Our child Barry, a beautiful, funny boy with his entire life ahead of him, was brutally stabbed to death. His killer, Coward, Robbie Smullen, has been convicted and is presently serving his sentence. 

The Scottish Prison Service made a decision to allow this monster temporary release from prison when he has only served half of his prison sentence. They did this immediately after the Coward was denied parole.

The Scottish Prison Service rules for temporary release of prisoners states:

”Prior to granting any form of temporary release, the Governor must consider:

a) the views of any victims of that offence or offences, and

b) the views of any persons residing in the community in which the prisoner will spend the temporary release, where those views are made known to the Governor.”

We of course made submissions against the temporary release of this monster, but the Scottish Prison Service ignored our views and ignored the views of the wider community, and the made a decision to reward him with temporary release from prison, just over the half way point of his sentence for stabbing our child to death. No one has explained why they felt this monster should be rewarded.

The loss of our child was not just a personal tragedy, it was a harsh reminder of the escalating knife crime rates in our society. This grim reality demands that justice not only be served, but maintained.

Monster Smullen has been committing offences from a young age with no regard to who he hurt. When he stabbed our child to death he was out at large, on a spree of violence, while in breach of 3 seperate bail orders and a court ordered curfew. He is a Coward who would never confront anyone without a weapon and we have no doubt that as soon as he is out of prison he will have a knife back in his hand. It will only be a matter of time before he kills another family’s child. 

He has been in and out of prison from a young age, and each time he has been rewarded by only having to serve half of his sentence, so it’s no wonder he had kept on offending and continued to hurt people,  before he finally stabbed our child to death. When he wasn’t in prison he was always subject to at least one bail order, usually multiple and at times a court ordered curfew - he breached every single one by continuing to offend. He was given multiple chances by way of government programmes designed to help young people get on the right track but nothing worked, so Isn’t it time that he faced consequences for his actions? Now that he has actually gone on to stab a young boy to death, should he not be forced to understand that the lives of others matter by ensuring he serves his full sentence without temporary release?

How can we make sense of anyone believing this monster should be rewarded at this early stage with temporary release from prison, and how much does this financially cost the public? He is given money to buy new clothes to wear on his days/weekends out and he is given money to spend! He is supposed to be serving a prison sentence for killing a young boy and until he faces real consequences there is zero chance he can be rehabilitated; it’s beyond disgusting 🤢 

This monster was out, at large, in breach of 3 seperate bail orders and a court ordered curfew when he stabbed Barry to death, he has breached every one of the previous and many bail orders he has ever been subject to by reoffending, yet he has been rewarded with temporary release and shortly he is to be granted permanent early release by the Parole Board - why, why why?

Would the people making this decision be happy to have this monster in their community, around their children and family…..I doubt it! 

By signing this petition, you support our fight to keep Robbie Smullen behind bars until his full sentence is served. You're not merely pushing for justice for Barry, you're sending a loud and clear message that early release for violent offenders should not be an option. We believe our emotions resonate with many others who have suffered a similar devastating loss, and together we can bring about the change we seek.

Please sign this petition and share, violent repeat offenders who stab people to death should face punishment, and should not be rewarded, our child was worth more than 5 years of this cowards liberty!!