Prisoner's freedom plea fails
A 'violent and dangerous' former escaped criminal who claimed stringent licence conditions were in breach of his human rights has failed in a High Court bid for freedom.
Craig Hickinbottom, who wants to live with his mother at her house in Waterways Drive, Oldbury, was recalled to jail earlier this year for breaching a ban which prevented him entering certain areas of the West Midlands.
He was returned to maximum security HMP Whitemoor in Cambridgeshire in July after being free for six months.
Yesterday, his lawyers challenged his licence conditions as "disproportionate", and also argued that he has been unfairly given top security Category A status in the prison system.
But High Court judge, Mr Justice Pitchford, said the judicial review challenge had been brought under a "misapprehension".
Licence conditions were designed to protect the public from further offences, he said, and Hickinbottom, , had been effectively serving his sentence in the community and should have abided by them.
As well as being banned from Halesowen, Kingswinford, Wordsely, Amblecote, Stourbridge, Lye, Brierley Hill, Cradley Heath and Oldbury, Hickinbottom was ordered to adhere to a curfew which confined him to a hostel for 16 hours a day.
He was also banned from seeing his former associates and being carried in a motor vehicle without permission.
Mr Justice Pitchford also dismissed the challenge to Hickinbottom's Category A status, observing that he could have no complaint after committing a string of crimes and escaping after two armed associates held up a prison van.
Hickinbottom's legal team argued that his status had been determined after the authorities read incorrect details about some of the crimes he committed.
