A woman jailed for 16 years after breaking a plant pot and ripping up a blank betting slip under a now abolished law his hit out at her ‘cruel, degrading and severely mentally damaging’ sentence.
Ronnie Sinclair was just 22 when she was locked up for robbery following a drunken row at a friend’s barbecue which was caught by a neighbour’s CCTV.
Ronnie pleaded guilty to one count of robbery but because she already had a youth criminal record judges at Newcastle Crown Court handed down a six-year sentence under now-abolished imprisonment for public protection (IPP) legislation.
The IPP meant she served her full sentence plus an additional 10 years which kept her behind bars until she was 38. She remains on an indefinite licence today.
Now aged 42, Ronnie suffered mental and physical health problems while in jail and believes: ‘Even the strongest people don’t come out of this unscathed.’
