Father flees to escape the “unfair” indefinite prison call for his love life

A terrified father is on the run after learning he is being taken back to prison. indefinitely About claims that he has restarted a relationship with the mother of his children.

Although he has already fulfilled his minimum term more than three times moreMatthew Booth, 33, is wanted by police upon his return to prison for a crime he committed when he was just 15 years old.

Under the terms of indefinite duration. Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence imposed on him, Matthew can be removed without notice for failure to comply with the strict conditions of the license.

So far it has been returned to prison three times. But now the probationer has said he must return to prison once again because they have been told he has restarted a relationship without telling them.

However, both Matthew and the woman in question have said the independent Those who claim that they have had a serious relationship again are false.

The couple, supported by a campaign group. PPI Committee in actionThey are calling on Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood to use new powers to intervene and cancel his dismissal.

Matthew, now a fugitive living in a tent, said: “What am I going back to? What crime have I committed? If I had committed a crime I would understand it. “That’s not going to happen, I’d rather commit suicide.”

Abigail Vernon, with whom he shares two young daughters, added: “He is still being punished for something he did when he was 15.

“Every time he goes out and starts to rebuild his life, they take it away from him.”

The IPP prison sentences – under which offenders received a minimum but not a maximum prison sentence – were abandoned on human rights grounds in 2012, seven years after they were introduced by New Labor in a bid to be tough on crime.

Despite being widely condemned, including by the UN, its abolition was not applied retrospectively, leaving thousands of people trapped without a release date until the Parole Board deems it safe to let them out.

When they are finally released on license, many IPP prisoners like Matthew find themselves on a “merry-go-round” of dismissal under strict conditions that can lead to them returning to jail indefinitely for minor infractions, such as missing curfew, getting drunk, or, in In some cases, they miss a hospital appointment.

Of the 2,734 IPP prisoners still incarcerated, some 1,602 have been discharged and more than 700 have served more than 10 years longer than their minimum sentence.

At least 90 have taken their lives in prisons under desperate jail terms, and an estimated 30 others have committed suicide in the community.

Matthew, from Bolton, endured a traumatic childhood and received an IPP for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after intervening in a fight when he was 15, hitting someone over the head with a brick to protect a friend. He later jumped on someone’s head in another fight.

He was told he must serve a minimum of two years and seven months when he was sentenced, when he was 16 years old.

Although he admits his crimes were serious, he said: “It was my first custodial sentence. “I needed help, not life in prison.”

He served six years before being released for the first time in 2013. He met Abigail, now 29, the same year and they had two daughters, Ava, now 10, and Madison, seven.

The father was found guilty of criminal damage in 2018 and sentenced to eight weeks, but due to his IPP sentence he was returned to prison indefinitely and served a further seven months.

He was called two other times for arrests that led to no further action, including once for a complaint from a neighbor that he said was false and malicious. Each time, the arrests resulted in him serving more than an additional year of pretrial detention.

He was released for the last time on November 22 of last year, after serving one year and seven months of his sentence, despite not having been found guilty of any other crime.

“They remove me every time without charges or crime,” he said. “How am I getting older because someone said something about me?

“I can’t do it. I can’t go back there and miss my children and not see them from inside the prison. And just because they think I’m in a relationship, why should I do two years?

He said the prison sentence made him feel like “I have no hope.”

“It’s ruined my life,” he continued. “Every time I go out and try to build something, they take it away from me again. I miss my children.

“My mental health is seriously bad. “I’m worried about everything right now.”

The father insists that his probation officer knew that he and Abigail were dating and talked about it regularly on their dates, but they were taking things slowly and had not reentered into a committed relationship.

Abigail wants the requirement to notify probation about any intimate relationship removed from the conditions of her licence. Her parole board documents allege it is necessary because he previously abused her, but this is something she strongly denies. He has never been convicted of any domestic crime.

“Any relationship I get into I have to let them know, but we’re not in a relationship,” she said, adding that the withdrawal was “1,000 percent” unfair.

“These IPP sentences are endless. Even when he is away, he lives in fear of returning.

“It was a long time ago and he himself was a child then. “He is sentenced to this sentence for half his life.”

Last week, Britain’s former top judge Lord Thomas described released IPP prisoners as “puppets on a string” because they are vulnerable to malicious or unfounded accusations when he backed the independent campaign to have the “morally wrong” sentences of all IPP prisoners reviewed.

Activist Shirley Debono, co-founder of the IPP Action Committee, has called on the Justice Secretary to help Matthew using new powers available from November 1 that will allow him to release an IPP prisoner without Board approval. Probation. Other recent reforms include reducing the minimum licensing period from ten years to three, but this will not help Matthew.

He said being returned to prison indefinitely is “deeply traumatic” for the prisoner and their families and that they should be given more than the legal 28 days to challenge a decision.

“The reason they run away is because they need to understand it,” he said. “Usually, in the end they turn themselves in because it’s not very pleasant to be on the run. But it is traumatic for IPPs when they are withdrawn from the market.”

A spokesperson for HM Prison and Probation Service said: “Offenders released on license are subject to strict conditions and, as the public would rightly expect, are recalled to prison if there are concerns for the safety of members of the community.” .