Dad’s plea for help to keep jailed son from self-harm
SWAMPED by messages of support, worried dad Maurice Stevens now hopes his son doesn’t attempt to take his own life after being recalled to prison on his birthday following a near 12-year battle for freedom.
Danny Weatherson fought for his release after being caught up in the controversial Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences which came into force for England and Wales in 2005 but were axed in 2012.
Danny was just 18 when a judge recommended he served almost 16 months for two attempted robberies before he could apply for parole – but it took 11 years and nine months for him to be released.
He got out on July 3 and was told to spend three months in a hostel in Leeds before being allowed to return to home soil in Newcastle.
Frustrated at not being with his family, without benefits and miles away from home, Danny threw a chair on the floor in the hostel which bounced and cracked a window.
It was on his 29th birthday on July 18 and he was recalled to prison.
Now dad Maurice fears for his son’s mental state as he has already attempted to take his own life in 2016 when he was locked up. And he is asking our army of readers to send his son cards to help Danny survive.
“If anyone genuinely fancies sending Danny a ‘thinking off you’ card or something similar to perk him up please do. I am worried that he might attempt to kill himself or self harm, it’s a possibility, and I’m worried about his mental state of mind,” said Maurice, 45, of Lemington, Newcastle.
“Since I told Danny’s story there have been so many people sending messages of support and I am going to HMP Leeds to see Danny on Friday and I’ll tell him how everyone is thinking of him.
“I hope it gives him the support he needs.”
Builder Maurice, a dad of 12, added: “He has been in prison for almost 12 years for two attempted robberies of a coat and a mobile phone.
“The courts were handing these PPI sentences out like confetti at the time and weren’t thinking of the consequences.
“Danny served all that time in prison for two offences that weren’t that serious and then, when he got out, was put in a hostel in Leeds. He was away from his family, he signed on for benefits but his money was taking five to six weeks to come through, which meant he had no money to live on. He was frustrated.”
He added: “Danny is institutionalised and, because of the situation on the outside, I think he prefers it in prison. I have spoken to him on the phone since he was recalled and he feels as though he has let everyone down. I feel he was set up to fail, he should have been here with us in Newcastle.
“I’m just thinking of ways to perk him up so he doesn’t attempt anything stupid and if cards were sent in to him, it might make him realise how many people care about him.”
When Danny, of Scotswood, Newcastle, spoke to The Sunday Sun after his release, he said: “I have wanted to get out of prison for so long but now that I’m out it is worse than being locked up. I’m not getting the support I need – I am bipolar and things have changed since I was out last. I feel like handing myself back into prison because I can’t cope out here. I wanted to be back in Newcastle to be with my family.”
West Yorkshire Police, which covers the Leeds area, said they would not comment on individual cases.
Last year, we told Danny’s plight of how his time inside has been in high security prisons including HMP Northumberland, HMP Moorlands in Doncaster, HMP Armley in Leeds, HMP Frankland in Durham and, lastly, in HMP Hull.
He had taken to selfharm to get him through dark days, but Danny’s family revealed in February 2016 that the parole board said he could be moved to a category D open prison.
However, just weeks later, he was told the prison that had been chosen was changed and Danny tried to kill himself as his hopes were shattered.
His solicitor, Shirley Noble, said he was being kept inside as he “poses a risk to himself” and uses the self-harming mechanism to release the pain he suffers emotionally.
And his dad used his son’s attempted suicide to highlighted the IPP sentences, intended to protect the public against criminals whose crimes were not serious enough to merit a normal life sentence but who were regarded as too dangerous to be released when the term of their original sentence had expired.
Anyone wanting to send a card to Danny can post it to ChronicleLive reporter Lisa Hutchinson at NCJmedia, Thomson House, Groat Market, Newcastle, NE1 1ED, who will pass them on to Maurice. MAURICE STEVENS