Boy's heartbreak at not being allowed to see dad who has spent 12 years in jail for stealing a phone

Kayden Wright was nine months old the last time he saw his father. He is now 14 but hasn't seen dad Thomas White, 40, since he was given a controversial Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence in 2011.

Kayden can write to Thomas and speak on the phone but despite years of lobbying social services and the prison service by his family, he has not been allowed to see him in Garth Prison, Lancashire.

Thomas was jailed for robbery after stealing a phone from a couple in Manchester city centre. The minimum term of his sentence - passed under a since-abolished law - was just two years. But twelve years later he is still behind bars.

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Margaret White, Thomas' mother and Kayden's grandma, said: "I have full guardianship of my grandson. All I have done is play badminton with the prison service and social services. This has been going on for years - the prison blame social services and vice versa.

"Thomas has never been convicted of domestic violence and I have full guardianship. I do not understand why Kayden cannot visit him.

"Previously Kayden's maternal grandmother had full guardianship which was sorted by Trafford council. I just need Trafford council and Manchester council and the prison to talk to each other but I can't get them round a table. But Kayden has had no face to face contact with his dad. I think the authorities just see the stigma of an IPP sentence and it stops everything.

"I think there will be many other children whose parents got IPP sentences who have not been able to have a proper relationship with their mum or dad. They are not allowing Kayden to visit his dad and it is not fair."

In 2020 Kayden wrote a moving letter to the