Fresh hope for IPP inmates as five referred for appeal

Offering fresh hope for those languishing on abolished indefinite jail terms, the nation's watchdog for miscarriages of justice has referred five such cases to the appeal courts.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN CRIME CORRESPONDENT

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) announced it was sending the cases, all related to teenagers or young men, to be reconsidered by judges after launching a major review of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail terms.

The open-ended sentences were scrapped in 2012 and have been described as “psychological torture” by the UN. The 2012 decision did not apply to those already serving the sentences, however, leaving thousands trapped in jail for up to 22 times longer than their original tariff.

This includes many who were children at the time of their offence and handed a type of IPP sentence for under-18s called a Detention for Public Protection (DPP) jail term.

The CCRC launched their review after a string of such sentences were overturned by the Court of Appeal, with eight of 12 cases’ previous appeals resulting in the sentences being quashed, reduced or substituted.

This includes father-of-three Leighton Williams, who was wrongly handed an IPP sentence with a 30-month tariff for a drunken fight at the age of 19.

He served almost 16 years under the sentence - mostly in custody – before it was quashed and replaced with a five-year determinate sentence in the Court of Appeal two years ago. If he had served half of that time in custody, he would have been out of prison by the time he was 22.

Three appeal judges finally set him free on 9 May 2024, aged 36, after finding the original sentencing judge had wrongly counted a previous offence, committed when he was 17, against him.