A mother is campaigning to free her son from prison after he was given an indefinite jail sentence.

Christopher Wilkins has spent almost 10 years inside after being convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and assault causing actual bodily harm. The incident involved a stabbing.

The 31-year-old was given an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence in December 2007, which is designed to keep dangerous offenders behind bars beyond their tariffs until they can prove they no longer pose a threat to society.

This form of sentence was abolished in 2012, but it is thought more than 5,000 inmates still serve IPPs today.

Carol Wilkins, 56, said her son had done his time after serving his minimum term of three and a half years.

She said: “Chris and I have never denied he should have been punished for what he did, but he has done over his tariff for his crime now.

“He was just a young, stupid little boy.”

He is imprisoned at HMP Swaleside, Eastchurch, a Category B men’s prison.

She added: “Chris was sentenced at the age of 21 and he is still in prison today, more than five years over tariff.”

“He still hasn’t got a release date, so there is no end in sight for him or his family.

“As far as we’re concerned, he’s a forgotten prisoner now.

“If the IPP sentence has been abolished, why leave the people that have been sentenced with it in limbo and still without a release date?

“My son has done his sentence. I just want him to get a release date so he’s got something to aim for.”

Mrs Wilkins, who moved to Sheerness from Erith around a month ago to be closer to her son, has been campaigning for the past five years to try and get him released.

The mother-of-five said: “I have done protests with other IPP families, marching from the Houses of Parliament to the Ministry of Justice and we’re now hoping to get another one going.”

Speaking about the effect her son’s sentence was having on her, Mrs Wilkins said: “I feel like a prisoner myself, on a sentence the same as him.

“My life is on hold until I know if or when he is going to be released.

“It’s playing havoc with my health – the stress and worry of it all. I just don’t know when it’s going to end.

“He has got issues, but he’s got no hope.”

There have been disciplinary issues while her son has been in prison. In 2012, a court heard how he fractured a prison officer’s jaw and threw excrement and urine over him.

Mrs Wilkins said: “Chris had got down in the dumps and he was also self-harming at this time, so he clearly wasn’t in a good place.

“He was taken to court and 21 months was added to his sentence for this incident, but that’s already been spent.

“I am not denying that Chris hasn’t done anything wrong, but he has served his sentence over and again.”