Administrative Court upholds lawfulness of life prisoner’s recall for alcohol breach

The Administrative Court handed down judgment today dismissing a life prisoner’s judicial review claim in which he challenged the lawfulness of his recall to prison.  Peter Laverack acted for the successful defendant, the Secretary of State for Justice.  Opposing counsel were Jude Bunting KC and Stuart Withers.

The Claimant received a life sentence for murder, committed while he was intoxicated.  Upon his relevant release from prison, his licence contained a condition not to consume alcohol and to wear an alcohol monitoring tag.  He was recalled to prison for breaching that condition by consuming alcohol on three occasions within a few days.  The Claimant denied that he drank any alcohol.  In the judicial review proceedings, he alleged that the recall was irrational and procedurally unfair.  He relied on, in particular, the Parole Board having found that a previous recall for alcohol consumption was flawed as there was no evidence from his tag of such consumption.  The Claimant argued that the process leading to the recall now under challenge should have had regard to the Parole Board’s decision as a material consideration, and by not doing so the recall was irrational and unfair.  After a substantive hearing, Vikram Sachdeva KC (sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge) dismissed the claim on all grounds.  Neutral citation [2025] EWHC 2024 (Admin).