‘Disgrace’ of Cardiff man trapped in prison for 20 years for stealing a mobile phone

Martin Shipton

A leading campaigner against miscarriages of justice has described as “absolutely disgraceful” the fact that a man from Cardiff has been in jail for 20 years for stealing a mobile phone.

Leroy Douglas, now 43, was told he must serve a minimum of two years and six months for robbing a man of his phone to feed his drug habit in 2005.

But he still has no release date as he remains trapped in a now abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) jail term.

IPP sentences were introduced in England and Wales in 2005. They were  intended for people considered “dangerous”but whose offence did not merit a life sentence. In common with the life sentence it contains three elements:

* A minimum term that a person must spend in prison, judged to be a just dessert for the crime committed.

* Detention in prison for a potentially unlimited period until the person can prove that they are no longer a threat to the public.

* Release back into the community on licence, with the potential of being returned to custody.

Scrapped

IPP sentences were scrapped in 2012 due to human rights concerns, but that didn’t lead to the automatic release of those already in prison under the provision. Instead they must await a decision from the Parole Board that they are safe to release. Of 2,614 people still incarcerated on an IPP jail term, 127 prisoners like Douglas have served at least 15 years longer than their original minimum term. He is understood to be one of 186 people who have served at least five times longer than their original sentence.

However, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr Alice Edwards, has warned the UK Government that it is “very likely” breaching some IPP prisoners’ human rights. She issued a fresh call for the government to resentence those trapped in jail by IPP.

Dr Edwards told The Independent: “Keeping them locked up indefinitely, without a clear path to release, is simply inhumane.

“Some of the IPP prisoners are very likely being detained arbitrarily, by international standards. Notably those who have been incarcerated for longer than they would have been on the ordinary definite sentencing system.”

‘Cruel’

In an appeal from prison, Douglas begged: “This IPP sentence is cripplingly cruel. My detention has become inhumane and degrading and they ought to intervene now.”

He was denied release at his last parole hearing in 2023, despite a psychologist recommending he be freed.

“Twenty years in jail for stealing a mobile phone… stole half my life,” he told The Independent from inside HMP Stocken, in Rutland.

“I’m very remorseful and accept full responsibility for my previous offending behaviour. I know what it’s like to be a victim since I have been racially attacked and cut my face whilein prison.

“My detention has clearly become arbitrary, no longer necessary. I’ve completed 36 courses to reduce perceived risk factors in order to help with being released.”

Douglas received his first conviction aged 15 after he started smoking cannabis which soon progressed to harder drugs, including heroin. He racked up several convictions after stealing to fund his addiction.

He was eventually handed an IPP term after he robbed a friend of his mobile phone behind Cardiff railway station. No one was hurt in the incident, which he claims he committed while on licence because he wanted to get arrested to get a community order for drug treatment.

Despite remaining drugs-free for years in prison and receiving no convictions for violence – although he was handed a five-week sentence for money laundering in 2020 – he has been refused parole because of his disruptive behaviour as he loses hope of ever being freed.

A psychologist found he is “institutionalised, feels aggrieved by his continued incarceration and hopeless in his ability to progress” and engages in “maladaptive behaviours” in a bid to maintain some control over his situation.

Concluding he can be safely managed in the community, the expert added: “I feel continued incarceration will only amplify his feelings of hopelessness and continue to destabilise him.”

During his time in prison, Douglas has lost family members, including one of his two daughters, who died aged 19 in 2021.

He dreams of opening his own business after being released and said he had received “more than my just desserts” for his crime, calling for Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood to use her powers to order his release.

“It would mean everything to me to be released from jail,” he said. “I could get on with my life and start the second chapter of my life. Meet a nice woman… maybe marry and stay crime-free.”

‘Appropriate action’

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “It is right that IPP sentences were abolished. With public protection as the number one priority, the Lord Chancellor is working with organisations and campaign groups to ensure appropriate action is taken to support those still serving these sentences, such as improved access to mental health support and rehabilitation programmes.”

Journalist Satish Sekar, one of Britain’s leading miscarriage of justice campaigners who has published four books on the notorious 1988 murder of Cardiff sex worker Lynette White, said: “In my opinion it’s an absolutely absurd case, The fact that this man has done 20 years in prison and his crime is the stealing of a mobile phone is incredible. He has done more time in prison than some of the nastiest murderers in British history. That simply cannot be right.

“They knew that the IPP sentences had to be scrapped, but they didn’t backdate it. It was very simple to deal with. All you needed to do was say if IPP was wrong – and it’s been accepted it is wrong – then you should be re-sentencing. And that should have made it very easy to deal with. You simply take every single IPP case and you put it up for resentencing. So another judge hears just the sentencing side of it.

“You’re perfectly within your rights to say these people have been convicted of particular crimes, if they want to test their criminal conviction we’ll deal with that later.

“In Mr Douglas’s case, the sentence is absolutely disproportionate to the crime that was committed. There is absolutely no way it is possible to justify a young man or woman or even someone older ending up in prison for 20 years for stealing a mobile phone.

“That is disgraceful, especially when you consider that the Parole Board decided recently that Jeffrey Gafoor, the real murderer of Lynette White, was no longer a danger to the public after 22 years in prison. That’s only two years longer than Mr Douglas has already served for stealing a mobile phone.

“If you want to be particularly harsh about it, you could say that is a crime that was maybe worth a five-year sentence. That’s the absolute maximum that he should have been in prison for. He’s now done four times what should have been the maximum. This is absolutely disgraceful.

“If we want the rest of the world to see how our criminal justice system is worthy of emulation, then we have to go back and correct injustices like this.”