Anger at killer's sentence

A row broke out today over a judge's decision to slash a killer's sentence without telling the victim's family.

Prosecutors and court chiefs blamed one another for the chaos around paranoid schizophrenic John Barrett, 42, serving life for knifing to death banker Denis Finnegan in Richmond Park.

At the Old Bailey in March, judge Anthony Scott-Gall said Barrett must serve at least 15 1/2 years before being considered for release. Two weeks later, in a special hearing at Lewes, East Sussex-he cut the minimum term to just eight years.

Mr Finnegan's family only found by chance out this week.

Brother John Finnegan branded the delay "diabolical" and demanded an explanation from the Crown Prosecution Service.

Family would routinely have been told by a Met Police family liaison officer, but the Met was also unaware of the hearing.

Court manager David Manning, backed up by the Department for Constitutional Affairs, blamed the CPS for failing to tell police.

The CPS claimed it should have been the court's job to let police know, but also promised an investigation into what it called a "breakdown in communication".

Both sides expressed sympathy with the family but neither side was ready to apologise. John Finnegan said he was demanding an explanation from the CPS as to why the sentence was reduced and why he was not informed.