Two men jailed indefinitely as teenagers have been freed after spending two decades in custody, despite minimum terms of less than three years, the Guardian reports.
Luke Ings and Liam Bennett had their sentences overturned and replaced with shorter terms at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Wednesday following reviews by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). A third man, James Ward, also had his sentence replaced with a much shorter term after spending years in prison beyond his original minimum tariff.
Mr Justice Choudhury, sitting with Magistrate Norma Grant, told the men they had already spent considerably longer in custody than their replacement sentences. Bennett was resentenced to four years and 264 days, Ings to 42 months with a 30-month extended licence, and Ward to two years.
The CCRC said its referrals followed recent Court of Appeal decisions concerning the treatment of young offenders. It said there was a real possibility that sentencing judges had not given sufficient weight to age and maturity when assessing their dangerousness and future risk.
Bennett and Ings were both 17 when they committed the offences that led to their sentences. According to the CCRC, Bennett was sentenced in 2007 after offences including arson, criminal damage and burglary. He had received an indeterminate sentence with a minimum term of two years and 82 days.
The Guardian reported that Ings was sentenced in 2006 after admitting offences including robbery and assault. Ward, now 41, was 21 when he was sentenced to an indeterminate term with a one-year minimum for arson and criminal damage. He was released in 2017 after serving about 10 years beyond his minimum term but was later recalled to prison and remained there until August.
The CCRC said it had referred 25 IPP and DPP cases to the Court of Appeal during 2026 and had more than 250 cases under review. It said the recent judgments had opened an avenue for people whose sentences may have been imposed without sufficient consideration of their age and maturity.
Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) and detention for public protection (DPP) sentences were abolished in 2012. The abolition was not retrospective, meaning prisoners already subject to the sentences were not automatically released.
The latest Ministry of Justice figures show 856 people serving IPP sentences had never been released by June 2026, while a further 1,415 people were in custody following a recall to prison. Around eight in 10 of those who had passed their minimum tariff had spent at least 10 years beyond it.
The government has said it intends to bring forward legislation to end IPP sentences ‘once and for all’ during the current parliament.
