The mum of a vulnerable man drowned by a violent thug who had removed his electronic tag is suing justice chiefs. A coroner heard Sebastian Smith, previously known as Luke Greenland, was already considered a high risk to others when he killed Joe Pooley, 22.
Smith, who did time for assaulting a police officer, was on home curfew but an inquest heard he should have been recalled to prison for removing his electronic tag. He helped lure Joe, who had suspected attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Asperger’s and autism, from his home and plied him with alcohol and drugs. Smith and Sean Palmer – aged 35 and 31 at the time – were enlisted to take revenge on Joe by Becki West-Davidson, then 30.
Joe fell “madly in love” with her but when she blanked him he said he was surprised she did not live with her children. Furious West-Davidson plotted for Smith and Palmer to throw Joe into the River Gipping in Ipswich, Suffolk, and hold him under water in August 2018.
In 2021, the trio were jailed for murder. In 2022, a coroner said Smith being at large “more than minimally, negligibly or trivially contributed to his [Joe’s] death”.
Joe’s mum, Sam Nicholls, 54, is taking legal action against the Ministry of Justice, accusing them of breaching her human rights. She said: “My son was horrifically failed by the MoJ, I want them to accept some responsibility and apologise.”
Lawyer Sarah Flanagan, of Hodge Jones & Allen, said: “It is abundantly clear a catalogue of errors by the MoJ resulted in a failure to recall Greenland despite him being a danger to the public.
“We’re determined to hold the MoJ to account.”
The Ministry of Justice has been approached for comment.
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