THE prison service has defended a decision to grant home leave to a convicted murderer who tried to kill again amid accusations from a victims support group that “something went badly wrong” with a risk assessment.

In a brutal and motiveless attack Robbie McIntosh, 31, repeatedly struck Dundee dog walker Linda McDonald, 52, with a dumbbell in August – 16 years and five days after he murdered 34-year-old Anne Nicoll in a similarly frenzied attack, with a knife as she walked her dog in the same city.

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) insisted the attack which left McDonald with two skull fractures could not have been predicted, but Victim Support Scotland has urged a review of procedures which cleared McIntosh to be out on leave from Castle Huntly open prison to commit the attack.

Last week, the 31-year-old admitted bludgeoning McDonald with a dumbbell in woodland on August 7 before he was disturbed by passers-by who heard screaming. The attack left the victim with permanent scars and she has been unable to return to work.

When he was 15 McIntosh stabbed Nicoll 29 times on a hill overlooking Dundee known as the Law. Sentencing him to life imprisonment in 2002, Lord Bonomy said the victim has been “butchered”. Nicoll’s voice box was sliced in the attack meaning she could not cry for help.

When it emerged last year that McIntosh was regularly out on leave the late Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said it was “clearly far too soon to have someone like this out in public”. An SPS spokeswoman responded by saying “rigorous risk assessments” were carried out.

Those procedures have now been questioned by the director of operations at Victim Support Scotland, Alan McCloskey, who said: “We do acknowledge and are led to understand robust risk assessments are carried out but clearly it’s gone badly wrong and the authorities need to look at what happened, what went wrong and why matters escalated.”

McCloskey said he would “flag” his concerns to the SPS at a meeting. “This will be a subject of discussion,” he added.

The SPS was also criticised by McDonald’s husband Matthew after McIntosh admitted attempting to murder the mother-of-two.

He said: “Given his past conviction for a brutal murder I can’t believe the Scottish Prison Service deemed that this sick individual, who attempted to murder my wife, was allowed to be in the public domain.

“The fact that they did raises serious questions about the criteria followed by the appropriate authorities and if there had been strict monitoring, supervision and tagging in place we wouldn’t be going through this hell.

“To ensure no other family has to endure what we are experiencing the Scottish Prison Service and the Parole Board should, as a priority, examine their release criteria and assessment systems. That is the least we would expect.”

A spokesman for the SPS said: “Whatever I say will not mitigate the terrible thing that happened, and the terrible harm done, but people are responsible for their own actions.

“What we do is help individuals to transform themselves and mitigate the risk. We take that responsibility very seriously and most of the time people respond well to the trust shown in them.”

The spokesman said the “failure rate” of its risk assessments is “significantly less than one per cent” and each prisoner has restrictions when on leave.

The SPS spokesman said: “We don’t have a sheep dip approach so, of course, we consider very carefully concerns raised but we do have a responsibility to prepare people as best we can. The challenge we face is people often have a collective unconsciousness about the fact people in prison come out of prison.

“We are tasked with managing people back out as safely as possibly can be achieved. Human beings sometimes act in ways we can’t possibly predict. If we could predict [human behaviour] there would be no crime in society.”

BRUTAL VIOLENCE OF KILLER FREED TO STRIKE AGAIN

Robbie McIntosh stabbed Anne Nicoll in the face, neck, head, back, chest, arms and abdomen in a brutal slaying which sliced her voice box meaning she was unable to scream for help.

The murder weapon was never found but experts believe the 15-year-old school boy used a four-inch boning knife – a kitchen utensil designed to remove cuts of meat from bones.

The victim was stabbed 29 times as she took her Airedale terrier, Sophie, for an evening walk on Dundee Law in August 2001. Nicoll’s boyfriend, Gordon McKenzie, found the dog which led him to her butchered body in thick undergrowth.

Members of the victim's family wept in the public gallery as McIntosh was sentenced to serve a minimum of 15 years for what was described as an “extremely violent” attack. The teenager sat expressionless in the dock.

Linda McDonald was targeted by McIntosh in August this year as she walked her dog in Templeton Woods, Dundee, shortly after 1pm. She saw her attacker walk past before the sound of his footsteps stopped and he turned and ran at her with a dumbbell held high above his head.

He repeatedly brought the heavy metal weight down on her skull and she could feel blood running into her eyes before she blacked out. McDonald described McIntosh as expressionless during the brutal bludgeoning and she said she feared she’d be murdered.

As the killer dragged the 52-year-old’s limp body into undergrowth he was disturbed by two men who had also been walking their dogs in the area. They described seeing McIntosh crouched over McDonald with a “vacant” look on his face before he ran off.

Last week, the 31-year-old pled guilty to the attack which left McDonald with two skull fractures, a badly damaged thumb and permanent scars.