Court Overturns IPP Sentences, Hope for Young Offenders

0:00On April 24th, a court of appeal just overturned an indefinite prison sentence for Stuart O'Neill, who raped a teenage girl back in 2009, when he was 20 years old. He got slapped with an imprisonment for public protection term, or IPP, right before that scheme got scrapped in 2012. Now his sentence is fixed at eight years behind bars, plus eight years on license. These IPP deals were for folks judges saw as ongoing threats, with a minimum tariff before parole chances kicked in. O'Neill had a four-year minimum, but he and others served way longer. Their cases got bumped up by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, arguing youth and immaturity weren't weighed enough at the original trials. Dame Barabaird, head of the commission, called it a win, stressing how these guys were super young when sentenced and stuck around past there. Tariffs. She said it highlights needing to factor in age for heavy sentences like that. Some of these prisoners have been waiting years for this kind of break. The court also freed up sentences for five other young offenders, Benjamin Hibbert,

1:04Jay Davis, Jerry Tolbert, Jordan Webster, and Dwayne McLaren. Some fell under the similar detention for public protection for under 18s, also now gone. This ruling shines a light on hundreds still locked up under old rules, and the commission plans to dig into more cases. If you got a loved one in that boat, they say apply after exhausting appeals. They could bring real hope.