Burglar kills mother after being freed from jail on an ASBO

Burglar Gary Chester-Nash
13 April 2012

A burglar with an appalling criminal record who kept a "rape kit" murdered a mother-of-two days after being freed from jail with an Asbo.

Gary Chester-Nash, 28, was known to be a "predatory and dangerous" person who fantasised about committing violent acts and was under the supervision of probation officers.

He was obsessed with knives and wrote a chilling account of how he planned to rape a woman. And yesterday there was outrage that despite his history, Chester-Nash was not kept behind bars.

Instead he was given a nationwide Asbo banning him from entering bars and nightclubs across the country.

As he began a life sentence for the brutal murder of 59-year-old Jean Bowditch there were widespread calls for an inquiry after it emerged the killer had regularly shown himself to be a serious danger to the public.

Before he killed Mrs Bowditch, he:

- was convicted of 32 crimes, including firearms offences and frequent possession of knives

- owned a "rapist's kit" containing a knife, a rope and a journal detailing grotesque violent fantasies

- roamed the grounds of Cambridge University, intimidating female students

- admitted to a probation officer that he was capable of rape

- was suspected of being involved in a series of random "slasher" knife attacks

Chester-Nash's ongoing Asbo - which he received after harassing female students in Cambridge - was criticised yesterday as too lenient a punishment for a man with such a disturbing past.

And despite his continued criminal behaviour, Chester-Nash was freed after serving half of a four month sentence for burglary and possessing an offensive weapon - just five days before he killed Mrs Bowditch.

He stabbed her nine times after he broke into a house where she was working as a cleaner.

The case is expected to re-fuel debate over what many consider to be "soft sentences" handed out by British judges.

A victim of a separate burglary by the killer said she was astonished the knife obsessive had been allowed out of jail at all.

Kerry Bytheway, 31, said she was relieved she had not been at home when her house in Cornwall was broken into by the killer the day before the murder.

Speaking before the trial, the architectural technician criticised the criminal justice system, saying: "Surely the authorities had a responsibility to recognise that this is a man who will go on to commit a serious offence.

"It is outrageous that this man was given so much freedom. When you take into consideration his past history it is clear that he was a time bomb waiting to go off.

"He had admitted to his probation officer that he fantasised about harming women. Why on earth was he not monitored?

"A man with his history should never have just been given an Asbo. He should have been behind bars a long time ago.

"Asbos are too weak a punishment for a man who owned a rape kit and was obsesses with harming women."

Miss Bytheway's comments were echoed by politicians who called for an inquiry into the case.

West Cornwall and Isles of Scilly MP Andrew George said: "Someone, something or some part of the system failed in this case and Jean Bowditch has paid for that failure with her life."

The Liberal Democrat added that the authorities knew Chester-Nash "presented a real and serious danger to others.

"These comments are not made with the benefit of hindsight. It is clear from the evidence and the trial that this was an inevitable outcome of poor management, or a system failure," he said, adding that he had raised questions about the case with the Home Secretary.

Chester-Nash had long been identified as a serious risk to the public when he was placed under the supervision of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) after his release from jail last October.

Yesterday the Metropolitan Police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Devon Cornwall Police and MAPPA all refused to release exact details of Chester Nash's previous convictions.

The courts had previously tried to control the serial burglar using one of the most severe Asbos ever imposed, banning him from every university, college or women's sports club in Britain. It also barred him from every pub and club in the country

The asbo was imposed in November 2004 by Havering magistrates in Essex, who also jailed him for three months for carrying a knife outside a nightclub.

Earlier that year Cambridge police questioned him and found a diary in which he fantasised about raping a student.

They also discovered a knife, a pair of gloves and a rope - equipment that was later described in court as "a rapist's kit."

He was considered so dangerous in the city that female students at the University were shown his picture and warned of the threat he posed,

Yet he went on to land a job at a nightclub - specifically to be near women who may have had too much to drink.

He later confessed to his probation officer that he was afraid he was "going down an avenue" which could end in him committing a rape.

At a court hearing when Chester-Nash failed to overturn his ASBO, he was described as being "a very dangerous and predatory person from whom the public need protection."

And during the murder trial at Truro Crown Court, prosecutor Geoffrey Mercer QC said the defendant was a man with a "fascination for knives" who killed Mrs Bowditch in a "horrific" attack in a bungalow near St Ives in Cornwall.

There were clear signs of a struggle, and a trail of blood leading from a bedroom to the living room, where her body was found.

Just days before the killing the defendant told a girl he met that one of the knives in his possession, stolen from a boat in Penzance, "would be good to kill someone with."

After Chester-Nash was told he would serve a minimum of 30 years for the murder, which he had denied, Mrs Bowditch's widower paid tribute to his late wife, describing her as "kind, compassionate, caring, totally unselfish, always ready to help."

Mike Bowditch, a former milkman, who has two daughters, Michelle, 39, and Angela, 37, added that Chester-Nash should "rot in jail until he dies."

Mr Justice Owen told Chester-Nash: "You displayed chilling arrogance, clearly believing you were beyond the law and were able to outwit the police. You are an extremely dangerous man."

Speaking after the verdict a spokesman for the Victims of Crime Trust said the original Asbo restrictions imposed on Chester-Nash were "a joke."

Norman Brennan said: "He is society's living nightmare. He is a danger to the public and somebody who epitomises the way the criminal justice system fails victims of crime and the public time and time again.

"We have an obsession in this country with protecting the offender and damning the victim and this is what it culminates in - the murder of an innocent mother.

"The public must be protected from dangerous and monstrous individuals such as Chester-Nash. He should not have been out of prison and free to murder at will."

The case came two weeks after the Parole Board came under fire yesterday after admitting that 87 prisoners freed early from life sentences had to be jailed again after committing more crimes.

According to Parole Board figures, the number of lifers let out early on licence has more than doubled in five years, despite worries over public protection.

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