THE man who stabbed Chelsea banker John Monckton to death in front of his wife and young daughter was only in the area because the probation service had failed to follow clear instructions to house him outside London.

The chief executive of the parole board said yesterday that Damien Hanson, 24, was supposed to live outside the capital under the terms of his release from a sentence for attempted murder. He was meant to be staying at a hostel in Essex.

The terms were included in the parole licence granted after Hanson, whose nicknames on the street included “666” and “Omen”, had served six years of a 12-year sentence for trying to kill a teenager in Hammersmith, in the west of the capital.

In the event, Hanson, who was sentenced to life for Monckton’s murder at the Old Bailey last week, was placed by the probation service at a hostel in Streatham, south London. This was just a short journey from the home of the banker, whom he killed in November last year, three months after his release.

The banker’s wife, Homeyra, was severely injured and lost seven pints of blood while the couple’s daughter Isobel, 9, witnessed part of the attack.

The probation service’s errors were compounded by an instruction given to Hanson to report regularly to its offices in Hammersmith. The parole licence specifically excluded him from visiting this area.

Last night Christine Glenn, chief executive of the parole board, said: “If the parole panel had known he was going to be living in London he would never have been released. They (the probation service) not only put him in London, they put him very close to the exclusion area.”

Despite the restrictions the parole board tried to lay down, they still assessed the risk of Hanson reoffending as being in the lowest category, level one.

The performance of the probation and parole authorities is expected to be at the centre of an official inquiry into how Hanson came to have the opportunity to attack the Moncktons.

The probe will be announced tomorrow by Charles Clarke, the home secretary. While the Hanson case will form its core, it will have wider implications and is expected to lay bare how the probation and parole services frequently fail to protect the public. Last year 41 people were killed by attackers who had been released from jail.

The death of Monckton was the most horrific case for years. The banker, 49, a devout Roman Catholic, was a director at Legal and General, the insurers. He lived with his wife and two children in a £3m home in Upper Cheyne Row, Chelsea.

Monckton was killed after he answered the door to Hanson and his accomplice Elliot White, also 24, as they pretended to be delivering a parcel.

Homeyra Monckton was attacked as she made for the stairs in a vain attempt to reach a panic button in a bedroom.

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