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conclusion, terrible though it may seem, is that I pass the sentence that the law authorises me to pass for robbery and for assault with intent to rob with arms, that is life imprisonment. The Secretary of State can act if and when he thinks it is safe to act."
29. The applicant applied for leave to appeal against the sentence to the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) which, on 6 April 1967, dismissed the application. Lord Justice Salmon upheld the view of the sentencing judge in the following terms:
30.
"Now at the trial it appears that the prison doctor said that there was no evidence of any mental disorder then apparent which would have justified his detention in a mental institution. The learned Judge, quite rightly in the view of this Court, took the view that this was not a case for borstal because borstal for one reason would not be a sufficiently secure place to send such a dangerous young man. The Judge was therefore since he could not send him to a mental institution for lack of evidence faced with a difficult decision on whether he should give him what he did, namely life imprisonment, or sentence him to some long teru, some definite term of imprisonment for a number of years. As he was at pains to point out, he in mercy really to the boy took the former course. Now life imprisonment in this case at any rate means an indeterminate sentence. If when he gets to prison it then appears after he has been there some time that there are grounds for transferring him to a mental institution for treatment, there are ample.... powers under the Act which will enable the Home Secretary to
Moreover, as soon as it becomes apparent, and it is to be hoped that it may not be long, but one cannot tell, that it is safe from the public point of view and from his own point of view to do so, this boy will be released. At first sight a sentence of life imprisonment, particularly having regard to his age, sounds terrible, but when the factors to which reference has been made are considered it will be seen that this is really in mercy to the boy and will perhaps enable him to be released much sooner than if a long term of imprisonment had been imposed which was the only other possible alternative."
do so.
In 1970 the applicant was transferred to Grendon Underwood, psychiatric prison. However, it was found that he did not respond to the regime and after six months' treatment, he was transferred back to Albany Prison until his release on licence on 31 March 1976. He had originally been given a release date for April 1975 but had absconded from a prison hostel during a probationary period. He later
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