MoJ apologises to Emily Maitlis for failing to stop stalker's letters

The Ministry of Justice has apologised unreservedly for a prison’s failure to intercept threatening letters sent to the BBC Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis by a jailed stalker.

The MoJ, responsible for running prisons in England and Wales, promised to strengthen its monitoring procedures to prevent similar security lapses in future.

Earlier this week Maitlis described the strain imposed on her and her family for more than 20 years by Edward Vines after he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison after admitting two breaches of the indefinite order banning him from contacting her.

Oxford crown court heard that 47-year-old Vines, with whom Maitlis briefly became friends when they were studying at Cambridge University, had written to her while serving a prison sentence for previous breaches.

In a statement, the MoJ said on Wednesday: “We apologise unreservedly for this error and for the distress caused to Ms Maitlis.

“We have significantly strengthened our monitoring procedures to prevent incidents like this from happening again. We would like to reassure Ms Maitlis that any future correspondence involving this offender will be carefully checked, with staff reminded of the sensitivities of this particular case.”

In court, the judge, Peter Ross, described Vines’ ability to continue his campaign of harassment from behind bars and while out on licence as “wholly unsatisfactory”. Ross gave the probation service and the governor at HMP Bullingdon 10 days to provide a written explanation.

In 2002, Vines was convicted of harassment after Maitlis contacted police about his erratic behaviour after the murder of her fellow broadcaster Jill Dando. In 2009, after Vines continued trying to contact Maitlis, he was given the restraining order.

He breached it by sending two letters to the journalist and emails and letters to her mother, Marion Maitlis, between 10 May and 26 June 2015.

When he was jailed in 2016 he refused to give a court unambiguous assurances that he would never contact the presenter or her family again, saying: “I will never contact them again if I’m defeated rationally in court – and I cannot say I have been today.”