Search for
Search for
Search forA crime to wipe the slate clean?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 07:00
Ex-con Matthew Bell has spent the past 18 months trying to turn his life around since he left Swansea Prison.
It looked like the dad-of-two had finally paid his dues when his window cleaning business landed a contract by royal appointment earlier this year.
The windows of Prince Charles and Camilla's West Wales holiday home needed a clean, and Mr Bell got the lucrative job.
But any feeling of elation was short-lived.
When details about the 35-year-old's run-in with the law came to light, he was promptly given his marching orders.
"They told me I did a brilliant job, yet now they don't want me there," he said.
"It's one hell of a disappointment."
So, should convicted criminals be forgiven and given another chance?
Or is it only fair they should be treated with suspicion?
Every year the National Probation Services supervises around 175,000 offenders in England and Wales.
Approximately 70 per cent end up receiving community sentences, while the remainder wind up in jail.
While the service says it aims to protect the public, it also aims to cut re-offending through the rehabilitation of offenders.
One such person who has tried to turn over a new leaf is 19-year-old Matthew Roberts, of Portmead.
He began selling drugs after dropping out of school at the age of 15 with no qualifications.
In July 2007, he was jailed for supplying class A drugs.
But following his release in February, he enrolled on to the Prince's Trust Cymru Team programme. The 12-week course teaches life and vocational skills as well as helping keep youngsters on the straight and narrow.
Since then, Matthew has turned his back on his old ways and has gone on to find work as a butcher in Swansea.
His efforts haven't gone unnoticed — earlier this month he won the Prince's Trust Cymru's Young Achiever of the Year award.
He said: "Before I did the Team programme, I just hung about the streets, smoked weed and committed a lot of petty theft.
"I didn't know what I was doing.
"My life is so different now — I'm a different person."
However, it will be some time before the teenager will officially have the slate wiped clean.
Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, a prison sentence between six months and two and a half years is not spent until a decade after conviction.
Getting forgiveness is an altogether is a tricker prospect — especially when someone has died.
Earlier this year, Victim Support Cymru caused controversy after it announced a project giving crime victims the opportunity to come in to contact with the perpetrators.
The process, dubbed restorative justice, can take a number of forms including a letter, a telephone call, or even a face-to-face meeting.
Victim Support Cymru said restorative justice could help victims get closure and move on.
But the plan horrified people such as Eira McKibbin.
Her 40-year-old son Stuart died after his home was set on fire by his ex-girlfriend, Amanda Hewitt.
Mrs McKibbin, of Elkington Park, Burry Port, said: "It was bad enough seeing the girl who killed my son in court.
"I'll never get over what happened.
"Some people are born evil.
"I'd like to ask the do-gooders who thought of this (scheme) whether they have been through what I have."
Even with much lesser offences, forgiving a criminal can be difficult.
Something that window cleaner Matthew Bell knows all too well.
He turned to burglary and was caught red-handed five years ago after breaking into a holiday home in the Welsh countryside.
The police stopped his car on his way home from the night raid. Bell admitted burglary and Llanelli magistrates sentenced him to nine months behind bars.
But he vowed to leave that in the past and set up his own window cleaning firm, Inside Out.
And a brighter future looked to be on the horizon when the prince's deputy master of the household, Andrew Farquharson, asked him to work on Charles's £1.3 million, 192-acre Llwynywormod estate.
He was given unprecedented access to the prince's bedroom and bathroom, and even chatted with Camilla's sister.
"It was a big job because the place had just been done up, and paint had dried on all the windows, which were made of bullet-proof glass," he said.
"I had to bring in two people to help. We were there for two days and I charged £1,200.
"I usually tell my clients I have a conviction for burglary, but I decided to keep quiet about it this time."
But when Mr Bell spoke candidly to the press about his past, a return date at the Royal residence did not materialise.
"I called Mr Farquharson and left messages on his phone. Eventually I got through and he told me I couldn't come back," added Mr Bell.
A Royal spokesman insisted the appointment was only a one-off.
Mr Bell said his 300 clients were wary when his past was revealed, but the vast majority had been supportive.
"The Prince's Trust helps thousands of people who have criminal pasts similar to mine," he added.
"I'm just gutted they haven't given me the second chance I deserve."
Comment on this story