Justice Secretary confirms paedophile headteacher won’t qualify for early release scheme

Emily Price

The UK Government has confirmed that convicted paedophile headteacher Neil Foden will not qualify for early release under emergency plans to ease overcrowding in jails.

The former high school headteacher who had a “sexual obsession” with young girls was jailed for 17 years in July.

The 66-year-old who worked in two north Wales schools was convicted following a trial of 19 offences involving the abuse of four girls between 2019 and 2023.

The judge said the former National Union of Teachers official had been “determined” to satisfy his “perverted desires”, which included a urination fetish.

BBC Wales Investigates later revealed allegations of abuse from as far back as 1979, with one former pupil saying she was messaging him up until the day of his arrest.

In Parliament on Tuesday (October 22), Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts called for assurances that the Ministry of Justice’s early prisoner release scheme will not apply to inmates such as Foden, who are charged with sexual offences.

Release

The prison population is increasing by 4,500 every year and the UK Government has committed to creating 14,000 additional prison spaces.

Around 1,100 inmates are due to be freed in England and Wales in a second wave of early releases under a new policy to ease overcrowding.

Ms Saville Roberts urged the Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood to confirm Foden will serve at least twelve years in prison.

Speaking in the House of Commons, the Dwyfor Meirionnydd MP said: “Neil Foden is in prison for the sexual abuse of four, vulnerable schoolchildren. He was the strategic headteacher at two secondary schools in Gwynedd.

“Foden was convicted of nineteen charges and sentenced to seventeen years in July this year for his abhorrent crimes.

“The judge said he showed no remorse. Can she advise me how to seek assurances for his victims that Foden won’t be released until he has served two thirds of his sentence?’

Sex offences 

Ms Mahmood responded saying “all sex offences of all types” are excluded from the new early release measures.

The Justice Secretary has launched a review into sentencing that will look at handing out more punishments to offenders outside prison.

The review aims to explore tougher punishments outside of jail time while making sure there is space to incarcerate the most dangerous offenders.