R (on the application of AS) v Secretary of State for Justice

Facts

Where a prisoner was serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection following his conviction for a child sex offence and was suffering from terminal cancer, the decision of the Secretary of State for Justice refusing to release him on compassionate grounds was flawed by the failure to give adequate reasons for his decision, to have regard to the medical evidence which was before him, and to obtain an up to date medical report addressing the question of whether the prisoner's health rendered him incapable of committing further sexual offences.