Child murderer previously issued with arrest warrant
Harrison Simpson was convicted of murder, child cruelty, and sexual abuse of a child
Cleveland Police failed to detain a man for 18 months after a warrant was issued for his arrest, during which time he murdered his girlfriend's two-year old daughter, it has emerged.
Isabelle Welsh endured a "sadistic" campaign of violent abuse before being murdered at her Thornaby home in September by her mother and new boyfriend Harrison Simpson, who was jailed for life in July.
It has now emerged that after he failed to attend court for breaching a non-molestation order, a warrant was issued in March 2024, but attempts to locate him were unsuccessful.
The force said it immediately carried out a review and has since made a number of changes, including reviewing all outstanding warrants.
The murder trial at Teesside Crown Court heard that Isabelle Welsh was a "happy and thriving" child before her mother, Alexandra Walker, invited Simpson into their lives in June 2025.
On the morning of 13 September she was found fatally injured with Walker not calling 999 until hours later.
It was found she had suffered a fractured skull and an "unsurvivable" brain injury.
It could not be said who inflicted the fatal injury, the court heard, but Walker claimed she was sleeping in after a drink and drugs binge at the time and only found Isabelle injured in her cot later.
Simpson, 22, and Walker, 26, were both found guilty of murder and child cruelty, with Simpson also convicted of sexual abuse of a child.
Both were jailed for life with Simpson ordered to serve a minimum of 28 and a half years and Walker 22 years.
suppliedCleveland Police has now admitted after Simpson was issued with a warrant for failing to attend court on a charge of breaching a non-molestation order - an injunction designed to protect victims of domestic abuse - multiple enquiries were carried out to try to locate and arrest him but without success.
Isabelle's family had been informed of the circumstances early on in the investigation, it said.
The statement added: "We recognise the time Simpson had an outstanding arrest warrant is far from adequate.
"A review of this was immediately conducted upon his arrest for murder."
It said the review had led to a number of recent changes, such as "a comprehensive data system" which tracked all outstanding warrants, and stringent oversight including a governance group led by a superintendent.
The force added: "Those outstanding warrants posing the highest risk are reviewed daily by senior management."
- The X post shares an image contrasting Zevenor Gordon's 16-month sentence for sexually assaulting six women and girls on London transport with Paul Powlesland facing up to two years in prison for organizing a volunteer cleanup of the polluted River Roding without an Environment Agency permit.
- It criticizes the British justice system as broken for imposing lighter punishment on a repeat sexual offender than on environmental activism involving river dredging and waste removal.
- The post has drawn engagement and replies advocating stronger action against authorities, reflecting public discontent with regulatory priorities favoring bureaucracy over addressing violent crime or pollution.
Burnham to focus on keeping child rapists in prison as release scheme talks enter final day
Review goes down to the wire after ministers speak with victims’ representatives and support services
Andy Burnham is focused on preventing the release of child sexual abuse perpetrators as part of the government’s early release scheme, as urgent talks on which serious criminals could be exempted go down to the wire.
Government ministers are understood to have 24 hours to assess which criminals can be released early to free up prison space, with every exemption weighed up against the threat of the criminal justice system’s collapse.
The prime minister halted controversial plans to release thousands of killers, rapists and sex offenders from prison in September, intended to ease critical prison overcrowding, during his second week in the role.
He is keen to make as many exceptions as the small headroom in the prison estate will allow, the Guardian understands.
Burnham wants to keep child rapists and other perpetrators of serious sexual abuse from being released early after ministers heard the concerns of victims’ representatives and support services who warned that a failure to put in place safeguards for abuse victims would put them at particular risk.
A review of the scheme is expected to conclude by the end of Monday to give the Prison Service time to prepare, with a final decision on exemptions still to be made.
But ministers are keenly aware that if no action is taken, prisons will run out of space, while exempting some criminals is likely to lead to further calls for others to also be kept behind bars, sources told the Guardian.
The former justice secretary David Lammy, who brought forward the act that paved the way for the releases, previously warned that failing to implement it could leave no capacity across jails in England and Wales in November.
The new justice secretary, appointed by Burnham on 20 July, is Alex Norris.
The early release scheme – accompanied by a significant expansion in electronic tagging of offenders – is still expected to take place this autumn with an initial group of about 700, despite warnings by probation officers of potential chaos.
It is likely to cause a headache for the new prime minister as he faces the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, in the House of Commons for the first time. A government source said: “If we don’t take any action, we will run out of room – it’s not sustainable at all.”
It comes after the family of PC Andrew Harper expressed outrage that his killers may be eligible for early release. His mother, Debbie Adlam, said the proposed inclusion of two of her son’s killers – Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers – was “another letdown” for their family.
New sentencing laws were passed under Keir Starmer’s government to ease a looming prison overcrowding crisis that ministers said could seize up the criminal justice system. Victims’ advocates are concerned that high prisoner numbers will limit the number of serious criminals who could be exempted.
The former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, a vocal critic of the scheme, said it was right that exemptions were being considered but there needed to be “a whole system change with how victims and risk is managed as the sentencing review goes forward”, which had to be carried out with victims’ agencies, probation officers and police.
Under the Sentencing Act 2026, which passed in January, from September some serious offenders will be eligible for release halfway through their sentences rather than two-thirds of the way through. Those convicted of less serious crimes can be freed after serving a third of their sentence instead of 40%.
The new law also restricts the use of short-term prison stays, which will be replaced with probation and community orders – a move that some critics have said will put pressure on an already overburdened probation service.
Phillips said any review needed to examine not only the early release scheme but the presumption against short sentences. “Exemptions are an immediate safety crisis, but real in-depth work to make the situation better forever and be one based on risk and rehabilitation must be done,” she said.
Claire Waxman, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, met Norris on Wednesday, and she told the Telegraph she welcomed his acknowledgment that victims had been let down and she was “cautiously more hopeful” about progress on answering her concerns.
But prison reform groups, government officials and politicians reacted angrily to Burnham’s decision to pause the scheme, warning that abandoning measures to ease jail overcrowding could lead to the criminal justice system “collapsing under its own weight”.
Ciara Bergman, the chief executive of Rape Crisis England and Wales, said centres had been supporting scores of victims through the “distress and terror of finding out that their rapists and abusers were due to be released … or in some cases already had been”.
She said: “Victim-survivors should never have been put in this situation, not least because so little is known about the factors which make some more like to offend than others, and how sexual violence offenders can effectively be managed and monitored in the community.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said it was taking action to fix the prisons crisis, “caused by 14 years of Conservative neglect”.
“We are pulling every lever to protect the public and cut crime,” they said, pointing to the building of new prisons, expanding tagging, strengthening community punishment and giving victims a say in offenders’ licence conditions.
“We have paused changes due to start in September to conduct an urgent review to make sure we get this policy right for victims without running out of prison spaces.”
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