Tommy Nicol: Family wins compensation over HMP The Mount prisoner death

Tommy Nicol was jailed under a sentencing scheme that has since been abolished

The government has agreed to pay compensation to the family of a prisoner who took his own life six years into an indefinite sentence.

Tommy Nicol, 37, died at Watford Hospital in September 2015, four days after he was found unresponsive in his cell at HMP The Mount, Hertfordshire.

At the time of his death, Nicol was two years past his minimum prison term.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said: "Our sympathies remain with the family and friends of Mr Nicol."

Nicol was jailed at St Albans Crown Court in 2009 after injuring a mechanic while stealing a car from a garage.

He was jailed for a minimum of four years under the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentencing scheme, which has since been abolished.

What are IPPs?

• IPPs were introduced in 2003 and designed to ensure dangerous offenders remained locked up until they no longer posed a risk

• However, they were given to more offenders than originally expected, including those guilty of what critics described as "lower level" crimes

• IPPs were abolished in 2012 - but not for existing prisoners

Nicol's family had begun a landmark claim in the High Court, in which they argued that the lack of a maximum term led directly to his death and therefore the Human Rights Act 1998.

They said he had described his sentence as the "psychological torture of a person who is doing 99 years."

Six years into his sentence, Nicol was told by a parole board that his next review would be in 2017.

His family said that was a catalyst for a sharp deterioration in his mental health and he became suicidal.

"The last five years have been a long and painful journey," Nicol's sister, Donna Mooney, said.

"The settlement of our claim provides our family with some semblance of justice".

The amount paid to the family has not been disclosed.

In its statement, the MoJ added: "We have provided specialist suicide and self-harm training for over 25,000 staff [across the country] and have recruited 4,000 new prison officers since 2016, allowing us to provide dedicated support to each prisoner."