Just Stop Oil activist, 77, sent back to jail over ankle tag issue

A 77-year-old environmental campaigner has been returned to jail after problems with an electronic tag to monitor her.

Gaie Delap, a retired teacher from Montpelier in Bristol, was sentenced to 20 months in jail for participating in a Just Stop Oil protest that blocked the M25 in November 2022.

She was released on 18 November on a home detention curfew, but a tag could not be fitted to her leg because of deep vein thrombosis, and it was too large for her wrist.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said if offenders could not be monitored in the community electronically, they would be returned to prison even if it was no fault of their own.

"We know this is cruel, and totally unnecessary. We know there are alternatives to the tag," her supporters said in a statement.

"Gaie is absolutely no threat to the community.

"This recall to prison is a ridiculous waste of resources and money, and will cost the taxpayer £12,000 to keep Gaie in prison.

"We cannot believe that there is not an electronic monitoring device that can be fitted at a fraction of the cost. We want common sense to prevail."

Ms Delap was arrested at 18:30 GMT on Friday and was taken to Eastwood Park Prison in Gloucestershire.

Her case has been raised by the Bristol Central MP Carla Denyer, who wrote to the prisons minister Lord Timpson and the probation service.

"Why is she facing this extra punishment of being locked up, for longer than she was meant to be, and over Christmas?

"It's not because she's broken her bail conditions, it's because the private company responsible for fitting electronic tags couldn't find one the right size for her, and the authorities weren't willing to consider alternatives like daily check-ins at the police station," she wrote on X.

The MoJ said under the home scheme, offenders must be under an electronically monitored curfew for at least nine hours a day.

"Where it is no longer possible to electronically monitor offenders in the community, through no fault of their own, they will be recalled until it is possible for them to monitored in the community," the MoJ said.