Oh Look, Another ‘Human Right’…

Lawyers for PA, from the Brighton area, said prison was ''the worst possible environment'', given his debilitating mental health problems.

He suffered anxiety and panic attacks at the prospect of having to come into contact with other people.

Given where he is, and his crime, I think we can safely consider 'other people' to be code for 'other inmates who take a dim view of child beaters':

The inmate is in his mid-twenties and is currently serving a three-year sentence at Lewes Prison, East Sussex, for attacking his own child in 2009.

Yes, if I were him, the thought of mixing with Jimmy 'The Bull' McGuire and Jack 'The Screwdriver' Jones in the queue for the showers would definitely give me a bit of anxiety...

But in order to gain early release, he's taking it a bit further.

He had deteriorated to the extent that he could no longer manage eye contact with his mother, said his barrister Elizabeth Prochaska.

She accused the Lewes governor of unlawfully refusing to exercise his discretion to release PA on home detention curfew.

That's the thing with 'discretion', sweetie. It's not automatic. That's the point...

Ms Prochaska said the sentencing judge had found it was unlikely that he had deliberately set out to harm the child.

It was more likely there had been ''a momentary loss of control, a feeling of frustration when he was feeling unwell''.

We all get those. We don't all lash out at the nearest vulnerable target. My sympathy dial isn't registering much of a flicker, I'm afraid.

His Article 8 right to respect for his private life was being violated.

Oh, of course.

Ms Prochaska said: "The incarceration of the claimant in circumstances where his mental instability renders him unable to leave his cell, let alone to progress normally to open conditions, is an unjustifiable interference with his Article 8 rights."

*checks sympathy meter dial*

Blimey! Didn't know these things could register a negative reading...