A former prisoner has won his challenge after two prisons recorded his confidential phone calls with his solicitor in breach of the law.
Vincent Horsfall entered not guilty pleas after police arrested him on firearms charges. He went into custody on remand in September 2021.
In October 2021 he asked HMP Altcourse to add his solicitor’s number to his list of approved contacts. A clerk typed the firm’s name, IMS Law, as “in-laws”. The prison therefore treated the number as personal rather than legal, and it recorded the calls. The recording carried on after Mr Horsfall moved to HMP Liverpool.
Mr Horsfall spotted the mistake in April 2022 and asked for it to be put right, which it was. By then, the recordings ran to nine hours. The prison would not tell him how it had used them, or whether it had passed them to police.
When his trial opened, both his solicitor and his barrister pulled out of the case on day one. Unsure what to do, he changed his plea to guilty. He says he did so under duress.
After his release, Mr Horsfall complained to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, Sir Brian Leveson. Sir Brian is the watchdog who deals with illegal interception of communications. He rejected the complaint at first.
Mr Horsfall then brought a judicial review, acting for himself as a litigant-in-person. He won, and the ruling forced a fresh look at the decision.
In December 2025, Sir Brian wrote to him with his finding: “I am of the view that there has been a serious error, and it is in the public interest for you to be made aware of it. This means that HMP Altcourse failed to comply with the requirements imposed on them by the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) 2016 and that you were caused significant prejudice or harm when you found out.”
Mr Horsfall now studies law. He plans to use the finding to seek compensation. He also intends to pursue an appeal against his conviction through the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Both prisons hold adult men and serve as Category B reception jails in the North West. Inspectors carried out full inspections at HMP Altcourse in October 2025 and at HMP Liverpool in November 2025. Each received the same grades: safety not sufficiently good, respect reasonably good, purposeful activity poor and preparation for release reasonably good.
