‘I stole a mobile phone almost 20 years ago - I've spent half my life in prison'

Independent

16-02-2025

A father who stole a mobile phone when he was in the grips of a drug addiction is still languishing in prison almost 20 years later under an 'inhumane' indefinite jail term.
Leroy Douglas, 43, was told he must serve a minimum of two years and six months for robbing a man's phone behind a train station to feed his habit in 2005.
Despite getting clean inside and completing 36 prison courses, he has served his sentence almost eight times over and still has no release date as he remains trapped on a now abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail term.
In a heartfelt appeal from prison, he begged: 'This IPP sentence is cripplingly cruel. My detention has become inhumane and degrading and they ought to intervene now.'
His appeal comes after the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Dr Alice Edwards warned the government is 'very likely' breaching some IPP prisoners' human rights as she issued fresh calls for the government to resentence those neglected under the jail term.
Dr Edwards told The Independent: 'Keeping them locked up indefinitely, without a clear path to release, is simply inhumane.
'Some of the IPP prisoners are very likely being detained arbitrarily, by international standards. Notably those who have been incarcerated for longer than they would have been on the ordinary definite sentencing system.'
The open-ended sentence was abolished in 2012 due to human rights concerns, but not retrospectively, leaving thousands trapped until a Parole Board deems them safe for release.
Of 2,614 people still incarcerated on an IPP jail term, 127 prisoners like Douglas have served at least 15 years longer than their original minimum term. He is understood to be one of 186 people who have served at least five times longer than their original sentence.
Others caught up in the abolished sentence for minor crimes include Thomas White, 42, who set himself alight in his cell after serving 13 years for stealing a phone; James Lawrence, 38, who is still in prison 18 years after he was handed an eight-month jail term; and Abdullahi Suleman, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery.
Another IPP prisoner, Yusuf Ali, 50, was left skeletal and fighting for his life after spending 61 days on hunger strike over his jail term.
Despite more than 90 suicides inside prison and repeated calls from the justice committee, the UN and the architect of the flawed sentence Lord David Blunkett, successive governments have refused to resentence IPP prisoners.
Douglas, from Cardiff, described his incarceration as 'arbitrary' after he was denied release at his last parole hearing in 2023, despite a psychologist recommending he is freed. Shockingly, the Parole Board even got his name wrong in their refusal documents.
'20 years in jail for stealing a mobile phone... stole half my life,' he told The Independent from inside HMP Stocken, in Rutland.
'I'm very remorseful and accept full responsibility for my previous offending behaviour. I know what it's like to be a victim since I have been racially attacked and cut my face whilst in prison.
'My detention has clearly become arbitrary, no longer necessary. I've completed 36 courses to reduce perceived risk factors in order to help with being released.'
In the early stages of his sentence, he made a successful compensation claim against the Ministry of Justice for breaching his human rights by denying him access to courses necessary for his release and was paid several thousand pounds, but the government said it no longer had records for claims made so long ago.
Douglas received his first conviction aged 15 after he started smoking cannabis which soon progressed to harder drugs, including heroin. He racked up several convictions after stealing to fund his addiction.
He was eventually handed an IPP term after he robbed a mobile phone from a friend behind Cardiff train station. No one was hurt in the incident, which he claims he committed while on licence because he wanted to get arrested to get a community order for drug treatment.
Despite remaining clean for years in prison and receiving no violent convictions, although he was handed a five-week sentence for money laundering in 2020, he has been refused parole because of his disruptive behaviour as he loses hope of ever being freed.
A psychologist found he is 'institutionalised, feels aggrieved by his continued incarceration and hopeless in his ability to progress' and engages in 'maladaptive behaviours' to in a bid to maintain some control over his situation, in reports seen by The Independent.
Concluding he can be safely managed in the community, the expert added: 'I feel continued incarceration will only amplify his feelings of hopelessness and continue to destabilise him.'
During his time in prison, Douglas has lost family members, including one of his two daughters, who died aged 19 in 2021.
The father, who dreams of opening his own business on the outside, said he had received 'more than my just desserts' for his crime and called for the justice secretary Shabana Mahmood to use her powers to order his executive release.
'It would mean everything to me to be released from jail,' he said. 'I could get on with my life and start the second chapter of my life. Meet a nice woman… maybe marry and stay crime free.
'I stole a mobile phone with no physical violence in 2005 and I've had more than my just desserts doing 19 years in jail. My detention has become unlawful and no longer necessary for the protection of the public.'
Campaigner Shirley Debono, who co-founded IPP Committee in Action, has been supporting Douglas in prison.
'The whole system has failed him,' she said. 'I just feel so sorry for him. He's one of the ones whose not committed any violence in prison and tried to hold himself together.
'He should never have been kept in prison all these years. The prison system has let him down massively.'
In changes passed before the general election, licence conditions for IPP prisoners were reduced from 10 years to three. However, both Conservative and Labour governments have resisted calls to resentence IPP prisoners to determinate jail terms, with prisons minister Lord Timpson insisting they will not overrule the Parole Board.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: 'It is right that IPP sentences were abolished. With public protection as the number one priority, the Lord Chancellor is working with organisations and campaign groups to ensure appropriate action is taken to support those still serving these sentences, such as improved access to mental health support and rehabilitation programmes.'