Britain’s first IPP prisoner to make a public bid for freedom from an abolished indefinite jail term is “lost” and fears he will never be freed after a devastating parole refusal.
Nicholas Bidar was left broken and “humiliated” when a Parole Board panel refused to recommend his release or move to open conditions earlier this year.
The 36-year-old was handed a controversial imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence with an eight-year minimum tariff for a string of robberies and using a gun to resist arrest aged 20 in 2008.
But 16 years later he is still being held in a maximum-security Category A prison with no release date.
To raise awareness of his plight, he applied to be the first IPP prisoner to have his parole hearing held in public after new laws came into force to increase transparency around parole decisions.
Ahead of the landmark hearing in March, Mr Bidar told The Independent how the reality of his uncertain sentence has impacted him, adding: “Every day feels like torture. I struggle daily to get through the day.”
He insisted his status as a high-risk Category A prisoner had left him a “political prisoner” after a 2021 parole review had recommended him for progression to open conditions, but this was blocked by the secretary of state for justice who refused to downgrade him.
In their latest refusal, the Parole Board admitted his Category A status was “interfering” with his progress in prison and urgently called for this to be reviewed. But six months later, no such review has taken place.
Now his family says he has completely lost the person he was and he is losing hope of ever being freed from maximum security HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire.
“He has taken a massive step back,” a family spokesperson told The Independent, adding there has been “no progress” regarding his categorisation.
“He’s gone from a state of thinking I am going to be home at some point and now he says he’s never coming home. It’s not happening. That’s his mindset – no one is going to help.
“He called us the other day, we had a prison video call. He just said what is the point in my waking up anymore.
“It’s so difficult to hear that. He committed his crime and deserved to go to prison for it because it was wrong.
“It’s so difficult when he’s seeing people walk out of the door. Some of these people have committed sexual crimes or potentially murdered someone and he’s there for a crime he committed when he was 20.”
IPP jail terms were introduced under New Labour in 2005 and saw offenders given a minimum tariff but no maximum. They were scrapped in 2012 amid human rights concerns, but not for those already detained.
Of 2,734 remaining IPP prisoners with no release date, more than 700 have served more than 10 years longer than their minimum tariff.
The government is facing growing pressure to resentence them after at least 90 inmates have taken their own lives under the jail term, which has been branded “psychological torture” by the UN.
Mr Bidar acknowledged his offending was serious – including further assaults committed in prison and a period in which he escaped custody – admitting “I did wrong”.
But he insisted he had completed his sentence plan and told the parole board members: “I’m not that person anymore.”
His family fears without hope of being released he will only decline in prison. They also backed a private members bill tabled last month for all outstanding IPP prisoners to be resentenced.
“If he stays in until he’s 40 or 45 things are not going to get better,” they added. “He’s not going to learn any more lessons.
“He’s just going to deteriorate. Keeping him in now doesn’t achieve anything. It’s causing IPP prisoners like him mental health problems.”
The family said conditions inside the maximum-security prison were squalid – with Mr Bidar spending 23 hours a day in a cell with only a bucket to use as a toilet. A recent water contamination issue left him vomiting into the same bucket for weeks, they added.
“What he did was a long time ago,” they said. “He was a young, stupid kid. But he just made the wrong choice and I just think he needs one chance.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “It is right that IPP sentences were abolished. We are significantly shortening licence periods for some rehabilitated offenders and supporting those still serving these sentences.
“Decisions about prisoner categorisation are regularly reviewed and the Prison Service conducts thorough risk assessments to determine the appropriate security category for each prisoner, based on the risk of escape, harm to the public, and the security and control of the prison.”