A terrified father has gone berserk after learning he is to be sent back to prison indefinitely over claims he has resumed a relationship with the mother of his children.
Despite having already served his minimum term more than three times, 33-year-old Matthew Booth is asking the police to recall him to prison for a crime he committed when he was just 15. age.
Under the terms of his indeterminate Public Protection Imprisonment (IPP) sentence, Matthew can be revoked without notice for breaches of strict license conditions.
So far, he has been hauled back to prison three times. But now he has been told by probation that he must return to prison again because they have been informed that he has started a relationship without informing them.
However, said Matthew and the woman in question The Independent that the claims that they are back in a serious relationship are false.
The pair, backed by the IPP campaign group Committee in Action, are calling on justice secretary Shabana Mahmood to use new powers to intervene and overturn his recall.
Matha, who is now a refugee in a tent, said: “Why am I going back? What crime have I committed? If I had committed a crime I would understand. It’s not happening, I’d rather kill myself.”
Abigail Vernon, with whom he shares two daughters, said: “He’s still being punished for something he did when he was 15.
“Every time he gets out and starts to build his life back up, it’s taken away.”
IPP prison terms – under which offenders were given a minimum prison term but no maximum – were scrapped amid human rights concerns in 2012, seven years after New Labor introduced them in a bid to get tough on crime.
Despite widespread criticism, including from the UN, its abolition was not retroactive, leaving thousands detained without a release date until the Parole Board deems it safe to release them .
When they are finally released on licence, many IPP prisoners like Matthew have been recalled under strict conditions that allow them to be returned to prison indefinitely for minor infractions including curfews ask, get drunk or, i. some cases, missing hospital appointment.
Of the 2,734 IPP prisoners still in prison, approximately 1,602 have been revoked and over 700 have served 10 years beyond their minimum term.
At least 90 people have taken their own lives in prisons under the hopeless prison term, and there are an estimated 30 more suicides in the community.
Matthew, from Bolton, suffered a traumatic childhood and was given an IPP for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after he intervened in a fight aged 15, hitting someone over the head with a brick to protect a friend. He later jumped on someone’s head in a separate fight.
He was told he must serve at least two years and seven months when he was sentenced to 16 years.
Although he admits his crimes were serious, he said: “It was my first custodial sentence. I needed help, not a life sentence.”
He served six years before being released for the first time in 2013. He met Abigail, now 29, the same year and they have two daughters Ava, now 10, and Madison, seven .
The father was convicted of criminal damage in 2018 and sentenced to eight weeks, but due to his IPP sentence he was sent back to prison indefinitely and served a further seven months.
He was recalled twice more for arrests that resulted in no further action, including a complaint from a neighbor that he said was false and malicious. Each time as a result of the arrests he was put in custody for over a year.
He was released on November 22 last year, after serving a year and seven months, despite being convicted of no other offences.
“I’ve been reminded every single time of no charges, no crime,” he said. “How am I doing years because someone said something about me?
“I can’t do it. I can’t go there again and miss my children and not see my children from prison. And just because they think I’m in a relationship – why should I do two years?”
He said the prison term affected him because “I have no hope at all”.
“It’s ruined my life,” he continued. “Every time I go out and try to build something it gets taken away again. I miss my children.
“My mental health is bad. I’m worried about everything right now.”
The father insists that his probation officer was aware that he and Abigail were dating and would discuss this regularly in his appointments, but that they were taking things slowly and are not in a committed relationship again.
Abigail wants to remove from the conditions of his license the requirement that he notify probation of any close partnerships. Her parole board paperwork alleges that he is wanted because he was abusive to her in the past, but she vehemently denies this. He has never been convicted of any domestic offences.
“Any relationship he does he has to let them know, but we’re not in a relationship,” she said, adding that the recall was “1000 percent” unfair.
“These IPP sentences – it’s endless. Even when he is out he is afraid to go back.
“It was a long time ago and he was a child himself then. He is on this sentence for half his life.”
Last week, Britain’s former top judge, Lord Thomas, described the release of IPP prisoners as a “puppet on a string” because they are vulnerable to malicious or unfounded allegations he supports. The Independents campaign to review the “morally wrong” sentences of all IPP prisoners.
Campaigner Shirley Debono, co-founder of IPP Committee in Action, called on the justice secretary to help Matthew by using new powers available from November 1 to allow her to release recalled IPP prisoners without permission from the Parole Board. Other recent reforms include reducing the minimum license period from ten years to three years, but that won’t help Matthew.
She said it is “extremely traumatic” for the prisoner and their families to be dragged back to prison indefinitely and they should have more than the statutory 28 days to challenge the decision.
“The reason they go on the run is because they have to get their head around it,” she said. “They usually turn themselves in at the end because it’s not very nice to be on the run. But it’s traumatic for IPPs to remember.”
A spokesman for HM Prison and Probation Service said: “Offenders released on license are subject to strict conditions and as the public would expect, they are returned to prison if there are concerns for the safety of people in the community. “