77-year-old grandmother Gaie Delap has been recalled to prison as her wrists are too small to fit an electronic monitoring tag. She took action in 2022 to demand the government end all new licenses and consents for oil and gas projects – something which is now government policy.
Gaie Delap: an outrageous miscarriage of justice
Yesterday evening, police arrived at her home in Bristol, to escort Gaie to HMP Eastwood Park, which has the highest rates of self harm of any women’s prison in England and Wales. She will now spend Christmas in prison and is understandably terrified after her experiences during her last period of incarceration.
Gaie was sentenced, alongside four co-defendants, to 20 months imprisonment in August 2024 for her part in an action on the M25 in November 2022. Four (including Gaie) were released early, three of whom have been successfully tagged.
She was released on 18 November on a home detention curfew (7pm to 7am) with a tag. EMS was unable to fit a tag to Gaie’s ankle due to a health condition, so attempted to fit a tag to her wrist, but failed. This resulted in a warrant for her arrest being issued on 5 December, despite Gaie being fully compliant with the terms of her release.
Gaie has met all the conditions of her curfew since her early release on 18 November and maintained regular contact with her probation officer.
She suffers from numerous health conditions and suffered a stroke in the runup to her trial in August of this year. She experienced significant mistreatment in prison, suffering wrist problems after being handcuffed to a bed in hospital. The warrant for her arrest was issued whilst she was receiving treatment in hospital.
‘Cruel’ and ‘unnecessary’
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:
Gaie took action in 2022 after the government announced that it would issue over 100 new oil and gas licenses. This was despite summer temperatures climbing above 40C, railways buckling in the heat, harvests being decimated, and the London Fire Brigade experiencing the most calls since WWII. There were 61,000 excess deaths from the heat in Europe that year. Gaie took this brave action out of a deep sense of duty to protect her children, grandchildren and indeed all of us.
Meanwhile those causing real disruption- the fossil fuel executives, the water company bosses, the corrupt politicians who profited over dodgy PPE contracts, all walk free.
Friends and family of Gaie Delap issued a statement in which they said:
We are outraged by her recall to prison. We know this is cruel, and totally unnecessary. We know there are alternatives to the tag. We know that if she had been a man, a tag would have been available to EMS.
Because of medical conditions, Gaie requires a wrist tag, or some equivalent. And we know from our own investigations and enquiries there are many out there.
Moreover, Gaie is absolutely no threat to the community. This recall to prison is a ridiculous waste of resources and money. It will cost the taxpayer £12000 to keep Gaie in prison. We cannot believe that there is not an electronic monitoring device that can be fitted at a fraction of the cost.
We want common sense to prevail.
Labour must act
Serco were stripped of their tagging contract in 2019, and fined £23m after it was accused of charging the Government for the electronic monitoring of people who were dead, in jail, or had left the country. It lost its contract in 2013 and was fined £70m and £4m costs for the same reason. It only got the contract back in May 2024.
Gaie was imprisoned under the Public Order Act, – legislation that was written with the aid of the oil company funded think-tank, the Policy Exchange.
The Public Order Act has subsequently been found to be unlawful by the High Court, after the Home Secretary at the time used ‘subordinate secondary legislation’, a Henry VIII power, to circumvent the will of parliament and force it onto the statute books. The legislation remains in place whilst the government appeals this decision.
Gaie’s family are calling on supporters to contact the Secretary of State for Justice, Shabana Mahmood, who is the only person who now has the discretion to reverse the decision to recall her.
A crowdfunder has been launched for Gaie’s legal fees here: https://goodlawproject.org/
Featured image supplied
