A robber given a three-year jail sentence for public protection is still behind bars 15 years later.

Andrew Whittle was jailed in 2011 for the 'horrific' robbery by a judge at Bolton Crown Court.

The indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) had been for three years and four months but Whittle, now 48, has never been freed from that 40 month term.

IPP were used between 2005 and 2012 and were intended for offenders deemed to be dangerous but whose crimes did not merit life sentences. These sentences involved a minimum tariff, followed by indefinite detention until the Parole Board deemed the offender safe to be released - but led to high rates of continued incarceration, according to the Prison Reform Trust.

He has now found himself back in court because while serving in Dartmoor Jail in 2024, Whittle was caught at different times with three mobile phones and two chargers.

And he made 58 calls from them to call his brother and a lady friend but no calls were for illegal activity, Plymouth Crown Court was told.

Judge Robert Linford heard that Whittle - currently at HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire - has 22 convictions for 91 offences and admitted eight charges surrounding the possession and use of the phones.

Judge Linford said:"In 2011 you were given an IPP sentence for public protection of three years and you have served over 15 years. While serving that sentence at Dartmoor you committed these offences. You know the rules about this."

The judge said:"I have some degree of understanding of your position. I am not really going to say much more about that."

He did question whether Whittle has appealed the IPP sentence and said he had his own opinion about IPP and “people that serve ferociously long periods in custody”.

But he said he had to impose another jail sentence on Whittle for the phone offences. He jailed him for a total of 18 months saying:"I cannot get any lower than that."

In 2011 Whittle, then 32, attacked a Good Samaritan with a meat cleaver after she gave him a lift in her car, suffering head wounds which needed 20 stitches.

Whittle, of Bolton in Greater Manchester, admitted attempted robbery, wounding with intent and having an offensive weapon and was jailed for three years and four months as part of the IPP sentence by the judge at Bolton Crown Court.