Alice Gross argued banning foreign criminals was racist months before murder by convicted Latvian killer

Pro-EU: Alice Gross
Sebastian Mann12 July 2016
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Murdered London schoolgirl Alice Gross penned an essay in support of free movement within the EU three months before she was killed by a Latvian criminal, her parents have revealed.

The 14-year-old, who was found dead in London's River Brent after being killed by Arnis Zalkalns in August 2014, wrote about the benefits of EU membership and said banning foreign criminals would be "reintroducing the idea of racism".

The essay, written in May 2014, was revealed today by her parents Jose Gross and Ros Hodgkiss in an interview with the Guardian.

She wrote: "Personally, I believe that the United Kingdom should remain a member of the EU as it allows our country to be considered a communal and friendly country."

Alice's parents Jose Gross and Ros Hodgkiss (Dominic Lipinski/PA )
Dominic Lipinski/PA

And addressing Ukip's call to have foreign criminals banned from Britain, she added: "I believe that this takes away the concept of equality amongst the community by implying that criminals don’t deserve the same rights everyone else has."

"It also depicts Britain to believe foreign criminals are different and dangerous compared to the British criminals, reintroducing the idea of racism."

It comes a week after an inquest jury ruled Alice was unlawfully killed in a sexually motivated attack after going missing from her home in Hanwell, west London, in August 2014.

Her body was discovered on September 30. She had died from compression asphyxia at the hands of Zalkalns, who had served an eight-year prison sentence for murdering his wife in his native Latvia before entering the UK in 2007.

The 41-year-old was found hanged nearby in Boston Manor Park on October 4. Scotland Yard said he would have been charged with the schoolgirl's murder had he still been alive.

Arnis Zalkans was found hanged a week after the schoolgirl's body was found

But his Latvian criminal record only came to light after he was reported missing, despite an arrest in 2009 on suspicion of sexual assault.

Following the inquest, Alice's parents called for "targeted reform" of the system for exchanging information about high-risk offenders across Europe, after the hearings exposed serious inadequacies.

Mr Gross stressed that his family was in favour of freedom of movement, saying: "We do not believe that any citizen deserves to be treated differently based on their race or nationality."

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