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John Haase is a grass versus did Michael Howard accept a £400,000 bribe to release 2 prisoners early?

By John Hirst

John Haase is a grass versus did Michael Howard accept a £400,000 bribe to release 2 prisoners early?

A convicted drug dealer claimed that he bribed former Home Secretary Michael Howard £400,000 to get an early release from prison, a court has heard.

Haase, 59, and his cousin Paul Bennett, 44, received a Royal Pardon in 1996 and were released 11 months into a 17 year sentence for smuggling heroin, jurors were told.

It was always thought they were allowed out of jail because the pair had turned supergrass and passed on important information to the police.

As much as I had no time for Michael Howard when he was Home Secretary, I think it is a bit too far fetched that he would accept a bribe to release a pair of prisoners. I suspect that if this was the case, the jail grapevine would have been buzzing at the time. In my view, it is more likely that this is an attempt by Haase to explain away why he was really released early. The phrase singing like a canary springs to mind.

Full post as published by prisonlawinsideout on November 01, 2008 (boomark / email).