The Ministry of Justice is facing criticism after accidentally sharing intimate details of a victim's anguish to her stalker. In a report by The Guardian on Thursday, Rhianon Bragg from Rhosgadfan in Gwynedd said that the MoJ's sharing of such details to Gareth Wyn Jones has provided him with more "ammunition".
Rhianon Bragg was coercively controlled and abused by Gareth Wyn Jones, who was finally jailed in 2020 after he held her hostage at gunpoint for eight hours in 2019. Jones ambushed Ms Bragg as she returned to her rural farmhouse and held her hostage in a barn for eight hours, repeatedly threatening to kill her and leave her children motherless.
It was the final act in a campaign of harassment towards her, which started in April 2019 when she ended their five year relationship. He admitted charges of stalking, false imprisonment, making a threat to kill, as well as a shotgun charge.
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The Guardian has now reported that the MoJ accidentally sent Jones intimate details of Rhianon Bragg's mental health assessment, her diagnosis, as well as intimate information about her and her children. In 2023, it is reported that Gareth Wyn Jones will try to persuade the Parole Board that he should be released before the end of a four-and-a-half-year custodial sentence for his offences.
During the parole process, the Ministry of Justice's public protection casework section was preparing a collection of documents about the case. It was sent to Jones but in error the documents also included a letter written by a clinical psychologist, who had worked with Rhianon Bragg, and included details on the impact his crimes had had on her and her family.
The Guardian reports that the letter was sent to Jones in February, but Rhianon was only notified of the error in December. The MoJ described the mistake as "unacceptable" and has launched an investigation. In response, the mum of four described it as an "absolutely horrendous situation" and could not fathom the "severity of the damage it will cause".
Rhianon added: "You want to keep everything from a person like him. I can’t get my head around the severity of the damage this will cause. They’ve given ammunition to a dangerous man. What additional measures will be taken now to protect us?”
The parole hearing was due to take place earlier this month, but was postponed until at least the end of January next year. Rhianon said that when she was told the hearing was delayed, she was on a "massive high" but that that had been lost due to the error that has been made.
As a result, Rhianon told The Guardian that she was unable to focus or sleep. "How can you trust a criminal justice system that can’t get the basics right?" she asked. Rhianon has campaigned for the parole hearing to be held in public, but in response, the chair of the Parole Board for England and Wales, Caroline Corby, said that Gareth Wyn Jones's mental health issues could be worsened due to a public hearing.
While Rhianon feels that Jones's privacy has been flagged up as an "essential human right and adhered to utterly", she feels that there has been a "complete failure" for her own rights. Th leader of Plaid Cymru in Westminster and MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Liz Saville Roberts, said that it was "appalling" that such sensitive information was handed to Jones.
“The criminal justice system has effectively collaborated in enabling this violent abuser’s continued control and means of causing emotional trauma to his victim by this negligence," she said.
“Rhianon shows immense courage in casting a light on the inequality of arms between victims and the state-enforced priority of perpetrators’ rights. The decision to conduct the offender’s parole hearing in private should be reversed, as it is evident that justice needs to be seen to be done as a matter of public interest."
In response, a MoJ spokesperson said: “The government has made significant changes in recent years to better protect stalking victims so we are deeply sorry for this unacceptable mistake and the distress it has caused Ms Bragg. We take this type of error extremely seriously and an investigation is under way to understand what happened.”
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