IPP prisoner with psychosis must move to hospital now’

Family issues plea after Thomas White smashes face on floor

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

A father whose mental health has crumbled after serving 13 years in prison for stealing a mobile phone has suffered a crisis which left him smashing his own face on the floor.

Thomas White, who is languishing under an abolished indefinite jail term described as “psychological torture” by the UN, was last week moved to a prison hospital wing after he suffered the shocking episode in front of other inmates.

The father has been repeatedly denied a transfer to a secure hospital despite suffering psychosis, religious delusions and last year setting himself alight in desperation as he lost hope of being freed from his imprisonment for public protection (IPP) jail term.

His family and lawyer are calling for him to finally be moved for in-patient mental health treatment ahead of a meeting about his future after last week’s rapid deterioration which left him with a suspected broken nose and severe facial bruising.

“Thomas went into a serious psychotic episode and repeatedly smashed his face off the floor and then tried to break his own legs,” his sister Clara White told The Independent.

“He has now been placed on the in-patient hospital wing at HMP Manchester. I’m just tired of my brother’s horror stories. He doesn’t remember it. He’s very bruised, broken nose, very shaken up.”