Prisoner lastly set to be launched after 20 years behind bars – for nicking a cellphone
Leroy Douglas, 44, has remained behind bars since being sentenced to two-and-a-half years for stealing the mobile in a street robbery in 2005 and is finally being released
Leroy Douglas.(Image: Courtesy Natalie Douglas / SWNS)
A prisoner is finally being released from jail after spending 20 years behind bars – for stealing a mobile phone. Leroy Douglas, 44, has served longer than some murderers and rapists after being sentenced to two and a half years for a non-violent street in 2005.
Despite being a model prisoner with no record of misbehaviour, his heartbroken family say he has been “lost in the system” after being sentenced under the now-abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence.
The controversial sentence meant he was given a minimum term but no maximum, and despite being scrapped in 2012 it did not apply retrospectively so the father-of-two remained trapped.
Natalie Douglas, his sister, has been campaigning for his release for over a decade(Image: Courtesy Natalie Douglas / SWNS)
Leroy’s sister Natalie Douglas, 41, who has relentlessly fought alongside the rest of his family for more than a decade, said he has finally been granted release and is set to be free next month.
She said: “We don’t know why it has taken so long – but he has just been lost in the system and forgotten about. He is very happy coming out and can not believe it – he said he’ll only believe it when he is walking out of the prison gates.
“We have been fighting it for a long time. We had a campaign and a petition that got taken to Number 10. But nothing happened. He has been in so long he just needs to come home to his family – not three hours away in a bail hostel.
Leroy said he stole the phone because he wanted a community order to get help for drug addiction(Image: Courtesy Natalie Douglas / SWNS)
“He should be back where he belongs – not still stuck in the system. He has been very stressed and very sad. With the IPP we thought he’d be out in about four and a half years.
“I’ve heard of murderers and rapists being released quicker. He was in prison for stealing a mobile phone. No-one is excusing what he did but to have been in for 20 years and forgotten in the system is seriously backwards.”
Natalie said he had been transferred to numerous prisons during his stay and has worked hard to prove he had been rehabilitated, but was left to rot.
She added: “Each one has said do this course, do that course and it will help. He’s been moved around like a piece of furniture. But he has been a model prisoner, doesn’t get into any trouble or fights or anything.”
At the time of the original offence Leroy claimed he committed the crime at Cardiff Railway station because he wanted a community order to get help for drug addiction.
He became a father to his youngest daughter just after he was imprisoned, who is now 20 but his other daughter died in 2021 aged just 19.
