Jailed yet again - this time on his birthday
the mobile phone he originally was locked up for. It has been a nightmare for everyone.”
When Danny, of Scotswood, Newcastle, spoke to ChronicleLive 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 self-harm to get him through dark days, but Danny’s family revealed in February 2016 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 selfharming mechanism to release the pain he suffers emotionally.
And his dad used his son’s attempted suicide to highlight 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.
Danny, who had been in trouble for a string of minor crimes before Top, Danny Weatherson, 28, of Scotswood, Newcastle, pictured after being released from prison after 11 years 9 months, pictured with dad Maurice, and above, a family picture of Danny being jailed, was among those who felt they had been left to rot behind bars.
Ministry of Justice data shows the number of IPP prisoners still being held since the sentences was abolished are over 3,000 and last year 553 were released.
The authorities admit the IPP sentence was widely criticised and “used far more widely than intended”. And this is why it was replaced with a new regime of tough, determinate sentences, alongside life sentences for the most serious offenders.
Former Justice Secretary Elizabeth Truss said on IPP sentencing: “We need to be realistic that these prisoners on these sentences have committed serious crimes and that some are dangerous people. But there are others that have long served their minimum term and are committed to proving that they are safe for release.”