Man jailed indefinitely for 23 months’ crime lost his life after 17 years

Britain’s longest-serving prisoner, who was jailed on an IPP warrant, took his own life in his cell – 17 years after he was jailed on a 23-month bond. Scott Rider, 45, was given a minimum charge of 23 months for GBH while on license for a previous offense in 2005.

An inquest last month found Scott killed himself by hanging at HMP Woodhill in June 2022 while serving a now-abandoned controversial public protection (IPP) prison sentence. The court found “at the time of Scott’s death there were insufficient staff and the continued length of his sentence was uncertain”.

IPP sentences were introduced in 2005 and scrapped in 2012 and have no release date. There have been calls for the 1,227 IPP prisoners who were never released to be resentenced.

A bill is making its way through the House of Lords and will be debated and voted on in the coming months. Scott’s sister, Michelle Mahon, 55, blames the prison system and IPP sentences for his death.

She is campaigning for a review of IPP sentences and says that if Scott were alive he would be Britain’s longest-serving IPP prisoner. Michelle from Durham, County Durham, said: “My aim is to get these IPPs assessed – I believe they were only assessed two years ago in 2022 and essentially nothing has been done about them.

“If he had gotten a regular rate of 23 months, he would have been out and not even served 23 months. They said he wouldn’t obey and that’s why he wasn’t released.

But waking up in a bad mood and telling the prison staff to stop is no reason to keep him in prison. If Scott had not committed suicide, he would be the nation’s longest-serving inmate without parole.

“How can there still be IPP prisoners for something that was abolished all those years ago? I don’t blame the prison, it’s the prison system and the IPP sentences. At the time of his death, Woodhill had only 54 percent staff coverage.

“It made me try to take my own life – it had a huge effect.”

Michelle says Scott was a loving brother and devoted uncle, but says he fell in with the ‘wrong crowd’ at 14 and eventually got into drugs. After being sent to prison in 2003 for assaulting their father, Michelle says she lost contact with her brother.

She says she was aware that he had been released from prison and that he had cleaned up his life: he had met a girlfriend and was expecting a baby. But after his girlfriend suffered a miscarriage, Scott was arrested after assaulting a colleague.

He was given an IPP sentence, and Michelle never heard from him again. His family were told Scott had died when two prison officers from Durham Prison showed up at their door in June 2022.

Michelle says a guard from Woodhill Prison had arrived at an old address for her father the previous day. A jury inquest into his death was held at Milton Keynes Coroner’s Court in March this year.

It was concluded that his death was the result of suicide, and on June 13, 2022, Scott was found hanging in his cell. It concluded: “Scott Rider was a prisoner at HMP Woodhill and was serving a prison sentence for public protection.

“This was an indeterminate sentence. The minimum tariff was 23 months, Scott had been in prison for 17 and a half years at the time of death.”

It said Scott was transferred to prison 12 months before his death, adding: ‘He was supported by staff members as best they could in the circumstances, but did not always participate. There was no outward indication before Scott’s death that he was at risk for suicide at that time.

“Scott’s goal was to be transferred to another prison in the North. At the time of Scott’s death, there were insufficient staff and the continued length of his sentence was uncertain.”

Michelle, a mother of four and a retired nurse, said after his inquest that her brother had tried to take his own life in 2016. She said he was not properly monitored and had been moved to 30 different prisons since he was incarcerated. 2005.

She added: “For over 200 days before his death he had not left his cell – for seven months he never left his cell to shower, exercise, nothing. I want these IPP penalties to be reviewed – they were abolished in 2012. and ten years later, people are still in prison.”

The latest statistics from the Ministry of Justice show that 2,852 IPP prisoners are behind bars, of which 1,227 have never been released. Baroness Fox of Buckley has tabled an amendment to the Victims and Prisoners Bill, calling on the Government to hold grudges.

The United Group for Reform or IPP – a campaign group – said Scott was likely to receive one of the longest sentences given the IPP was introduced in 2005. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.