Lock up George Davis

I suppose it’s wrong to lock people up for crimes they didn’t commit. But nonetheless, if George Davis had served his full sentence for an armed robbery which he probably didn’t commit in 1975, then he wouldn’t have been able to take part in the armed robbery on the Bank of Cyprus two years later, or indeed another armed robbery ten years after that. I don’t expect there’s much of an appetite in the Justice Department for preventative custody, though.

But Davis was an odd sort of chap to galvanise the middle class lefties back in the 1970s, with their “Free George
Davis” campaigns and graffiti. I chanted Free George Davis, sheeplike, along with the rest of them, happy to forget that the man was a violent career criminal. But then this was at a time when we on the left were all thrilled that Robert Mugabe was about to inherit Rhodesia, so our moral confusion was absolute.

I remember chanting Free George Ince! Also with great fervour, another nasty gangland thug. Did he do any armed robberies after he was let out, does anyone know?