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Hello,
It was a long night for the prisoner who clambered onto the roof of Strangeways on Wednesday, the people who turned up in fluffy slippers and dressing gowns to watch and my colleague James Holt - who was there until long after the emergency crews had left the scene.
In today’s newsletter, we'll be discussing the incident at HMP Manchester and the controversial law that seems to have sparked it.
Wearing a bin bag in the rain
In the latest case of nominative determinism, the prisoner who scaled the roof of HMP Manchester yesterday is called Joe Outlaw.
The 36-year-old - who in 2011 was jailed for robbery for an indeterminate length - managed to find his way onto the roof of one of the buildings within the grounds of the Category A jail at around 4.30am on Wednesday afternoon. The prison immediately went into lockdown.
Wearing just a pair of trackie bottoms, a sweatshirt, trainers and a bin bag, he stayed there for 12 hours. It’s not yet clear how he got onto the roof. Though one person proffered an imaginative theory: “Did he pop out of that pipe like Mario?”
Outlaw’s presence attracted not only hordes of police officers, but also hordes of TikTokers. As James Holt reports, an increasing number of spectators appeared as the night wore on.
“Some came clad in fluffy slippers and dressing gowns, filming for Snapchat or going live on TikTok, as others turned out in cars with blasting loud music providing entertainment as they eagerly watched on. Families also spectated with young children and babies in prams. 'Go on, lad!' shouted some in a seeming call of solidarity for his protest - as others laughed and giggled, whistling with their fingers in an attempt to grab his attention.”
With the prison’s famous Victorian chimney setting off the scene behind him, Outlaw stood precariously on the rooftop for hours on end.
And using what appears to be a piece of chalk he managed to daub the words 'FREE IPPZ' on the tiles of the roof. It was a phrase he would shout out repeatedly during the long stand-off. It’s a message thought to refer to Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences (IPP), which were abolished in 2012 but which many prisoners still serve under. More on that later.
At one stage, Outlaw was seen making a love heart gesture and wearing a makeshift poncho as rain lashed down on the rooftop and the wind howled through the many mobile phone cameras held in his direction. He also yelled, repeatedly and at the top of his voice, while occasionally waving his arms around.
As the sun set and the temperatures dropped, Outlaw could be seen attempting to dry his clothes on top of a shiny metal chimney.
James reports that many assumed he would give up as the weather worsened. “He could be seen visibly sodden, shivering and rubbing his hands together to try and keep warm - but remained stationed on the roof for hours more,” he writes.
Eventually, at around 4.15am on Thursday, the protest ended. Police say the inmate ‘willingly came down from the roof’ and was ‘back in the custody of prison staff’. But that wasn’t the end of Outlaw’s long day. Prison bosses warned he would ‘face punishment’ and he was hauled before a judge first thing this morning.
Outlaw in court
Just less than six hours after descending from the Strangeways roof, Joe Outlaw appeared at Bolton Crown Court to face sentencing for an offence that took place at another prison.
Ethan Davies was there to watch the hearing and tells me that Outlaw appeared via videolink from HMP Manchester and could be seen slouched across two seats. As Judge Nicholas Clarke KC entered the courtroom, Outlaw let out a big yawn and said: “I’m a bit tired” - a complaint that appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Despite his fatigue, the judge ploughed on with sentencing the defendant for causing criminal damage to his cell at HMP Hindley on January 28 last year.
Prosecutor James Preece told the court that an ‘irate’ Outlaw had that evening made threats that he would smash up his care and separation unit (CSU) cell. He ripped a toilet and sink from the wall, flooded the room, ripped plasterboard out exposed pipework and damaged light fittings, flooring, and furniture, causing a total of £17,064 damage. He also used a bic razor blade to cut his stomach so deep that it exposed his stomach lining - an injury which landed him in hospital.
At the time he claimed the outburst was because staff refused initially to take him to hospital, but he also told another prison officer it was because he had £30 taken off him, referencing a dispute about HMP Hindley’s finance department, Ethan reports.
David Bentley, defending, said Outlaw’s actions were a ‘cry for help’ after a deterioration in his mental health. He suffers from ADHD, PTSD, and OCD and was receiving medication which was impacted when he moved to HMP Hindley, causing ‘significant detoxification symptoms’, the court heard.
Judge Clarke KC sentenced Outlaw to 16 months imprisonment to be added to his existing jail term.
Who is Joe Outlaw?
Joe Outlaw, also known as Chris Attiller Hordosi, has 36 previous convictions for 70 offences. He has served time at several different prisons and has previously caused more than £50,000 worth of damage to other prison roofs.
Currently serving time at HMP Manchester, he was handed an indeterminate imprisonment for public protection sentence (IPP) for robbery in 2011. That sentence effectively means he was not given a date for release.
Criminal damage offences added another seven years to his prison term and that total was totted up to eight years and four months after today’s sentencing for the damage to the cell at HMP Hindley last January.
So far, Outlaw has been incarcerated for the last 12 years, despite a Court of Appeal ruling setting the fixed element of his IPP to four-and-a-half years. In that time, he has vandalised prisons holding him six times and ended up on the roof on five occasions including yesterday’s incident at Strangeways.
In 2013, he used home-made tools to scale a 20-foot high fence which he was eventually ‘coaxed down’ from after seven hours. The next year, he was handed a two-year jail term at Norwich Crown Court for a similar stunt. And in 2018, at Maidenhead Crown Court, he was sentenced to 18 months for criminal damage to a prison after an incident in 2015. The same year he appeared before the bench in Maidenhead after he ‘climbed on to a roof and caused damage’ of that prison. Then, in 2021, there was a ‘similar incident’ to the 2018 episode, Judge Clarke explained today.
His barrister, David Bentley, says Outlaw blames the incidents on his IPP sentence, which he regards as leaving him with ‘no light at the end of the tunnel’.
What was the protest about?
The ‘FREE IPPZ' message scrawled on the prison roof by Outlaw appears to reference the now-abolished court sanction Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences (IPP).
Here, crime reporter John Scheerhout explains what it means and why the sentences are controversial.
Introduced by then-Home Secretary David Blunkett in 2005, IPPs allowed judges to pass minimum terms, often of just a few years, after which prisoners had to convince the Parole Board they were safe to be released. If not, they would remain behind bars.
But IPP prisoners were not given access to courses that would prove they had been rehabilitated. As John writes, it means some ‘lost hope and many of them kicked off behind bars’.
“Your average prisoner serves half their sentence. But an IPP prisoner who was sentenced for a relatively minor crime could be forced to remain behind bars far longer than many killers, rapists, major drug dealers, paedophiles and organised criminals.”
IPPs were abolished in 2012 on the back of a European Court ruling that they breached human rights. Then-Justice Secretary Ken Clarke said the sentence had been 'inconsistent', used far more than intended and had proved 'unjust' for many recipients.
But that move wasn't retrospective, and by 2019 there remained 2,489 prisoners still locked up on IPP sentences.
'84 Seconds of Truth'
Outlaw apparently feels so hard done to by his IPP sentence that it has even inspired him to rap about the subject.
He has previously shared a number of videos on TikTok and Youtube in which he talks and raps about the 'injustice' of the controversial sentence, as Tom George reveals.
In one video, posted this month under the username 'FREELICENSE99Z’, he urges people to 'look into' the 'fundamentally flawed' sentences and vowed to raise awareness of them. "The IPPs are getting forgotten about now," he said. "It's painful, man. It's sad because you've got to understand you've got nearly 10,000 people who got sentenced that sentence.” He adds: "That's thousands, tens of thousands of sisters, sons, brothers, mums, uncles, family members. There's lads that are sat there suffering to this day badly."
In another clip, titled '84 Seconds of Truth', Outlaw raps: "A 12-year from a four-year. Reck' that's eight years over, don't you think I've paid my debt?”
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Weather etc
Friday: Cloudy changing to light rain by late morning. 11C.
Road closures: A662 Pollard Street Westbound, New Islington, closed due to roadworks from Pollard Street to A665 Great Ancoats Street. Until April 13.
Trivia question: Which studio album by The Smiths was released after the group had disbanded?
Manchester headlines
For Paul: A new mural which pays tribute to Paul O’Grady has appeared on Canal Street after a previous artwork in Manchester was defaced. Street artist Manchester Murals, aka Chris Moore, created a mural of the TV star and entertainer on the Fallowfield Loop last month when news of his death broke. But it was defaced just days later and painted over with a new design by other street artists with a heartfelt ‘RIP Paul O’Grady’ slogan. Now, a new mural paying homage to O’Grady’s alter-ego Lily Savage has appeared outside The Church, formerly Churchill’s bar, in Manchester’s Gay Village. More here.
Homeless: A refugee father and his family have been left 'homeless' following allegations he was assaulted at a hotel housing asylum seekers. Shay Babagar, his wife and daughter have been sofa-surfing since leaving the hotel in November. Protesters stormed Stockport Council offices on Tuesday, demanding the family is housed immediately. The local authority says it is bound by laws requiring the Home Office provides asylum seekers accommodation. Greater Manchester Police have confirmed an investigation into a suspected assault on Shay at the hotel where they lived is ongoing, but no arrests have been made. Serco, which manages the hotel, completely rejects the allegations. Full story here.
New club: Bolton could be on the cusp of getting a brand new swinger’s club with sauna areas and a ‘dungeon’ if plans for the members-only club are approved by the council. Proposals for the site, which previously housed Dave’s Aquarium on Folds Road, include a bar, dancefloor, couples’ changing rooms, lockers and a pool table. Plans of the upstairs include private rooms, ‘swing beds’, a sauna, waterbeds, a four-poster, Roman and African-themed rooms, a mirror room, a large communal ‘playroom’, and a UV room. The aquarium closed in 2021 following an RSPCA raid during which several animals were removed. More here.
Repairs: New images of crumbling ceilings and rotting beams have laid bare the challenges of repairing Ashton’s Grade-Two listed iconic Town Hall. Tameside Council is planning to repair the building on Market Square after winning nearly £20m in Levelling Up funding in 2021. And now planning documents have revealed the scale of the works required. Ashton Town Hall, which opened in 1840, has been closed, along with the Museum of the Manchester Regiment, since 2015. Story and pictures here.
Worth a read
James Worthington is a successful property developer and a very nice man. He says he’s sold all his houses in order to build a shelter for rough sleepers.
The dad bought a former carpet shop on Seedley Road, in Salford, in 2019 and was originally planning to develop the site into nine self-contained flats to sell on for profit.
But after the pandemic hit and planning permission was halted, James offered the empty building - which was already equipped with showers, lighting and heating, to JVA CIC - an outreach group supporting veterans living on the streets.
James overcame homelessness before building up his company and decided to sell his house, refinance the Seedley Road site and transform it into a specialist homeless facility that would help get people off the streets for good.
You can read the full story, by James Holt, here.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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The answer to today's trivia question is: Strangeways, Here We Come
