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On appeal from: [2012] EWCA Civ 1374.

The appellant was released from prison on a home detention curfew, and then recalled to prison under the Criminal Justice Act 2003, s 255. He sought to claim this was a deprivation of liberty under ECHR, art 5(4). The Court held that under Strasbourg jurisprudence where a person was lawfully sentenced to a determinate term of imprisonment, he was not able to challenge his loss of liberty during that term on the ground that it infringed art 5(4). This was because “the lawfulness of his detention” had been “decided . . . by a court”, in accordance with that article. Where the Secretary of State exercised her discretion to release a prisoner before the end of the requisite custodial period of their sentence, art 5(4) was not infringed if that licence was subsequently revoked.

For judgment, please download: [2014] UKSC 38
For Court’s press summary, please download: Court’s Press Summary
For a non-PDF version of the judgment, please visit: BAILII