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Case update 29 January 2025

Gaie Delap sentence appeal and bail application heard

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Gaie Delap must be released on bail today. If she’s not we’ll be supporting her to launch a challenge against the Ministry of Justice next week

Retired teacher Gaie Delap is having her sentence reviewed in the Court of Appeal. Her lawyers are also asking the court to grant her bail. She and 15 other environmental activists, jailed in the past year, will appear at the court to ask England’s most senior judge to reconsider the “unduly harsh” sentences – sentences longer than those handed down for many violent crimes and sex offences. 

But Gaie shouldn’t be in prison at all. Back in November she was released into the community, to serve out the rest of her sentence under a licence. A sentence she abided by in full. But on 20 December, 78-year-old Gaie was dragged back to prison to spend Christmas in a jail cell, simply because the government’s contractor failed to provide her with a suitable tag.  

We’ve supported her legal team Hodge Jones & Allen to take the first step towards legal action against the Ministry of Justice, arguing that ministers failed to use their discretion before revoking Gaie’s home curfew licence.

We need to fund Gaie’s caseChip in

Gaie suffers from deep vein thrombosis, which means an ankle tag would put her health at risk. When the Electronic Monitoring Service tried to fit her with a wrist tag, they claimed it was too loose, even though Gaie said she couldn’t take it off. As she waited for another tag to be fitted, Gaie heard there was a warrant for her arrest and return to prison. 

Gaie’s legal team asked for her immediate release, arguing that it was the government’s duty to find a suitable tag. 

The court has the power to grant bail today for a woman with significant health problems, who is no threat to the community, and to monitor her on home curfew as she waits for the results of an appeal against her sentence.

Thanks to your support, her lawyers have also taken the first formal step in legal proceedings against the Ministry of Justice. Depending on the outcome of her bail application today, they stand ready to issue judicial review proceedings in the High Court as early as next week.

  • We’re helping Gaie fight this cruel ordeal. Anything you can give will help us get her home.