Gaie Delap’s family and friends have released a statement following her release under Home Detention Curfew on Friday 31 January. Gaie Delap, a grandmother, Quaker, and ‘earth defender’ who was sentenced to 20 months in prison for joining a Just Stop Oil action on the M25 in November 2022, was recalled to prison before Christmas after a suitable tag could not be found to allow home monitoring.
Gaie Delap: home, but it’s not over yet
On Friday the family were informed that she had been released – already fitted with a tag of the same size that it was claimed did not fit her two months ago.
The statement reveals in full detail a catalogue of errors and lies by Serco/EMS and its operatives and the failure of the Probation Service and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to investigate and intervene.
Mick Delap, Gaie’s brother, said:
Gaie Delap’s family and friends can confirm that on Friday 31 January, Gaie was released from Eastwood Park prison under Home Detention Curfew. This followed a visit on 30 January from a senior operative of Serco’s Electronic Monitoring Service who established that a wrist strap of 15 cm would provide secure electronic monitoring. Fitted with a tag in the prison she returned to her home in Bristol to resume serving her Home Detention Curfew.
It is worth pointing out that nearly 10 weeks after Serco/EMS claimed that the 15 cm wrist strap was not secure enough to allow her to remain properly monitored at home, she has in fact been fitted with the same size. The failings of Serco have resulted in an additional 42 days spent in prison and an extended 20 days for being so called ‘unlawfully at large’.
Gaie is overjoyed to be back at home. She is enormously grateful for the support she has received, not just from family and friends, but from many generous and committed individuals and organisations, especially her MP Carla Denyer and the Good Law Project. This welcome news represents a small victory for justice and common sense. This is not compassion; it’s the law finally being applied as it should be.
He continued:
Gaie is also keen that we shouldn’t forget the large numbers of prisoners, especially women, serving equally unjust terms of recall and whose suffering her case has highlighted.
Gaie would not want us to forget where this journey started for her – how, in despair at the ravages of the climate emergency, she was moved by the words of Sir Ben Okri, ‘Can’t you hear the future weeping? Our love must save the world’.
She is one of many peaceful climate protesters who have been jailed as a result of their actions – and more being added to the list every day. Her thoughts, and the thoughts of her family and supporters, are with them all.
Mike Campbell, close friend and former senior probation officer, who has helped coordinate the campaign to release Gaie, added:
While we celebrate Gaie’s return home, this should never have happened in the first place. And it’s fitting that on the very day of her release, just over two years on from her peaceful Just Stop Oil protest on the M25, it was reported that the decision to permit the Rosebank and Jackdaw North Sea oil & gas fields was deemed unlawful.
Gaie’s whole experience raises numerous questions about the treatment of peaceful climate protesters, the functioning of the criminal justice system, and the role of private contractors like Serco.
This is not the end of our campaign. While we await the judgment of the Court of Appeal, we will seek annulment of the 20 ‘unlawfully at large’ days. We will be asking questions of the Ministry of Justice, prison and probation authorities, and Serco about the recall process.
A catalyst for change
The Good Law Project noted that it:
will continue to support Gaie and her legal team to explore legal action against Serco, the company responsible for fitting electronic monitoring tags, and Shabana Mahmood for failing to comply with their duty under the Equalities Act.
Campbell concluded:
As for her experience in prison, Gaie says she met and got to know many good people and was shown much kindness by inmates and officers. She is, however, shocked to discover that 40% of women in Eastwood Park, like her, are on recall, often for trivial and insubstantial reasons. She estimates the cost of her recall to be approximately £8,000 to the taxpayer.
She hopes her case will highlight the failures of Serco/EMS and the high level of recalls. These failures, with determination and leadership, could and should be investigated and rectified. She hopes her experience will be a catalyst for change and benefit others.
Finally, she says a big thank you for all the love and support she has received, which sustained her while in prison.
Featured image supplied
