Myra Hindley's plea for release splits Catholics

BY Luc's' LETHEtRIDGE CATHOLICS WERE divided this week on whether Myra HindIcy should be released. Last week, in her first public statement for seven years, Ms Hindley urged people to "judge me as I am now and not as I was then." Myra Hindley, who is in the 29th year of a life sentence for the Moors Murders, has many prominent supporters campaigning for her release. Among these are Catholic Lord Longford who has regularly visited Hindley in jail for many years, and David Astor,
former editor of the Observer. Many believe that Hindley, a Catholic Herald reader, has repented of the murders and returned to the Faith of her childhood.
Mgr Peter Wilkinson, the Principal Catholic Chaplain to Prisons, told the Catholic Herald: "What goes on in a person's heart is known to them and them alone. From the point of view of the Church, we must give them the benefit of the doubt".
Supporters of Hindley have pointed to the fact that she has served double the years normally served by convicted murderers and that it is the notoriety of her case that has prevented her release.
"I feel very strongly that people shouldn't be tried by the media", said Mgr Wilkinson, "her notoriety has clipped the wings of justice." Morris Price of the Catholic penal reform charity, the Bourne Trust, said: "All life prisoners should know how long they are likely to be in prison". Josephine Robinson of the Association of Catholic Women said this week: "It is not so much a question of retribution as of revulsion."