The United Nations will investigate whether Britain is breaching human rights law by arbitrarily detaining prisoners trapped on abolished indefinite jail terms, The Independent can reveal.
Campaigners and their legal team are launching a landmark complaint on behalf of five men who have served a combined total of 84 years incarcerated under Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms, including for minor crimes, as highlighted by The Independent.
The case, due to be lodged with the UN’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on Thursday, includes a bombshell letter from new justice secretary David Lammy, which proves he agrees the jail term is a “grave injustice” which causes “simply horrendous” mental trauma.
The letter, written in 2021 when he was shadow justice secretary, says the implementation of the jail term was “tragically flawed”, adding: “It is now painfully clear that the IPP sentence was far too broad, and many low-risk offenders are serving IPP sentences today for committing minor offences in the past.”
Although the sentence was scrapped in 2012 following a damning ruling from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), it was not abolished retrospectively, and successive governments have resisted calls to resentence more than 2,500 still languishing without a release date.
However, following his appointment as justice secretary and deputy prime minister in last week’s cabinet reshuffle, campaign group IPP Committee in Action is calling for Mr Lammy to finally put right the miscarriage of justice.
International human rights expert Dr Muin Boase told The Independent the jail term was a “national scandal” and akin to the miscarriages of justice uncovered in the Post Office scandal.
The five tragic cases being sent to the UN, which have all been highlighted by The Independent over the past 18 months, include:
- Leroy Douglas, 43, who has served almost 19 years without release for street robbery of a mobile phone
- Abdullahi Suleman, 42, is still in jail 20 years after he was handed an IPP for a laptop robbery, having been recalled for missing a hospital appointment
- Shaun Anton Lloyd, 39, who has been hauled back to prison four times and served 12 years four months for two street robberies committed when he was 18
- Wayne Williams, 37, has spent more than 19 years in prison without release for a 23-month jail term for attempting to injure a police officer in a fight
- Joshua Mcrae died in his cell last year, aged 34, having served more than 16 years for a four-year tariff for grievous bodily harm
The government will have 60 days to respond to the 30-page complaint over the treatment of the five men. Following this, the UN working group will issue an opinion on whether Britain is arbitrarily detaining the prisoners.
Shirley Debono, who founded the campaign group after her son, Mr Lloyd, was handed an IPP sentence for stealing a phone, said: “This is the greatest miscarriage of justice. Our loved ones are suffering psychological torture, locked up in arbitrary detention.
“Our government condemns such treatment in China and Russia, yet is committing the same act here in the UK.”
The mother, who has spent a year compiling the complaint with Dr Muin Boase, is due to hand in the papers alongside MPs and campaigners at Number 10 on Thursday.
Their claim alleges the open-ended jail term is irredeemably flawed and the length of the prisoners’ incarceration bears no relation to the original crimes.
It further alleges that England and Wales are breaching international law because of the mental anguish for prisoners and their families, after 94 prisoners have taken their own lives after losing hope of being freed.
The UN special rapporteur on torture, Dr Alice Edwards, has previously condemned the jail terms as “psychological torture”.
The complaint also alleges the UK remains in breach of the 2012 ECHR decision, which resulted in the sentence being abolished, with many IPP prisoners still waiting months to access courses needed for their release or facing a chaotic system of Parole Board delays.
IPP prisoners must prove to a Parole Board that they are no longer a risk to the public to be released. After this, many find themselves in a vicious cycle of recall, which can see them hauled back to prison indefinitely for breaches of strict licence conditions.
Dr Boase, of Great James Street Chambers, said the jail term is a “serious miscarriage of justice” and likened it to the Post Office scandal.
“It’s so embarrassing for a developed country with such a great legal history to be brought before the UN,” he said, urging the government to “have the courage to right the wrong of this injustice”.
“My first-year law students understand that this is fundamentally wrong,” he added.
“What comes up time and time again is these prisoners have lost hope. We want to restore hope to those people and their families that will put pressure and shame the government on what is effectively a national scandal.”
Mr Lloyd was just 18 when he was handed an IPP sentence with a two and a half year tariff for pushing someone to the floor and stealing their phone. After he was chased by the victim, he handed it back and apologised.
He served eight years before he was first released and has been recalled to prison four times despite never being charged with another crime.
His heartbroken mother, Ms Debono, who is also calling for a meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, said the jail term has had a devastating impact on the father and his two children, aged nine and seven.
“It has had a massive impact on his mental health and his wellbeing,” she said, noting he has spent his whole adult life under the shadow of the jail term.
“He never feels safe because being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he knows he will be recalled. You always have that fear. It’s damaged him, its damaged his mind.”
It has also taken a toll on Ms Debono, who has dedicated years to campaigning on his behalf.
She added: “I go to bed thinking about Shaun, and I wake up thinking about Shaun. It doesn’t leave me, day in day out, I am serving the sentence with Shaun.”
In an appeal from inside HMP Wayland, in Norfolk, Leroy Douglas revealed his desperation to start a second chapter of his life crime free.
He has served almost 19 years for robbing a mobile phone to feed his drug habit. Despite getting clean inside and completing 36 prison courses, he has served his sentence almost eight times over and still has no release date
“I am really happy to be part of this landmark UN case, which I hope will bring embarrassment to the UK government,” he said.
“Year after year they have continued my detention when experts have told them I am not a risk to the public.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “It is right that IPP sentences were abolished. We are determined to make progress towards safe and sustainable releases for those in prison, but not in a way that undermines public protection.”
