A mum is pleading for help to get her son released from jail saying she is being torn apart by his sentence. David Cummins was locked up in 2008 following a robbery when he was given an imprisonment for public protection sentence. (IPP)
These were aimed at protecting the public from dangerous and persistent offenders. However in 2012, seven years after they were introduced by then Home Secretary David Blunkett, they were scrapped following a European Court ruling that they were in breach of human rights, reports the Manchester Evening News.
But as the abolition wasn't retrospective it means there are still 2,926 prisoners in jail serving IPP sentences. At his hearing at Manchester Crown Court Cummins was told he must serve three and a half years before being considered for parole.
