A terrified father has gone on the run after learning he is to be hauled back to prison indefinitely over claims he has restarted a relationship with the mother of his children.
Despite already serving his minimum term more than three times over, Matthew Booth, 33, is wanted by police on recall to prison for a crime he committed when he was just 15.
Under the terms of the indefinite Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence he was handed, Matthew can be recalled without notice for breaches of strict licence conditions.
So far, he has been hauled back to prison three times. But now probation has said he must return to prison yet again because they have been told he has restarted a relationship without notifying them.
However, both Matthew and the woman in question have told The Independent that claims they are back in a serious relationship are false.
The pair, supported by campaign group IPP Committee in Action, are calling on the justice secretary Shabana Mahmood to use new powers to intervene and cancel his recall.
Matthew, now a fugitive living in a tent, said: “What am I going back for? What crime have I committed? If I had committed a crime I would understand. It’s not happening, I would rather kill myself.”
Abigail Vernon, with whom he shares two young daughters, added: “He’s still being punished for something he did when he was 15 years old.
“Every time he gets out and starts building his life back up again it gets taken away.”
IPP jail terms - under which offenders were handed a minimum jail term but no maximum – were ditched over human rights concerns in 2012, seven years after they were introduced by New Labour in a bid to be tough on crime.
Despite being widely condemned, including by the UN, its abolition did not apply retrospectively, leaving thousands trapped with no release date until the Parole Board deems them safe to be let out.
When they are finally released on licence, many IPP prisoners like Matthew have found themselves in a recall ‘merry-go-round’ under strict conditions which can see them returned to jail indefinitely for minor breaches including missing a curfew, getting drunk or, in some cases, missing a hospital appointment.
Of the 2,734 IPP prisoners still incarcerated, some 1,602 have been recalled and more than 700 have served over 10 years longer than their minimum term.
At least 90 have taken their own lives in prisons under the hopeless jail term, with an estimated further 30 suicides in the community.
Matthew, from Bolton, endured a traumatic childhood and was handed an IPP for wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm after he intervened in a fight aged 15, hitting someone over the head with a brick to protect a friend. He later jumped on someone’s head in separate fight.
He was told he must serve a minimum of two years and seven months when he was sentenced aged 16.
Although he admits his crimes were serious, he said: “It was my first custodial sentence. I needed help, not a life sentence.”
He served six years before he was first released in 2013. He met Abigail, now 29, the same year and they went on to have two daughters Ava, now 10, and Madison, seven.
The father was convicted of criminal damage in 2018 and sentenced to eight weeks, but because of his IPP sentence he was returned to prison indefinitely and served another seven months.
He was recalled another two times over arrests that led to no further action, including once over a complaint by a neighbour which he said was false and malicious. Each time the arrests resulted in him serving more than a year further in custody.
He was last freed on 22 November last year, after serving one year and seven months, despite being convicted of no further offences.
“I am getting recalled every single time for no charges, no crime,” he said. “How am I doing years because someone said something about me?
“I can’t do it. I can’t go there again and miss my children and not see my kids from inside prison. And just because they think I’m in a relationship – why should I do two years?”
He said the jail term made him feel like “I have got not hope at all”.
“It’s ruined my life,” he continued. “Every time I get out and I try and build something it gets taken away again. I miss my kids.
“My mental health is seriously bad. I am worried about everything right now.”
The father insists his probation officer was aware he and Abigail were dating and they would regularly discuss this in his appointments, but they were taking things slowly and have not re-entered a committed relationship.
Abigail wants the requirement for him to notify probation over any intimate partnerships to be removed from his licence conditions. His parole board paperwork alleges it is required because he was previously abusive to her, but this is something she strongly denies. He has never been convicted of any domestic offences.
“Any relationship he enters into he has to let them know, but we aren’t in a relationship,” she said, adding the recall was “1000 per cent” unfair.
“These IPP sentences – it’s just never-ending. Even when he’s out he lives in fear of going back.
“It was a long time ago and he was a child himself then. He’s on this sentence for half of his life.”
Last week, Britain’s former top judge Lord Thomas described released IPP prisoners as like a “puppet on a string” because they are vulnerable to malicious or unfounded allegations as he backed The Independent’s campaign for all IPP prisoners to have their “morally wrong” sentences reviewed.
Campaigner Shirley Debono, co-founder of IPP Committee in Action, has called for the justice secretary to help Matthew by using new powers available from 1 November allowing her to release a recalled IPP prisoner without approval from the Parole Board. Other recent reforms include reducing the minimum licence period from ten years to three, but this will not help Matthew.
She said being hauled back to prison indefinitely is “deeply traumatic” for the prisoner and their families and they should have longer than the statutory 28 days to challenge a decision.
“The reason they go on the run is because they need to get their head around it,” she said. “They usually hand themselves in eventually because it’s not very nice being on the run. But it’s traumatic for IPPs when they are getting recalled.”
An HM Prison and Probation Service spokesperson said: “Offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions and as the public would rightly expect, they are recalled to prison if there are concerns for the safety of those in the community.”
