by The first British IPP prisoner to publicly bid for freedom from an overturned indefinite prison term is “lost” and fears he will never be freed after a devastating parole rejection.
Nicholas Bidar was left broken and “embarrassed” when a Parole Board panel refused to recommend he be released or moved to open conditions earlier this year.
The 36-year-old was given a controversial public protection (IPP) sentence with a minimum tariff of eight years for a series of robberies and the use of a gun to arrest a 20-year-old in 2008.
But 16 years later he is still being held in a maximum security Category A prison with no release date.
To raise awareness of his plight, he applied to become the first IPP prisoner to have his parole hearing held in public after new laws came into effect to increase transparency in parole decisions.
Ahead of the landmark hearing in March, Mr Bidar said The Independent as the reality of his indefinite sentence hit him, adding: “Every day feels like torture. I struggle every day to get through the day.”
He argued that his status as a high-risk Category A prisoner had left him a “political prisoner” after a parole review in 2021 recommended he move on to open conditions, but the justice secretary of state block this which refused to downgrade it. .
In their latest refusal, the Parole Board admitted that his Category A status was “interfering” with his progress in prison and called for an urgent review. But six months later, no such review has taken place.
Now his family say he has completely lost the person he was and is losing hope of being released from HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire.
“He has taken a huge step back,” a family spokesman said The Independentadding that “no progress” has been made in its categorization.
“He’s gone from thinking I’ll be home sometime to now he says he’s never coming home. It’s not happening. That’s his mentality – nobody’s going to help.
“He called us the other day, we had a prison video call. He said exactly what is the point in my awakening more.
“It’s so hard to hear. He did his crime and he deserved to go to jail for it because it was wrong.
“It’s so hard when he sees people walking out the door. Some of these people have committed sexual crimes or maybe murdered someone and he’s there for a crime he committed when he was 20 years old.”
IPP prison terms were introduced under New Labor in 2005 and offenders were given a minimum tariff but not a maximum tariff. They were destroyed in 2012 amid human rights concerns, but those already in detention were not.
Of the remaining 2,734 IPP prisoners with no release date, more than 700 have served more than 10 years beyond their minimum tariff.
The government is facing mounting pressure to crack down after at least 90 inmates took their own lives under what the United Nations has described as “psychological torture”.
Mr Bidar admitted his serious conviction – which included further assaults in prison and a period in which he escaped from custody – was an admission “I did wrong”.
But he insisted he had completed his sentencing plan and told parole board members: “I’m not that person anymore.”
His family fear that he will be hopelessly released and that he will only languish in prison. They also supported a private members’ bill tabled last month to have all outstanding IPP prisoners sentenced.
“If he stays in until he’s 40 or 45 things won’t get better,” they said. “He’s not going to learn any more lessons.
“It’s getting worse. Nothing will accomplish keeping him in now. He is causing mental health problems for prisoners like him.”
The family said conditions inside the maximum security prison were squalid – with Mr Bidar spending 23 hours a day in a cell with only a bucket to use as a toilet. A recent water contamination issue left him vomiting into the same bucket for weeks, they said.
“It was a long time ago what he did,” they said. “He was a young, stupid kid. But he made the wrong choice and I think he needs one chance.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “It is right that IPP sentences should be ended. We are significantly shortening license periods for some rehabilitated offenders and supporting those who are still serving these sentences.
“Prisoner categorization decisions are regularly reviewed and the Prison Service carries out thorough risk assessments to determine the appropriate security category for each prisoner, based on the risk of escape, harm to the public, and prison security and control.”
