Elderly convict facing prison because her wrist is too small for electronic tag

A climate activist who was jailed for 20 months is living in ‘limbo’ after she was told she could return to prison because a security firm can’t find an electronic tag small enough to fit on her wrist.

Gaie Delap, 78, helped to block the M25 around London in November 2022. She was eventually convicted and jailed for 20 months in August 2024.

She was released on November 18 after serving three months and ordered to serve the rest of her sentence with an electronic tag fitted to her to enforce a ‘home detention curfew’ between 7 pm and 7 am.

The tags are operated by a private company, Serco, who fit and maintains the tagging equipment on those serving their sentences at home, like Gaie.

The staff came to fit the tag on Gaie on November 28, but couldn’t put it on her ankle because she suffers from deep vein thrombosis.

The tag was too big for her wrist, which measures just 14.5cm around, but the firm didn’t return with a smaller tag. The courts imposed a doorstep curfew instead, where someone from the probation service physically checks her at home every evening. But on December 5, a warrant was issued for her arrest because of an ‘inability to monitor’ her.

Gaie has tried to speak to the Ministry of Justice and the Prisons Minister, her local MP for Bristol Central, and her supporters, but has heard nothing.

Her friends and family are calling for a tag small enough to allow the 78-year-old to continue to serve her sentence under a curfew at home in Bristol.

At a press conference held in Bristol, her friend Annie Menter said: ‘As a result, she’s living in limbo, with the fear and threat of recall to prison hanging over her.

‘Her sleep has been affected. She’s lost her appetite and is experiencing panic attacks for the first time. In addition, she’s being treated for two serious ongoing health conditions, which require hospital investigation.

‘She’s aware that others have had tags that have malfunctioned, and that they have been unable to contact EMS in an emergency, and through no fault of their own, has been summarily returned to prison.

‘This is not just about Gaie’s situation. It’s about the wider issues of injustice, and the lack of communication between services which causes untold confusion, distress and anxiety to many, many people.’

Her local MP Carla Denyer said: ‘I’ve been very concerned about her case ever since I heard about it.

‘When I heard more recently that she was threatened with being returned to prison, because of what seems little more than a procedural irregularity, the fact a privatised company isn’t able to fit the equipment properly, and the fact it was communicated to her very unofficially, so far as I understand she was informed only verbally that she was to be returned to prison, with no details of who had made the decision, why, how she could appeal it.’

MP Denyer said she wrote to prisons minister Lord Timpson, who she hopes to speak to about the matter.

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