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For the first time in his adult life, Tony Betteridge is free. <\/p>\n
He was 18 when he was jailed<\/a> for drunkenly setting fire to a blanket in the store cupboard of an empty building. It was his first time in prison, having grown up in foster care and with his grandparents due to his parents\u2019 drug abuse. <\/p>\n He believed he would serve his minimum term of one year and 203 days<\/a> for the blaze in Redcar, Yorkshire, in 2008, which caused \u00a36,500 of damage and left nobody hurt. <\/p>\n However, the seemingly short sentence turned into a 17-year struggle under an indefinite jail term, which the United Nations now condemns as \u201cpsychological torture\u201d.<\/a><\/p>\n On Tuesday, now aged 35 after more than 6,000 days serving his sentence, he learned his punishment for the teenage crime was finally over as his licence was terminated under reforms brought in last year.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took the best part of my life,\u201d he told The Independent. \u201cNow I just want to live a bit and be happy. Life\u2019s a beautiful gift, and I\u2019m ready to enjoy it. Let me be free.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Mr Betteridge, now 35, wants to start a new life with his partner in Portugal (Tony Betteridge)<\/p>\n Mr Betteridge was one of 8,711 people handed an open-ended jail term called an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence<\/a> for the seven years they were in use by British courts.<\/p>\n They were eventually outlawed due to human rights concerns, but not retrospectively, leaving thousands in prison with no release date.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was my first time in custody, and at the time I didn\u2019t know what an IPP sentence was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I was just sentenced to one year and 203 days, so I didn\u2019t appeal. I was brand new to everything.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it took about six and a half months until a friend on the wing asked me \u2018what did you get sentenced to\u2019. I said one year and 203 days IPP \u2013 not bad eh? He said \u2018you do know what you have been given, don\u2019t you?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI just broke down in the middle of the wing. No one had explained to me what it was \u2013 not even the duty solicitor that was representing me.\u201d<\/p>\n He would go on to spend almost seven years in prison after the Parole Board repeatedly refused to free him, claiming he was not mature enough to be let out. <\/p>\n He was finally released in 2014, aged 24, only to spend the next decade in and out of prison after he was recalled three times under the strict licence conditions of his IPP sentence, despite being convicted of no further crimes. <\/p>\n Each time he served around another year, sometimes longer, until the Parole Board once again agreed to let him go. He was returned to jail on one further occasion for burglary, which he says he deeply regrets.<\/p>\n In total, he spent more than 11 years in custody for the blaze. While he languished, his mother died, his sister was brutally murdered by her abusive partner, and his brother died of an overdose.<\/p>\n \u201cIt [the IPP sentence] just ruined me,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore I went in, I had a full family \u2013 I have got one sister left now, everyone\u2019s gone. It\u2019s just damaged me. <\/p>\n \u201cYou just carry it \u2013 it ruins your head, your heart, your everything. It feels like you are walking on eggshells constantly.\u201d<\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has resisted calls to resentence IPP prisoners (PA)<\/p>\n Despite calls for action from the cross-party justice committee, the UN and Amnesty International, the government has refused to resentence more than 2,500 prisoners still incarcerated under the abolished jail term, including almost 700 who are at least ten years over their minimum tariff. <\/p>\n Injustices highlighted The Independent include that of Leroy Douglas<\/a>, who has served almost 20 years for stealing a mobile phone; Thomas White<\/a>, 42, who set himself alight in his cell and has served 13 years for stealing a phone; James Lawrence<\/a>, 38, who is still in prison 18 years after he was handed an eight-month jail term; and Abdullahi Suleman<\/a>, 41, who is still inside 19 years after he was jailed for a laptop robbery.<\/p>\n![\"Mr](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/TonyBetteridgecc535f32a26cb666b5a92aeeee0c01a7.jpeg\")
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