BBC One
Dangerous, violent and living in the community.
Across the country around 50,000 of the most dangerous convicted sexual and violent offenders are managed by a scheme called MAPPA. Under it, the Police, Probation Service and other agencies manage offenders to protect the public from harm.
This film, which transmitted to coincide with an official government report on MAPPA, examines how effective the scheme is, and why the published figures don’t tell the full story.
Using investigative journalism techniques the film explains that three quarters of MAPPA offenders aren’t counted when it comes to their reoffending rates, revealing hundreds of serious further offences which would otherwise remain unreported.
With access to West Mercia Police’s Public Protection Unit, this film includes exclusive filming opportunities as police visit a high-risk sex offender, while officers reveal the difficulties of managing devious and highly intelligent criminals.
Telling the stories of two serious offenders, we interview the parents of Laurent Bonomo, the French student murdered in his London flat along with his friend Gabriele Ferez, by a known violent offender, and the husband of Sarah Merritt – murdered by a convicted sex offender as she went about her daily work.
The first programme for BBC Panorama to be delivered in HD, Freed to Offend Again is a compelling account of how Britain’s most dangerous criminals are monitored on their release.