A prisoner serving an abolished indefinite jail term was found dead in his cell after writing a note blaming the “cruel” sentence, an inquest has heard.
Steven McBride, 40, was discovered unresponsive at HMP Warren Hill in Suffolk in September 2024 – almost 17 years after being handed an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence for a stabbing in 2007. His minimum tariff was two years and 91 days, but he never left prison for good. Months before his death, he had been refused parole.
“Prisoner Steven McBride wrote that his IPP sentence was 'solely to blame' before taking his own life, an inquest found.”
Ipswich Coroner’s Court heard that indentations left on a torn-out notepad page revealed his final message: “I am writing this because I cannot do this sentence anymore. IPP is cruel and is solely to blame for my death. No one get my point of view I am sick of not being listened to. This has been torture to the highest order. Don’t get me wrong I deserved prison for what I did but that was almost 19 yrs ago now. I just can’t do it anymore.”
The original note was never found, but the pressure of the writing had left traces on the page underneath.
“That was probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to read in my life, just knowing he was struggling like that,” said his sister Hayley Prince, 40.
Prince, who described her brother as her “closest friend”, said the IPP sentence made him feel “like he was caught in something he couldn’t escape”. The aspiring music producer, who was partially sighted and registered blind, had repeatedly self-harmed as his mental health deteriorated in prison. “He spent years in and out of prison, being recalled again and again,” she said. “Every time it seemed like there might be a way forward, something pulled him back.” His parole refusal six months earlier “broke him”, she added.
IPP sentences were abolished in 2012, but not retrospectively, leaving thousands still trapped without a release date or caught in a cycle of indefinite recall – often for minor breaches of licence conditions. The open-ended punishments have been linked to 96 suicides in prison and described as “psychological torture” by the United Nations. Despite this, successive governments have refused to resentence those still serving the terms.
Prince told The Independent that their father died by suicide when Steven was only one, and she grew up protective of him as he was bullied over his partial sight. Now she is calling for action to help the others still languishing on IPP sentences.