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Banged up behind bars for more than 11 years, prisoner Danny Weatherson has finally got a release date after fighting a long battle for freedom.

Danny was just 18 when a judge recommended he served almost 16 months for two attempted robberies before he could apply for parole - but more than a decade on, he remains behind bars.

But now Danny can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Caught up in the controversial Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences which came into force for England and Wales in 2005 but was axed in 2012, he attempted to slit his throat as he lost the will to live while held in jail.

But now his dad Maurice Stevens says his son has been finally given a release date and will be back on the outside within 28 days.

“We are over the moon that he is getting out after all of this time” said builder dad Maurice, 45, of Lemington, Newcastle.

“They said he will get out within the next 28 days but that could mean in four or five days. He is going to a hostel in Leeds to help him rehabilitate and then he will be back up to Newcastle. Danny has been locked up for 11 years and this is light at the end of the tunnel for him. Being in prison for that long is like being in a coffin and not being able to get out.

“He’s a different person now he knows he’s coming out. When he rang to tell us that he had been granted his parole he was proper over the moon. He couldn’t stop talking, we couldn’t get a word in edgeways.”

Last year ChronicleLive told Danny’s plight of how his time inside has been in high security prisons including HMP Northumberland, HMP Moorlands in Doncaster, HMP Armley in Leeds, HMP Frankland in Durham and is now in HMP Hull. And that he had taken to self-harm to get him through his days.

His family revealed in February 2016 the Parole Board said that Danny could be moved to a category D open prison.

However, just weeks later, he was told the prison that had been chosen was changed and Danny slit his throat as his hopes were shattered.

His solicitor, Shirley Noble, said he was being kept inside as he “poses a risk to himself” and uses the self-harming mechanism to release the pain he suffers emotionally.

And his frustrated dad used his son’s attempted suicide to highlighted the IPP sentences which was intended to protect the public against criminals whose crimes were not serious enough to merit a normal life sentence but who were regarded as too dangerous to be released when the term of their original sentence had expired.

Danny, of Scotswood, Newcastle, who had been in trouble for a string on minor crimes before being jailed, was among those who feels they had been left to rot behind bars.

Ministry of Justice data shows the number of IPP prisoners still being held since the sentences was abolished are over 3,000.

The authorities admits the IPP sentence was widely criticised and “used far more widely than intended”. And this is why it was replaced with a new regime of tough, determinate sentences, alongside life sentences for the most serious offenders.

Dad-of-two Maurice added: “It was horrible in there for him. It got to a stage when he tried to end his life by slitting his throat seven or eight times. Now he has the rest of his life to look forward to and his nightmare can end.”

Secretary of State for Justice Elizabeth Truss said on IPP sentencing: “We need to be realistic that these prisoners on these sentences have committed serious crimes and that some are dangerous people. But there are others that have long served their minimum term and are committed to proving that they are safe for release.

“Of course, public protection must be the number one priority. But it seems unjust that someone sentenced in 2010 can remain in prison for years when - if sentenced today - they might have an automatic release date.

“That’s why it’s important we tackle the backlog of these cases that are waiting for a Parole Board hearing. We are making progress. There are currently 3,683 of these prisoners in our jails. And last year we released a record 553.”