Andrew Whittle, 48, was jailed in 2011 for the assault on a good Samaritan and was given a three-year indeterminate sentence for public protection by a judge has never been released
Whittle had been held at Dartmoor prison before it was closed(Image: SWNS)
A robber jailed for three years for a brutal attack with a meat cleaver is still in jail 15 years later.
Andrew Whittle, 48, was jailed in 2011 for the assault on a good Samaritan and was given an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) by a judge at Bolton Crown Court.
The indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) was for three years and four months, but Whittle has never been released from that 40-month term.
IPP were used between 2005 and 2012 and was intended for dangerous offenders whose crimes did not merit life sentences and involved a minimum tariff, followed by indefinite detention until the Parole Board deemed the offender safe to be released, but led to high rates of continued incarceration, according to the Prison Reform Trust.
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And while serving at HMP Dartmoor in 2024, Whittle was caught at different times with three mobile phones, including an iPhone and a Samsung phone, and two chargers.
On May 12, Plymouth Crown Court heard that Whittle made 58 calls from them to his brother and a female friend, but none were for illegal activity.
Judge Robert Linford heard that Whittle – currently at HMP Fosse Way – has 22 convictions for 91 offences and admitted eight charges surrounding the possession and use of the phones, reported PlymouthLive.
Judge Linford said: “In 2011 you were given an IPP sentence for public protection of three years and you have served over 15 years. While serving that sentence at Dartmoor you committed these offences. You know the rules about this.”
The judge added: “I have some degree of understanding of your position. I am not really going to say much more about that.”
He did question whether Whittle had appealed the IPP sentence and said he had his own opinion about IPP and ‘people that serve ferociously long periods in custody’.
But he said he had to impose another jail sentence on Whittle for the phone offences. He jailed him for a total of 18 months saying: “I cannot get any lower than that.” Whittle was also ordered to pay the victim surcharge of £187.
In 2011, Whittle, then 32, attacked a Good Samaritan with a meat cleaver after she gave him a lift in her car, suffering head wounds which needed 20 stitches.
Whittle, of Bolton, admitted attempted robbery, wounding with intent and having an offensive weapon and was jailed for three years and four months as part of the IPP sentence by the judge at Bolton Crown Court.
HMP Dartmoor has not held prisoners since 2024, when it was closed due to safety concerns over radioactive radon gas. The HM Prison and Probation Service is now spending £4 million per year on rent, rates and security on a prison building that cannot be used.
Unless steps are taken that will enable Dartmoor to reopen and prisoners to return to the site, the prison service will continue to pay £4 million every year on an uninhabited prison until the lease ends on 2033, to an estimated total of £32m over the remaining lease period.
