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A 78-year-old environmental campaigner, Gaie Delap, has been released from prison on home detention after a suitable electronic tracking tag was found to fit her. Delap, who is from Montpelier in Bristol, was jailed for 20 months for her part in a protest that blocked the M25. She was released on licence in November to serve the remainder of her sentence at home, but recalled to prison when an appropriate tracker couldn’t be found to monitor her. Delap was freed on Home Detention Curfew on 31 January after the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) found a tag to fit her.
None of the existing tracking devices available to the MoJ were small enough to fit Delap’s wrist as she suffers from a medical condition, which ruled out the use of a conventional ankle bracelet. The MoJ has previously explained that if offenders can’t be monitored in the community electronically, they’ll be sent back to prison, irrespective of fault. Delap’s family and friends criticised the decision to extend her sentence in an open letter.
Delap’s Home Detention Curfew is due to end on 7 April. A friend and former senior probation officer who has helped coordinate the campaign for Delap’s release, Mike Campbell, said, “While we celebrate Gaie’s return home, this should never have happened in the first place. This is not the end of our campaign. While we await the judgment of the Court of Appeal, we will seek annulment of the 20 ‘unlawfully at large’ days. We will also consider a complaint to the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.”
Delap’s brother, Mick Delap, said, “Gaie is overjoyed to be back at home. She is enormously grateful for the support she has received. Gaie is also keen that we shouldn’t forget the large numbers of prisoners, especially women, serving equally unjust terms of recall and whose suffering her case has highlighted. She is one of many peaceful climate protesters who have been jailed as a result of their actions – and more being added to the list every day.
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