Armed robber who shot jeweller had been freed early despite warnings

Sean Henry seized gems worth £50,000 from a shop and then opened fire on the manager Darren Prior, who survived only because the bullet ricocheted off a mobile phone in his jacket pocket.

Henry, 35, was jailed last month for at least 15 years for attempted murder, robbery and firearms offences.

Now an investigation has revealed that he would have still been in jail at the time of the shooting in 2005 if advice from prison, probation and medical officials had been followed.

Instead, the Parole Board set Henry free in 2004 after he had served 13 years for murder - ignoring recommendations that he should first spend at least two years in an open jail as part of his rehabilitation.

News of the blunder comes amid mounting concern over the effects of reducing sentences for criminals in order to ease pressure on chronically overcrowded prisons.

Yesterday the Parole Board offered its sympathies to the victim and his family and said its procedures had been tightened, but insisted the decision to release Henry was not connected to the prison overcrowding crisis.

Henry, from Wallington, South London, was given life for murder in 1990. He was freed briefly in 1999 but returned to jail after seven months for failing to keep probation appointments.

Prison officials recommended he should spend at least two years in an open prison to re-adapt to outside-life.

Two further Parole Board hearings turned down his requests for early release, but a third panel concluded that "it was not necessary for the protection of the public that he continued to be detained" and he walked free in August 2004.

Barely a year later he carried out the vicious armed robbery at the Amore Jewellers in Horsham, West Sussex.

The Parole Board yesterday confirmed that it had carried out an investigation into the decision to release Henry in 2004. It found there was a "lack of detailed written reasons" given by the parole panel for ignoring official advice.

The Board, which oversees all parole decisions in England and Wales, has now adopted a formal policy that life sentence prisoners should always be sent to an open jail to test their trustworthiness before their final release unless there are "exceptional circumstances."