Alex Ryle of Garden Court Chambers Crime Team acted for the claimant, instructed by Alex Pierides of Faradays Solicitors.
Background
On 10 January 2025, the claimant was remanded into youth detention accommodation. He turned 18 in custody and was transferred to the adult prison estate at HM Prison (HMP) Thameside, contractually run by Serco. At sentencing on 20 February 2026 Alex Ryle persuaded the Judge to impose a 24-month Detention and Training Order, despite the Defendant having turned 18, in respect of ten cases of robbery and a knifepoint blackmail. The Defendant was entitled to immediate release.
Despite the Offender Management Unit at Thameside being provided with all the appropriate paperwork on the same day, by 23 February the claimant contacted his solicitors to advise them he had not yet been released from custody.
No custody staff were on duty to cover the weekend, which meant the inbox had not been monitored. By Monday 25 February 2026, his solicitor had sent multiple emails to the OMU regarding the detention of the claimant.
Alex Ryle made an emergency out-of-hours application for a writ of habeas corpus, requiring the Defendant to release the claimant from custody. A series of urgent remote hearings took place. Shortly before the substantive hearing on 26 February 2026 the claimant was finally released following a period of unlawful detention of almost six days.
High Court Judgment
In her judgment, Hon Mrs Justice Hill DBE referenced the cases of in Niagui v The Governor of HMP Wandsworth [2022] EWHC 2911 (Admin); [2023] 4 WLR 2, Kim v The Governor of HMP Wandsworth [2024] EWHC 645 (Admin) and Bashir v The Governor of HMP Pentonville [2025]. Mrs Justice Hill acknowledged the claimant was unlawfully detained for a period considerably longer than those cases.
The judgment concluded that there were a “series of failings” in HMP Thameside’s response to the order requiring release of the claimant. The cases of Niagui and Kim set out “fundamental principles” that no-one can be detained without lawful authority and that the burden lies on the prison to demonstrate that this authority existed. Justice Hill also remarked that staff failed to comply with the requirement to ensure a substantive, urgent response when a solicitor complains that their client is being detained unlawfully.
Hill LJ stated that Serco is no different from HMPPS despite being a private contractor and endorsed the concerns raised by Alex Ryle in submissions that the Director of HMP Thameside relied in part on its contractual obligation to the MoJ by way of explanation for the failings.
Hill LJ commended the efforts of Alex Ryle and Alex Pierides, noting the Court’s observation in the case of Kim that it was “critically important to the rule of law that those who are unlawfully detained should have the benefit of such dedicated professional representation and of emergency access to the Court”.
HMP Thameside are to pay damages and costs to the claimant.
Link to full judgment: Gambrah v Director of HMP Thameside [2026] EWHC 523 (Admin)
