Harry Roberts in 2009.
A British man convicted of killing three policemen nearly 50 years ago in “the most heinous crime for a generation” is to be released from prison, officials said yesterday.
The news that 78-year-old Harry Roberts, jailed for the murder of three police officers in 1966, was being freed was sharply condemned by London Mayor Boris Johnson and the body representing the capital’s rank-and-file officers.
Roberts and two accomplices were sitting in a van in west London preparing for an armed robbery when they were approached by three unarmed policemen, who they shot dead.
Roberts was jailed for life with a 30-year minimum, although the judge at the time said he did not believe he would ever be released and called it “the most heinous crime for a generation”.
Johnson said that Londoners would be “absolutely sickened” by the decision to release Roberts, while the Metropolitan Police Federation called the move “scandalous, hurtful and abhorrent”.
No exact date for his release has been revealed but it is expected to take place shortly.
Britain’s parliament is expected to pass a law next year which would mean a whole lifetime in prison for offenders who kill police officers.
Theresa May waded into the row over the freeing of Harry Roberts by declaring that life should mean life for police killers.
The home secretary said she “strongly” believed that police killers should be kept behind bars.
The Metropolitan Police Federation has described the decision as a “betrayal of policing” by the judicial system.
It added that Roberts’ planned release - approved on the grounds that he is no longer a serious threat to the public - was a “scandalous, hurtful and abhorrent decision which opens the door even further for those who have scant regard for law and order”.
May said that although the decision to release Roberts was outside her control she was changing the law to ensure that future police killers would remain behind bars for the rest of their lives.
She declared: “Policemen and women go out to work every day knowing that they might face great danger and they carry out their duties with great courage.
“I strongly believe that anyone who murders a police officer belongs behind bars – and behind bars for life. That is why I have made sure the government will change the law so life will mean life for anyone who murders a police officer.”
The three officers, detective sergeant Christopher Head, 30, detective constable David Wombwell, 25, and police constable Geoffrey Fox, 41, were shot dead without warning on August 12, 1966 in a murder that shocked Britain.
Today John Tully, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, condemned the decision as “scandalous, hurtful and abhorrent” and said Roberts should never be released. He added: “This decision must be shocking for the relatives of the officers who are still alive, it must bring the whole thing back to life for them.”
Roberts himself gave a rare interview in 2010 and said he wanted to put the past behind him. He said: “I don’t want to be Harry Roberts the cop-killer. The media talk as if the shootings were yesterday. I’m not that person any more.”
The ministry of justice said: “The release of life-sentence prisoners is directed by the independent parole board once they are satisfied they can be safely managed in the community.”
