Killer set to receive thousands in benefits despite being behind bars after strangling girlfriend

Rather than facing prison, Tape was sent to a secure psychiatric unit and, as such, remains eligible to receive £400 a month in universal credit payments.

Although prisoners are barred from receiving state benefits, the majority of convicted criminals placed in secure psychiatric hospitals remain eligible as they are treated as patients rather than prisoners.

On Monday, family members of Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche, including mother, Linda, and uncle, Leon, will meet with Pat McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, to discuss closing this loophole.

A spokesman for Mr McFadden told The Telegraph: "The Secretary of State has asked officials to urgently look at how we can stop benefit entitlement for offenders who are detained in psychiatric hospitals."

Mr Westcarr said Tape "effectively got away with murder" despite killing her in "the most brutal way imaginable".

He said: "As he has no living costs while hospitalised, this means that over the course of three or four years, he could accumulate a significant amount of taxpayers' money - all while under a hospital order for taking an innocent life."

Mr Westcarr added: "By contrast, my sister, who lost her daughter in this horrific way, has had to become the sole carer for her granddaughter.

"She has had to fight at every step for even the most basic financial support from the Government and local authorities.

"The injustice of the situation is staggering.

"How can it be right that a convicted killer can receive benefits and potentially leave hospital with a lump sum of money, while the victim's family is left struggling to survive - emotionally and financially? This cannot be acceptable in any just or moral society."

According to Government statistics, 2,745 offenders held under the Mental Health Act, including killers and rapists, are currently eligible to claim benefits.

Tape lured Ms Westcarr-Sabaroche, who had decided to break up with him, to meet by asking for a lift to a "plumbing job".

He then strangled her to death in her car outside his home as the couple's one-year-old daughter slept inside.

Tape transferred her body to the passenger seat and then drove around for nearly two hours with her body beside him, bought cigarettes and used her phone to send a message to her friend.

Some six-and-a-half hours after the killing, he confessed what he had done to his brother.

Tape was handed a hospital order by Judge Freya Newbery under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act, and was also given a restriction order under Section 41 allowing for his indefinite detention.

She said that at the time of the attack, Tape was an "undiagnosed schizophrenic" who held "paranoid and persecutory delusions", which "substantially impaired" his judgement and self-control.

The court was told that Tape had smoked cannabis since 2014 and in 2023 had contact with mental health services and was "warned to abstain, but would smoke cannabis afterwards".

Mr Westcarr said: "As a grieving family, we feel utterly devastated and let down by the criminal justice system.

"The way in which the court proceedings were conducted has left us with the painful belief that the man who killed my niece has effectively got away with murder.

"He killed her in the most brutal way imaginable. Yet, because of what was deemed to be his mental health issues, he was not sent to prison but instead given a hospital order.

"He is no longer referred to as a killer - he is spoken of as a 'patient'.

To us, this is deeply wrong. It feels as though the memory of what he did, and the horror our family has endured, are being erased under a label of treatment and care."