A Bristol grandmother who was controversially recalled to prison because probation contractors said they didn’t have an electronic monitoring tag small enough to fit on her wrist has finally been released after one was found.
Gaie Delap, a 78-year-old retired teacher, is back home in Bristol today, Saturday, February 1, hours after being released from Eastwood Park prison where she had been held since the week before Christmas.
She now has plans to sue Serco, the Government contractors tasked with enforcing the monitoring system, saying they failed to treat her fairly, leading her to be locked up in prison when she shouldn’t have been.
Ms Delap spent Christmas and her 78th birthday in prison. A vigil was held outside the prison near Thornbury in South Gloucestershire earlier this month and lawyers acting on her behalf say she is determined to sue the Home Office firm for the way she has been treated, claiming that if she were a man, or someone who Serco contractors did have an electronic tag big enough to fit, she would not have spent six weeks in prison.
The pensioner was one of a group of climate activists who took part in a direct action protest that blocked the M25 around London in November 2022. Her case eventually came to court and she was convicted and jailed for 20 months in August 2024, almost two years after that day.
She was sent to prison in Peterborough and released after serving three and a half months of that sentence, and ordered to serve the rest of it under a detention at home scheme. She was meant to have an electronic tag fitted which enforced a curfew that she must stay at home between 7pm and 7am.
The firm tasked with fitting an electronic tag came ten days later but, because of a medical condition which meant she couldn’t have one fitted to her ankle, they tried to fit it to her wrist instead, but it was too big.
Instead of returning with a smaller wrist tag – which are in common usage for such circumstances – the tag company told the probation service she had refused to wear one, and a warrant was issued for her arrest and recall to prison.
She spent much of December fighting that imminent recall, and involved her MP, Carla Denyer (Green, Bristol Central), but the arrest came on December 20, and she was taken to HMP Eastwood Park, near Bristol, until her release six weeks later.
A crowdfunder to support her legal action against those involved in her re-imprisonment raised thousands of pounds. A spokesperson for the Good Law Project, which organised the fundraiser said: “A member of our team has spoken with Gaie, who is safely back in her own home. She is overwhelmed with the support she has received and has shared her thanks to Good Law Project supporters.
“But she’s ready to keep fighting her unlawful recall to prison, where she spent Christmas and her birthday. We will continue to support Gaie and her legal team to explore legal action against Serco, the company responsible for fitting electronic monitoring tags, and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood for failing to comply with their duty under the Equalities Act.
“For now, we celebrate Gaie’s release and share our heartfelt thanks for your support,” he added.
Carla Denyer MP welcomed her release. “I’m so relieved to hear that Gaie Delap is finally home,” she said. “Gaie is a peaceful climate protester who spent Christmas in prison because the private company in charge of security monitoring couldn’t find a tag to fit her. I know her friends and family will be overjoyed to have her home,” she added.