I was disappointed to hear the Justice Secretary announce that he will not be seeking a judicial review into the Parole Board’s puzzling decision to release serial sex offender John Worboys after less than ten years in prison. Even if he had failed it would have sent out an important signal, not least to Worboy’s victims. And unfortunately, as the law stands we don’t know why the Board reached its highly contentious decision. I suppose we can but hope that this will change in the not too distant future.

Worboys could be a ‘changed man’ of course, and if this is the case then those who have been working with him are to be applauded, and he is to be congratulated. As a Christian, I believe punishment should be transformational. This raises all sorts of challenges about our current prison policy though because far too many prisoners return to a life of crime within a very short time of their release. Prison, it seems, has a poor record for reducing reoffending - 44 per cent of adults are reconvicted within one year of release. For those serving sentences of less than 12 months this increases to 59 per cent (‘Prison the Facts’ Prison Reform Trust 2017).

I’ve even heard it said that Worboys ‘has found Jesus.’ And that is quite possible too (although I would prefer to say Jesus has found him!). I’ve met those who have had such an encounter and it has changed their lives profoundly. One even became a Probation Officer (you can read what happened in Judith Wigley’s absorbing book ‘Out of Bounds: Story of Malcolm Worsley, Prisoner to Probation Officer’).

Having said this, if John Worboys has had a genuine encounter with Jesus I would expect to see clear evidence of this. I would not anticipate him wanting to live anywhere near his victims for example (for that would be very uncaring) and a public admission of his guilt, not to say an apology to all those he has hurt, would smack of authenticity. It could even be argued he would not want to be released as early as this given the crimes he committed, let alone all the others he has been accused of.

And for one simple reason: we all possess a God-given sense of justice. Both Worboys and the criminal justice system need take account of this. It’s true that Jesus says we should not want to exact ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ but He was talking about personal revenge and not the administration of justice.

Unfortunately, the people of His day had taken this God given principle (that punishment should fit the crime) and were applying it to their own personal lives. God does not want us to seek revenge. He wants us to forgive and to pray for those who hurt us. But He does not expect crime to go unpunished. He is a God of justice and He knows that justice needs to be seen to be done. In other words, as far as God is concerned, for every wrong done there should be a compensating measure of justice. All of which makes the Parole Board’s decision a little unsettling to say the least.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]