“If it gets much colder, I am thinking of doing something, just to go back to prison,” says Leon Lear, 43, as he sits next to the remnants of his failed fire on the edge of a playground in Bridgend, South Wales.
The wood was too damp to burn; the only ash is from cardboard from a nearby recycling bin. A damp sleeping bag hangs over the railings.
Image: Leon Lear says he has considered committing more offences in order to get sent back to jail
Leon is on early release from jail, but he’d rather have stayed in. He says instead of celebrating he began to get anxious as his release date approached, knowing he would be homeless and that the outside meant literally that – outside.
He says: “Because I was released five weeks early, the probation, and housing didn’t have an inkling I was going to be released. They told me that I’d be on a waiting list for housing. So, since then, I’ve been living on the streets.”
Leon was jailed for affray in June this year, released five weeks early but homeless in July. He was recalled on breach of licence for shoplifting in September and released again two weeks ago. How much longer before he is back inside?
He is one of 13% of prisoners in England and Wales who are released without a home and the chief inspector of probation says homelessness is the biggest driving factor for people reoffending or breaching their licence.
Recalled prisoners are the fastest-growing element of our overcrowded prison population, doubling in a decade.
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Leon is wearing two t-shirts that he stole that morning. He says he’s not proud of it but it’s what he must do to survive. “I don’t even have underwear,” he says, “I know it’s embarrassing, but this is how I got to live.”
His only possessions are a toothbrush and toothpaste in the pocket of a tracksuit given to him by a local charity.
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For a while, he bunked down with some heroin addicts, but that got him back on the drug after three years clean. So now he is on the streets and makes a daily trip to the drug clinic for methadone, to keep him off the habit.
“I’ve done a winter [homeless] before and it’s horrific,” he says. “Last night I was thinking of smashing a window or acting drunk, just to go to the police station to get a hot meal in on the blanket to stay somewhere safe. I’d rather be in jail than live like this much longer.”
That’s despite the fact he describes prison as being locked up 23 hours a day with mice in his cell.
Leon visits an outreach centre in town called BARC. As well as hot drinks and meals, they provide clothes, tents and help with doctors’ appointments and courses.
Demand for the services here has doubled in a year – a lot due to the early release scheme.
Founder Becky Lloyd, 45, says: “A lot of these guys are re-offending deliberately now to go back to prison because they’ve got nowhere to go. At least if we can try and support them, we can try and avoid that. But the winter is coming, they don’t want to be in a tent. They’d rather be in jail.”
Image: Becky Lloyd from the BARC community centre
We meet another man just out on early release who has been living in a tent for the last three weeks.
He told us: “It’s harder out here than being in there [prison]. Because you’ve got three meals a day in there and a roof over your head. Out here, you’ve got to come to places like this to get fed, you know, beg, borrow or steal.”
The centre relies on donations and much of the work is self-funded by Becky and co-founder Teresa Wilkie. While it seems a somewhat hopeless endeavour, success is personified by one of the workers.
Ffion Evans, 25, was on crack for three years and heroin for seven. When released from jail in December last year, she became homeless and turned back to her addiction. But when she became pregnant, she managed to turn her life around.
Image: Ffion Evans, a released prisoner who now works as a volunteer support worker
Wearing a T-shirt with the words “actually, I can”, she says: “I started coming here, they supported me and showed me I’m worth it and I can do it.
“Now I’ve been clean for months, I’m a support volunteer worker so I’ve got a career ahead of me. It’s brilliant. This is the best version of me I have ever been. I couldn’t have done it without these lot.”
The chief inspector of probation, Martin Jones, told Sky News: “What we know is that if people do not have a safe accommodation at the point of release, they are more likely to be recalled to custody as a result of breaching their licence conditions or indeed to re-offend. I think it [providing a home] is probably the most critically important part of a prisoner’s release.”
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Tom Hollick from The Wallich, which offers council-funded support for the homeless in Bridgend, said: “There’s over 11,000 people, in the latest data across the whole of Wales, who are in temporary accommodation with more people presenting all the time.
“So, it’s kind of that bottleneck in the system, and people coming out of prison are adding to the existing crisis.”
A Ministry of Justice Spokesperson said: “The new government inherited a justice system in crisis, with levels of homelessness which were far too high and an early release scheme that did not give probation staff enough time to get prisoners ready for their release.
“Our new system allows staff to better prepare offenders for life after prison and we are working with partners, including local councils and charities, to avoid them being released onto the street.”
It was a sunny morning in June 2023 as news broke that a major incident had been declared in Nottingham. As the hours went by it emerged three people had been stabbed.
Students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar had been walking home from a night out when they were fatally attacked. School caretaker Ian Coates was heading into work when he was killed.
Across the city, Delvin Marriott was following the news in horror. “I just had a sinking feeling – emptiness – I felt devastated,” he says. “You know, the Nottingham attacks wouldn’t have happened if they listened to us. It wouldn’t have happened.”
He says he knew instinctively that the killer of Barnaby, Grace, and Ian would turn out to be a mental health patient and blames the loss of his brother on the same system that allowed paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane to be out on the streets armed with a knife.
Image: Left to right: Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber, and Ian Coates
Ten months earlier, in August 2022, 58-year-old Brenton Marriott had been killed by his son.
Image: Rudi Marriott (right) did not receive any mental health support until after he stabbed his father Brenton (left) to death
Rudi Marriott stabbed his father 75 times in a frenzied attack at home in Nottingham.
The family says they had repeatedly called the police and mental health services about Rudi’s violence but their warnings were ignored.
Over a decade earlier, as a teenager Rudi had been attacked with a baseball bat, leading to a bleed on the brain. His family says after that he began hearing voices and grew increasingly violent. As his health deteriorated he believed he had a microchip in his head that was controlling him.
“I knew he was dangerous, I was living with him,” says his mother Juliette, who recalls barricading her bedroom door when she could hear him having a psychotic episode.
Image: Rudi suffered a bleed on the brain when he was attacked with a baseball bat as a teenager
The family called the police on many occasions. “We would phone the police hoping the mental health service would come with them, hoping that this is an opportunity for him to be assessed and receive the help that he needs,” Juliette says.
“That was the main reason for phoning the police – not to have him arrested, but for the assessment to happen.”
They say they repeatedly questioned why he wasn’t being sectioned. Rudi’s sister Charise says she once asked a mental health nurse: “Is it going to take him to kill someone for something to be done?”
But none of their warnings were heeded. Rudi didn’t receive any mental health support until after he stabbed his father to death. He later received a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia.
Image: Brenton was desperate to help his son who up until his illness was very loving, their family says
‘I lost my best friend and my son’
Juliette breaks down as she reflects on the double tragedy. “I’m devastated because I’ve lost two of them. Lost his dad – he was my best friend for 35 years, my best friend. And I’ve lost my son, who up until his illness was very loving.”
Rudi was sentenced to a hospital order. A domestic homicide review is examining what more the authorities could have done.
Delvin says his brother Brenton was just desperate to help Rudi. “Brenton in my eyes is a hero,” he says. “If he wasn’t doing what he was doing, that could have been anybody that Rudi attacked. He could have gone out and gone on a frenzied attack.”
A recent NHS report found that in the four years before Calocane carried out his attacks there were 15 incidents of patients either under the current care of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust or who had been discharged perpetrating serious violence towards members of the community. Most of the incidents involved stabbings and three cases resulted in fatalities.
Neil Hudgell, a lawyer representing the families, says the public inquiry due to begin into the deaths of the Nottingham attack victims needs to ensure the trust is held accountable for failings.
“I think we’ve seen tragic story after tragic story where patients, their families, and victims have been let down,” he says.
“We need to get to the bottom of why that happened, who’s responsible for that and to have some genuine change.”
Delvin says his family feels “failed by the NHS, by the police, by the mental health service”.
Image: Delvin Marriott (right) has described his brother Brenton (left) as ‘a hero’
Ifti Majid, chief executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trus, said: “Any loss of life in such circumstances is an absolute tragedy, and on behalf of the trust I again offer my sincerest condolences to Brenton’s family and friends.”
Nottinghamshire Police told Sky News “our thoughts remain with all family members affected by this tragic incident”, adding that they are fully participating in the domestic homicide review.
Delvin describes the failure to deal with the mental health crisis as “a ticking timebomb, waiting for another disaster”.
Juliette agrees. “This is a real epidemic,” she says. “And as a result of the broken system the public are at risk. Everybody’s at risk.”
Labour faces a major challenge from its own backbenchers ahead of an announcement to restrict some sickness and disability benefits.
The plans are likely to be opposed by those in the party who are concerned about attempts to slash the ballooning welfare bill and encourage adults back to work.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is expected to set out the reforms on Tuesday, but details of where those cuts could fall is proving highly divisive within Labour.
Total welfare spending in 2023-23 was about £296bn, by the end of the decade it is forecast to reach almost £378bn.
The chancellor needs to find savings to meet her strict fiscal rules and Rachel Reeves has previously insisted “we do need to get a grip” on the welfare budget.
One proposal reportedly under consideration is to save around £5bn by freezing or tightening the rules around the personal independence payment (PIP).
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But Labour’s Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, a former Labour health secretary, has “urged great caution on how changes are made” although, writing in The Times, he accepts “the benefits system needs a radical overhaul”.
“I would share concerns about changing support and eligibility to benefits while leaving the current top-down system broadly in place. It would trap too many people in poverty,” he added.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting argued on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that the current system is “unsustainable” and welfare reforms are needed. He also said mental health conditions are often overdiagnosed.
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0:45
‘1,000 people every day signing on to PIP benefits’
PIP is a payment of up to £9,000 a year for people with long-term physical and mental health conditions.
Campaigner Steve Morris is one of those 3.6 million PIP claimants and says freezing it at the current level would make his life much harder.
Image: Steve Morris claims PIP and is worried about what reforming the benefit could mean for him
“I’m deafblind. PIP makes a huge difference to my life. It enables me to, afford some of the additional costs that are associated with my disability.
“For so many disabled people benefits are a lifeline. So to hear that lifeline might be taken away or severely restricted is hugely concerning.”
Liz Kendall told The Sunday Times it was an “absolute principle” to protect welfare payments for people unable to work. “For those who absolutely cannot work, this is not about that,” she said.
But she said the number of people on PIP is set to more than double this decade, partly driven by younger people.
Sky’s political correspondent Liz Bates said the government had been expected to announce a detailed plan over welfare spending last week.
“This particular issue of PIPs stopped that plan being announced because of the strength of backlash… from the backbenches all the way up to cabinet level.”
She added that talks were going on behind the scenes about whether the policy could be softened in some way, although it was unlikely reforms could be avoided completely ahead of the spring statement on 26 March.
“Could there be a bit of backtracking from Number 10 and from the department? This is what we’re going to find out on Tuesday. There is, of course, a lot of pressure coming from the chancellor.”
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3:05
Welfare system ‘letting people down’
Labour is also aiming to tackle economic inactivity – especially among those under 35 – with an increasing proportion out of work due to long-term sickness.
A recent PwC report warns “a significant proportion of working adults are close to becoming economically inactive” and ill-health “is a major driver”.
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The poll of 4,000 people shows 10% of the workforce are currently actively considering leaving work, and not just their current role.
That rises to 37% of those aged 18-24, who say they have either seriously considered leaving work in the last year, or are actively considering doing so now.
While the factors are complex and vary by age, the report reflects mental health is a major concern with 42% of 18-24 year-olds citing it as the biggest reason to leave work.
Image: Backbench Labour MPs are concerned welfare reforms will harm vulnerable people claiming benefits. File pic: PA
On Sunday, Ms Kendall teased one policy announcement to attract people back to work, effectively giving disabled people the right to try employment without the risk of losing their benefits.
The so-called “right to try guarantee” aims to prevent those people who receive health-related benefits from having their entitlements automatically re-assessed if they enter employment.
The Conservatives support welfare reform but claim Labour is “divided” over the issue and “cannot deliver the decisive change we need”.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said: “The government’s dithering and delay is costing taxpayers millions every day and failing the people who rely on the welfare system.”
Two teenagers have died and another is fighting for his life after a late night car crash in Shropshire.
A collision involving a silver Audi A1 occurred shortly before 11.15pm on Friday in Offoxey Road, Tong – near the town of Shifnal, West Mercia Police said.
It has since been confirmed an 18-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene, while a 17-year-old boy died in hospital.
Another 17-year-old boy is still being treated in hospital and is in a critical condition after sustaining life-threatening injuries in the crash.
A fourth, also a 17-year-old boy, sustained what has been described as “life-changing” injuries but is in a stable condition, police said.
“Officers investigating the collision are continuing to appeal for anyone who may have information about the incident to get in touch,” a police spokesperson said.
Anyone with information is footage is asked to contact DC Rich Owen on 07814773916 or SCIUNorth@westmercia.police.uk quoting incident number 554 of 14 March