Hodgson, Application for Set Aside by the Secretary of State for Justice [2025] PBSA 44 (02 July 2025) [2025] PBSA 44
[1]This is an application by the Secretary of State for Justice (the Applicant) to set aside the decision of a Panel of the Parole Board to direct the release of Hodgson (the Respondent). This is an eligible decision.[2]I have considered the application on the papers. These are: a) The dossier now paginated to 203 pages; b) the decision letter dated 24 April 2025; and c) The application for set aside dated 19 June 2025 Background[3]On 5 March 2024 the Respondent was sentenced, upon his guilty pleas, to a total of 28 months imprisonment for offences of affray and threatening a person with an offensive weapon in a public place which he committed, whilst armed with a machete, during an incident of disorder which involved a number of people outside a hospital on the afternoon of 27 December 2023. The Sentence Expiry Date is given as May 2026.[4]The Respondent has a criminal record of convictions for 32 offences since the age of 13 including wounding, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, making threats with a bladed article, possession of a knife, assault, battery, criminal damage, harassment, obstructing a police constable, possession of drugs with intent to supply and possession of drugs. He has also breached, and failed to comply with, court orders and bail requirements.[5]The Respondent was aged 23 at the time of sentencing and is now 24 years old.[6]He was released automatically on licence on 2 January 2025. He was recalled on 30 January 2025 due to his poor behaviour and his persistent failure to adhere to his curfew. His whereabouts were unknown despite efforts to locate him, and he was eventually arrested within an area from which he was excluded by a licence condition.[7]He was returned to custody on 3 February 2025, and this is the first review since his recall to prison. Application for Set Aside[8]The application for set aside has been drafted and submitted by the Public Protection Casework Section (PPCS) acting on behalf of the Applicant.[9]The application for set aside submits that, the decision for release would not have been made if information, constituting a significant change in circumstances impacting the professional risk management assessment, had been available when the Panel made the decision to direct the Respondent’s release.[10]The content of the application will be considered in the Discussion section below. Current parole review[11]The Respondent’s case was referred to the Parole Board by the Applicant to consider whether to direct his release.[12]A single member of the Parole Board considered the case at member case assessment and on the basis of the papers alone directed the Respondent’s release. The Relevant Law[13]Rule 28A(1)(a) of the Parole Board Rules 2019 (as amended by the Parole Board (Amendment) Rules 2022) (the Parole Board Rules ) provides that a prisoner or the Secretary of State may apply to the Parole Board to set aside certain final decisions. Similarly, under rule 28A(1)(b), the Parole Board may seek to set aside certain final decisions on its own initiative.[14]The types of decisions eligible for set aside are set out in rule 28A(1) . Decisions concerning whether the prisoner is or is not suitable for release on licence are eligible for set aside whether made by a paper panel (rule 19(1)(a) or (b)) or by an oral hearing panel after an oral hearing (rule 25(1)) or by an oral hearing panel which makes the decision on the papers (rule 21(7)).[15]A final decision may be set aside if it is in the interests of justice to do so (rule 28A(3)(a)) and either (rule 28A(4)): a) a direction for release (or a decision not to direct release) would not have been given or made but for an error of law or fact, or b) a direction for release would not have been given if information that had not been available to the Board had been available, or c) a direction for release would not have been given if a change in circumstances relating to the prisoner after the direction was given had occurred before it was given. The reply on behalf of the Respondent[16]The Respondent has offered no representations in response to this application . Discussion[17]The Respondent is assessed as posing a Very High risk of causing serious harm to the public, children and a known adult and as posing a Very High/High risk of reoffending.[18]The Community Offender Manager (“COM”) had expressed particular concern that the Respondent was likely to seek out young females, whether already known to him or within the community, for sexual relations as he had presented as preoccupied with creating opportunities for sexual relations/sexual flirtation.[19]Conditions to be attached to his licence upon release included that he was not to have unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18 without the prior approval of his supervising officer except where that contact was inadvertent and not reasonably avoidable in the course of lawful daily life and also that he was not to contact or associate with a number of named females.[20]Prison telephone logs now indicate that the Respondent has the use of a mobile phone in prison which he has utilized to establish contact with his 15 year old niece in the community via his mother's telephone and so been able to facilitate contact with other young females, thus raising concerns about child exploitation.[21]In addition, it is reported that he has failed to engage with the prison rules and regime, displaying increasingly poor behaviour since the release decision was made and it is alleged that on 11 June 2025 he spat at and made several threats to a prison officer. This matter has been referred to the police.[22]In these circumstances the COM is no longer supportive of release and takes the view that the Respondent’s risks cannot be effectively managed in the community.[23]In consequence of this new information and change in circumstances the Applicant submits that the release decision should be set aside.[24]I have carefully considered the documentation placed before me, including the application for set aside and the new information provided. I am conscious that no representations have been received by or on behalf of the Respondent nor has any extension of time been requested.[25]I am in no doubt that on the evidence before me the Panel would not have given a direction for release if this information had been before it at the relevant time and I confirm that I am satisfied that it is in the interests of justice for the Panel's decision to be set aside . Decision[26]The application for set aside is granted. PETER H.F.JONES 02 July 2025