Bristol woman, 78, faces prison because her wrist is too small for electronic tag
by Tristan Cork · BristolLiveThe family of a Bristol woman are ‘living in limbo’ after she was told she has to return to prison because a security firm can’t find an electronic tag small enough to fit on her wrist.
Family and friends of Gaie Delap have called on the Government to drop the requirement, or find a tag small enough to allow the 78-year-old to continue to serve her sentence under a curfew at home in Bristol.
At a press conference held in Bristol today (Tuesday, December 17) her friends and family said her health is suffering because of the uncertainty, after she was told that there was a warrant out for her return to prison. She was told that 12 days ago, but hasn’t been arrested yet, and attempts by her, her legal team, her supporters and her MP to clarify the situation and get a decision from the Ministry of Justice has so far failed.
The 78-year-old was one of a group of climate activists who took part in a direct action protest that blocked the M25 around London in November 2022. Her case eventually came to court and she was convicted and jailed for 20 months in August 2024, almost two years after that day.
She was sent to prison in Peterborough and released on November 18, after serving three-and-a-half months of her sentence in jail. She was ordered to serve the rest of her 20-month sentence with an electronic tag fitted to her to enforce a ‘home detention curfew’ between 7pm and 7am.
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The home detention system is run by private company Serco, under a Government contract, and the firm subcontracts the job of fitting and maintaining the tagging equipment to a company called EMS. When EMS staff arrived at her home to fit the tag on November 28, they were unable to fit it to her ankle because of a health condition, and tried and failed to fit it to her wrist - which is 14.5cm around.
They didn’t return with a smaller tag and instead, on December 5, her probation officer told her there was a warrant out for her arrest and return to prison because of an ‘inability to monitor’ her. Since then, despite attempts to talk to the Ministry of Justice and the Prisons Minister made by her lawyers, her local MP for Bristol Central, Carla Denyer, and by her supporters, there has been no official word from the MoJ about her situation. Bristol Live contacted the MoJ late last week and a response is still awaited.
“As a result, she’s living in limbo, with the fear and threat of recall to prison hanging over her,” said her friend Annie Menter. “Her sleep has been affected. She’s lost her appetite, and is experiencing panic attacks for the first time. In addition, she’s being treated for two serious ongoing health conditions, which require hospital investigation. She’s aware that others have had tags that have malfunctioned, and that they have been unable to contact EMS in an emergency, and through no fault of their own, have been summarily returned to prison.
“This is not just about Gaie’s situation. It’s about the wider issues of injustice, and the lack of communication between services which causes untold confusion, distress and anxiety to many, many people,” she added.
Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer said she had been frustrated in trying to sort out the situation. “I’ve been very concerned about her case ever since I heard about it,” she said, in a message from Westminster to the press conference. “In the summer when the sentence was first handed down to her, I wrote to Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, and expressed to her my extreme concerns at the injustice, the disproportionality and, frankly, the waste of money when Government finances are tight, of locking up a peaceful protester like Gaie, who is clearly not a danger to the public. It seemed out of proportion to me,
“When I heard more recently that she was threatened with being returned to prison, because of what seems little more than a procedural irregularity, the fact a privatised company isn’t able to fit the equipment properly, and the fact it was communicated to her very unofficially, so far as I understand she was informed only verbally that she was to be returned to prison, with no details of who had made the decision, why, how she could appeal it.
“So on that basis, I have now also written to the prisons minister Lord Timpson, a man who has spent his entire career working on prison reform, so I was hopeful that he would be amenable to listening to me about this case, and pushing for a review,” said Ms Denyer, adding that she has received a reply from ministers promising that they would look into it, but she has heard nothing more since then.
Her supporters said that the issues with the tags had come up before - when she was initially released on bail awaiting her sentence, she was tagged but there were issues then. Gaie suffers from deep vein thrombosis and a tag couldn’t be fitted to her ankle, so the courts imposed a doorstep curfew instead, where someone from the probation service physically checks she’s at home every evening.
Mike Campbell, Gaie’s friend and co-ordinator of her support campaign, said her GP has got involved too. “As she has already suffered a handcuff radial nerve injury to one hand, he is prepared to check and monitor any tag fitted, to confirm that it is safe and will not cause any restriction to nerve or circulation,” he said.
“We have the support of an electronic tagging expert to measure exactly how big her wrists are - 14.5cm. With the expert advice, we have now established without a shadow of doubt that there are straps/tags that would fit Gaie. We are certain that the firm providing the tags themselves, a company called Allied Universal Electronic Monitoring (AUEM) can provide these and are convinced it shouldn’t be at all difficult to tag Gaie,” he added.
“We have concerns about the direct discrimination that lies behind this case: that women’s needs are not really considered when it comes to fitting tags, that older people and those suffering conditions like deep vein thrombosis are uncatered for. Currently she has complied with all conditions of her licence and curfew hours since her release and has maintained regular contact with her probation officer.
“So the present position is that Gaie is due to return to prison, despite there being no fault on her part, for no other reason than a tag small enough cannot be fitted to her wrist,” he added.
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