A RHUDDLAN MOTHER whose son was killed in a stabbing incident will take her campaign against knife crime to the top with a march on London later this month.
Cindy Burke, mother of 20-year-old Anthony Burke, killed near his home in Clos y Berllan, Rhuddlan, in December 2009, will join a small army of anti-knife crime campaigners on September 25 walking on Downing Street carrying banners calling for stricter life sentences for convicted killers.
News of the planned march by the group Life for Life, who have already staged protests walks in Rhuddlan and Rhyl, follows revelations that the teenager convicted of Anthony's posted photographs of himself from inside prison on social networking website Facebook. The images show Oliver Michael Taylor posing with fellow inmates and standing inside his cell.
His Facebook page also reveals details of his lifestyle in prison, gives a mobile phone number where he can be contacted and logs messages of support from his 647 listed friends. The Journal has learned that the pages have been removed.
Brenda Taylor, 64 of Rhuddlan, a long time friend of Mrs Burke and a fellow member of Life for Life, branded the Facebook posts “a disgrace”.
“From inside prison the family have been taunted with the Facebook incident. What will the prison service do to prevent this type of incident ever taking place again?”
“Cindy and other grieving families who have lost their loved ones remain angry because the law has become a laughing stock, some perpetrators are not bothered and as the case is with Oliver Taylor neither is he remorseful about taking Anthony’s life, some of perpetrators will be out of prison in less than three years and certainly less than 10 years, we need to change the law now.
“The crime of murder and the punishment is far from balanced. Serving time at her majesty’s pleasure is far from being regarded as any type of punishment. Oliver Taylor gained access to the Internet and caused stress and further upset to Cindy and her family who can hardly live a day without thinking about Anthony, the pain of his death is affecting all of us so much.”
A Prison Service spokesman said that the Ministry of Justice and Facebook were taking action to remove the profiles of serving prisoners who were in breach of Facebook rules by updating them from prison or having them updated by third parties from outside.
He said that prison staff worked hard to keep mobile phones and other contraband out, and detect any that are smuggled in by using body orifice scanning “BOSS” chairs, robust searches with specially trained dogs, and hand-held detectors.