JAMES DEAN’S parents spoke yesterday of their horror at hearing that his alleged killer had escaped from prison. Chris and Martine Dean were at home at about 10.30pm on Saturday when a police liaison officer telephoned to give them the news.
‘They told us that he had escaped but was now back in prison,’ said Mr Dean, 50.
‘They could not give us any more details but said they wanted to tell us before we heard it via the media.’
The call had been a short one but the timing had particular significance.
‘We think about James all the time, but especially on a Saturday night, because that was the day he died and it was at about the same time.’
News of the escape initially shocked the couple but it soon turned to anger.
‘How can he ‘Craig Rouget’ have been put in that position?’ said Mr Dean.
‘He hasn’t been convicted of murder but he has been charged with it and it would seem that putting him on the outside of the perimeter was a risk.’
The Home Department launched an inquiry after Craig Rouget, 18, absconded from a working party at Les Nicolles Prison on Saturday. He was at liberty for 16 minutes before his parents took him back.
Following the call, the Deans began phoning relatives to tell them the news.
‘We’ll wait now to see what the result of the inquiry is and hopefully it will all be sorted out,’ said Mrs Dean, 48.
The couple said prison procedures needed to be looked at.
James would have been 22 next Tuesday and his mother said that that was prominent in the family’s minds.
‘Our lives will never be the same again,’ she said.
James’s sister, Kelly, was 29 yesterday but said the escape had made her birthday insignificant.
Mr Dean said the Dean of Guernsey, the Very Rev. Canon Paul Mellor, had summed the situation up when he conducted James’s funeral service at the Town Church on 28 September.
‘He said it never gets any better, but we get better at it.’
The Dean family said the police had acted superbly in the whole affair by keeping them informed when they could and by providing support when needed.
‘We know the police are there if we want them, but they tend to keep a low profile as it brings back so many memories for us,’ said Mr Dean.
n Mr Rouget has denied murdering James Dean and is currently on remand awaiting a Royal Court trial. The hearing is provisionally booked for the two weeks from Monday 16 July.
* Our report yesterday said Mr Rouget was missing for 60, not 16, minutes. The error was in answerphone material supplied to the newspaper.
Article posted on 11th April, 2007 - 12.00am
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