One of the UK’s most notorious serial killers has been offered a COVID-19 shot to millions of the elderly and most vulnerable in Britain – an action condemned as a “national scandal”, according to a report.
Levi Bellfield – who killed three people, including 13-year-old Milly Dowler – received a letter offering him a vaccine for the next few weeks, even though the program has only just been rolled out to over-70s, The Sun said.
David Spencer, of the Center for Crime Prevention, called it “a national scandal.”
“The idea that criminals take precedence over law-abiding citizens says everything about the way our criminal justice system is currently run,” he told The Sun.
Former Home Secretary David Blunkett said it defied the belief “that prisoners, let alone a child murderer, should be given every opportunity for an early dose of vaccination.”
“I hope the Justice Minister will intervene immediately and find out why scarce vaccine doses are used in this way – and whose idea it was.”
Bellfield, 52, is serving two life terms, which means he will have to spend the rest of his life behind bars with the chance of parole.
Most ordinary Britons are still under strict lockdowns in their homes due to the raging pandemic, and some nursing home residents among the millions of vulnerable are still waiting for their shots.
The killer was offered in a letter sent to him at the maximum security Frankland Prison, Co Durham, where he reportedly groaned that he wouldn’t get it sooner because the pandemic could “ spread like wildfire, ” causing inmates “endangered,” said The Sun.
It was not clear which other inmates were given the same offer at the prison, which houses another infamous child murderer, Ian Huntley, as well as the terrorist who beheaded Private Lee Rigby in the street, the British newspaper said.
The former cop who caught Bellfield – and whose memoirs form the basis of the TV show “Manhunt” – called the offer of an early jab “awful.”
“Prison staff, police officers, teachers, shop assistants and delivery personnel – people who keep us going – should be prioritized,” former Detective Superintendent Colin Sutton told the British newspaper.
Following the outrage, a Justice Department source urged The Sun that “there is no vaccine priority for prisoners, and there will be.”
“No minister has seen this letter or believes that criminals should have better access to vaccines than the law-abiding majority,” the source said.
A ministry spokesman also insisted, “To suggest that inmates are treated differently from the general public is utter nonsense.”