A killer who was released from prison on licence came face-to-face with his innocent victim’s mother – despite an order banning him from doing so.
Jason Grovell was jailed for four years in October 2014 for the manslaughter of Jake Sweeney, 26, outside the Irish Tymes pub in Caerphilly town.
Grovell was released from jail on licence in August last year with strict conditions not to contact Mr Sweeney’s family or to visit Pontypridd, where Mr Sweeney’s brother lives.
However, in March this year he approached Mr Sweeney’s mother while she was on a night out in Pontypridd.
Despite this, the Probation Service has not recalled Grovell to prison, citing an administrative mix-up and the fact that police were not alerted to Grovell’s contact with Mr Sweeney’s mother – who was left too traumatised by the encounter to come forward.
The Ministry of Justice has launched an urgent investigation into the matter.
Jake’s father, Mark Sweeney, contacted the Probation Service on her behalf, but nothing was done.
He said: “How is this protecting the victims? It is protecting the offender.
“This has had a devastating effect on his mother – it’s all still very, very raw.”
Mr Sweeney wrote to the Probation Service to complain of the family’s treatment.
In its response to him it said that enforcement action could not be taken as no police report was made, but that the matter had been discussed with Grovell.
In relation to the fact he was in Pontypridd that night, the Probation Service said there had been a mix-up with maps plotting exactly where Grovell was excluded from.
The letter reads: “Jason Grovell should be excluded from Pontypridd as a condition of his licence but unfortunately, his Offender Manager made an error at the time of his release from custody in terms of which areas he was in fact excluded from.
“There had been a change in Offender Manager for the case prior to the release and his new Offender Manager had not been involved in the pre-release planning work and was confused by the different maps provided by the prison regarding exclusion areas.
“There was also a discrepancy between the copy of the licence which Jason Grovell had been provided with by the prison and the file copy.”
The letter, signed from the Deputy Head of HM Prison and Probation Service in Wales, Hannah Griffith, apologises for the way it dealt with the case and promised a meeting. More than two months on from the letter, Mark Sweeney is still waiting to hear from them.
He said: “He is supposed to be in prison – this cannot be right.”
During his sentencing in October 2014, Cardiff Crown Court heard how Grovell, then 24, shouted “boom” as he punched Jake Sweeney to the ground – who fell to the pavement and cracked his skull.
He died of his injuries four days later in hospital.
Mr Sweeney, the court was told, was an innocent “peacemaker”.
Grovell had been drinking and taking cocaine with friends while on a night out.
A fight broke out after closing time and Mr Sweeney tried to “defuse” the situation by coming between the two men.
As he was walking away Grovell struck him to the side of the head – jumping as he landed the “vicious punch”.
He was seen smiling and “bouncing like a boxer” before fleeing the scene.
When contacted by Caerphilly Observer, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “An urgent investigation is ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The Gwent police continue to fail the residents of Caerphilly, disgusting. What is happening to law and order? It seems to have gone from Gwent surely the police should be out hunting this man down. Policing was far better 50 years ago when i was growing up.
This is very disturbing, this man should be locked up for breaching his parole conditions.
As usual only giving excuses without actually doing anything , he breached his licence he should be locked back up , none of this map mistake he is BANNED from Pontypridd but still went there , he is BANNED from contacting the family but he still did , he is sticking his 2 fingers up and they are letting him , disgusting behaviour
whats to stop him doing this again? this isnt the first story ive heard about the police in pontypridd and caerphilly letting down the victims
This simply goes to show how completely incompetent Gwent Police are, Mr Cuthbert and his band of highly paid lackeys should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen. This vile excuse of a person should have been locked away for a very long time, how on earth is a murder set free after only serving a few months is prison.
When will the Authorities learn ?
The public want action – not excuses.
Will this be another ” Lessons will be learned ” saga ?
Probably John.