time he has already served behind bars.

Yesterday's ruling was greeted with fury by child protection groups, who warned that other children could be put at risk.

Michele Eliot, of the children's charity Kidscape, said: 'Three years is not enough. If there's even the slightest risk that this man could reoffend then he should not be allowed out of jail.

'The law is meant to protect the most vulnerable. It has failed Baby P and now it spits on his grave. What world do these judges live in? It is absolutely outrageous.'

Neglected: Baby P was found dead in his cot and had 50 separate injuries

Father-of-five Owen has received death threats in jail and his notoriety means his lawyers are expected to ask for him to be given a new identity on his release.

The move would land the taxpayer with an annual bill of hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Owen, a member of the fascist National Front movement, and his brother Steven Barker, 33, were both convicted of causing or allowing Baby Peter's death.

The toddler's mother Tracey Connelly, 28, pleaded guilty to the same offence.

The blond-haired boy was found dead in his blood-spattered cot in August 2007 after suffering more than 50 injuries including a snapped spine and eight broken ribs.

He was placed on a council child protection register eight months before his death and social workers, doctors and health visitors saw him 60 times, but failed to halt his abuse.

Owen denied attacking him but his trial heard that Peter's injuries had escalated after he moved into the boy's home in Haringey, North London, a month before the child's death.

An Old Bailey judge ordered that Owen should be jailed indefinitely to protect the public, meaning that he could only be released once a Parole Board was convinced he was no longer a danger.

Owen has previously been investigated for sex attacks on other children, although he was not charged with any child-sex offence.

He is not on the Sex Offenders' Register and his release in August 2011 raises the horrific prospect that he will be free to offend again.

Yesterday, in a judgment which astonished child protection experts, the Appeal Court judges warned they could not lock up every prisoner who posed a risk to the public. Indefinite sentences must be reserved only for the most serious offenders.

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Tracey Connelly, the mother of abused toddler Baby Peter, and her partner Steven Barker. Both were jailed over the youngster's death

They ruled that Owen's string of previous convictions and his sexual relationship with a 15-year- old girl at the time of Peter's death did not mean he posed a 'significant risk of serious harm' in the future.

The panel of three senior judges, led by Lord Justice Hughes, said he was not dangerous enough to be locked up indefinitely.

Lord Justice Hughes said Peter's death was 'deeply unpleasant' but added that there was no evidence that Owen had inflicted any of his injuries.

He said: 'The case against this applicant was ... a case of alleged neglect and failure to protect and not of any physical violence.'

Lord Justice Hughes has been tipped as a future Lord Chief Justice, despite criticism that he has reduced jail sentences in other high-profile appeal cases.

Earlier this year, he cut the sentence imposed at Sheffield Crown Court on a rapist who fathered 19 children with his two daughters.

The unnamed man - dubbed the 'British Fritzl' - was given 25 life sentences. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 19-and-a-half years but that was cut to 14-anda-half years when he appeared before the Court of Appeal.

Yesterday, Lord Justice Hughes said Owen's legal costs - believed to be more than £20,000 - would be met by the public purse.

Connelly dropped her appeal against her indefinite sentence at the last minute.

Barker was given a 12-year sentence for his 'major role' in Peter's death and a life sentence with a minimum ten-year tariff for raping a two-year-old girl. His appeal against the rape conviction is due to be heard by the Lord Chief Justice next month.