A father who has spent 18 years in prison after receiving an eight-month sentence remains uncertain about when he will be released. James Lawrence was sentenced under an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) order in 2006, with a minimum term of just eight months for threatening someone with a starting p!stol when he was 20 years old.
At the time, Lawrence told the court he carried the imitation firearm for protection, having been stabbed in the same area a year earlier.
Now, at 38, he has served 25 times his original sentence and is believed to be one of the UK’s longest-serving over-tariff IPP prisoners.
IPP sentences were abolished in 2012 due to human rights concerns, but this change did not apply to those already serving time under the order.
Mandy Lawrence, James’s mother, shared her heartache with The Independent, saying, “In his time, he’s seen murderers come in and go home. It’s tormenting for his family, and for him. I often wonder if I’ll see him properly before I die. I was in my forties when he went in, and now I’m in my sixties. It’s truly heart-wrenching.”
Before completing his minimum eight-month sentence, James had already spent four months and 14 days in prison while held on remand. He also received a concurrent 10-month sentence for an unrelated assault during a drunken pub fight.
Campaigners continue to push for the complete abolition of IPP sentences. Labour peer Lord Woodley said that while “ministers are not yet aligned on the resentencing exercise proposed in my private member’s bill, they share my determination to end the injustice of the IPP sentence once and for all. There’s much at stake.”
He described James’s case as “shocking” and pointed out that of the 2,734 IPP prisoners still incarcerated, over 700 have served more than a decade beyond their minimum terms.
Despite having no new convictions, James has been recalled to prison five times for minor breaches of strict license conditions. In one instance, he was sent back to prison just two months after his release for returning to his bail hostel two hours and five minutes past curfew.
Mandy revealed that her son has made multiple suicide attempts. “James isn’t a bad person; he was kind and polite. Everything escalated from nowhere. He was a talented footballer and attended a school of excellence, but then it all fell apart, and nobody could help him,” she said. “I blamed myself for years. I worry constantly about his attempts on his life—will he try again?”
She, along with many others, is calling for the urgent resentencing of the remaining IPP prisoners. LADbible has reached out to the Ministry of Justice for comment.
If these issues resonate with you and you need support, don’t hesitate to call Samaritans’ 24-hour anonymous helpline at 116 123.