Help Release Trapped IPP Prisoner Danny Weatherson
Donation protected
Hello, I am Maurice Stevens, the dad of Danny Weatherson.
Danny was sentenced to a 15 month IPP sentence for attempted robbbery of a coat and mobile telephone back in 2005 aged 17 years old. 14 years later my son is still locked up for the same crime because of the injustice of the IPP Sentence.
We are not trying to Justify Danny's initial crime and understand as does Danny that there should be consequences, but these consequences should fit the crime and the sentences should be appropriate.
Danny has served 14 years in prison for an attempted robbery of a coat and mobile phone, to put that into perspective that is longer than some prisoners have served that have been found guilty of heinious crimes such as murder and Rape.
For anyone who is not familiar with the injustice of the IPP Sentence please read on.
The IPP sentence
Introduced in 2003 by Lord David Blunkett, Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences (IPPs) were designed to detain serious offenders, mostly sex offenders, who were perceived to be a risk to the public. The Home Office initially estimated that they’d incarcerate just 900 dangerous criminals under the sentence.
Like a normal prisoner, criminals would be given a tariff, such as Danny's 16 months, but could be kept in prison indefinitely as long as the Parole Board believed they still posed a threat.
By 2010 there were approximately 10,000 prisoners serving IPP sentences, over ten times more than intended when they were first brought in under the Criminal Justice Act in 2003.
In 2012, the sentence was abolished under the Coalition government thanks to a European Court ruling that claimed it violated human rights.The horror inflicted by the perceived never ending nature of IPP was finally acknowledged by the government’s decision to scrap their use.
However, its abolition wasn’t retrospective, meaning there are still 2,600 (as of 10th January 2019) prisoners serving the sentence without a release date, costing those inside their sanity and the taxpayer approximately £131m per year. (this article was from 14th August 2014).
Many IPP prisoners have attempted to take their own lives as has Danny and some have been successful in doing so. Danny attempted suicide in 2016 and then again around Christmas. Danny suffers from depression and Bipolar and is finding it extremely more and more difficult being away from the people he loves. We are desperate to get Danny home with his family where he belongs and have managed to get a Human Rights Lawyer to help us try and do this at Danny's next Parole hearing on the 10th October 2019. We are asking for help to cover the fees that are associated with this. My son is no harm to anyone other than himself and his mental state deteriorates every day that he is wrongfully kept behind bars.
We would appreciate any support you can offer and would love it if you could give whatever you can afford to help us reach our target.
Many thanks
Maurice Stevens
Danny was sentenced to a 15 month IPP sentence for attempted robbbery of a coat and mobile telephone back in 2005 aged 17 years old. 14 years later my son is still locked up for the same crime because of the injustice of the IPP Sentence.
We are not trying to Justify Danny's initial crime and understand as does Danny that there should be consequences, but these consequences should fit the crime and the sentences should be appropriate.
Danny has served 14 years in prison for an attempted robbery of a coat and mobile phone, to put that into perspective that is longer than some prisoners have served that have been found guilty of heinious crimes such as murder and Rape.
For anyone who is not familiar with the injustice of the IPP Sentence please read on.
The IPP sentence
Introduced in 2003 by Lord David Blunkett, Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences (IPPs) were designed to detain serious offenders, mostly sex offenders, who were perceived to be a risk to the public. The Home Office initially estimated that they’d incarcerate just 900 dangerous criminals under the sentence.
Like a normal prisoner, criminals would be given a tariff, such as Danny's 16 months, but could be kept in prison indefinitely as long as the Parole Board believed they still posed a threat.
By 2010 there were approximately 10,000 prisoners serving IPP sentences, over ten times more than intended when they were first brought in under the Criminal Justice Act in 2003.
In 2012, the sentence was abolished under the Coalition government thanks to a European Court ruling that claimed it violated human rights.The horror inflicted by the perceived never ending nature of IPP was finally acknowledged by the government’s decision to scrap their use.
However, its abolition wasn’t retrospective, meaning there are still 2,600 (as of 10th January 2019) prisoners serving the sentence without a release date, costing those inside their sanity and the taxpayer approximately £131m per year. (this article was from 14th August 2014).
Many IPP prisoners have attempted to take their own lives as has Danny and some have been successful in doing so. Danny attempted suicide in 2016 and then again around Christmas. Danny suffers from depression and Bipolar and is finding it extremely more and more difficult being away from the people he loves. We are desperate to get Danny home with his family where he belongs and have managed to get a Human Rights Lawyer to help us try and do this at Danny's next Parole hearing on the 10th October 2019. We are asking for help to cover the fees that are associated with this. My son is no harm to anyone other than himself and his mental state deteriorates every day that he is wrongfully kept behind bars.
We would appreciate any support you can offer and would love it if you could give whatever you can afford to help us reach our target.
Many thanks
Maurice Stevens
Organizer
Maurice Stevens
Organizer
