Terror attack hero warns of more IPP prisoner suicides

Marc Conway backs our campaign for all sentences to be reviewed after he is finally freed from draconian jail term

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

One of the heroes of the Fishmongers’ Hall terror attack has warned that more prisoners languishing on indefinite jail terms will lose their lives under a “sentence of no hope”.

Marc Conway, who was handed an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence for armed robbery, was one of three released offenders who bravely tackled terrorist Usman Khan after he fatally stabbed two Cambridge University students.

Mr Conway, who was due to speak at the rehabilitation event in November 2019, helped to disarm Khan after he was wrestled to the ground on London Bridge by Steven Gallant and John Crilly, who were wielding a narwhal tusk and a fire extinguisher.

They feared he would detonate a suicide vest, which later turned out to be fake.

Despite being hailed as a hero for helping stop Khan, who was shot 12 times by police, Mr Conway feared his actions would land him back in prison under the strict licence conditions of his IPP sentence.

Last week he was finally freed from the draconian jail term under reforms which saw 1,800 IPP offenders who were released at least five years ago have their licences automatically terminated. He described it as “surreal” after years living in fear of recall, even spending the past month staying at home until he was finally free.

However, he has called for urgent help for more than 2,600 IPP prisoners still trapped with no release date under the hopeless jail term, in what he described as an “appropriate and safe resentencing policy”.

Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, the prison reform campaigner said: “People on IPPs will give up hope. If they are finally released, what is left for them? The worsening mental health of IPP prisoners ensures they will not be released.