A former Cambridge night club owner, jailed for 22 years for stabbing a policeman – a charge he has always denied – says he has given up the battle for early release.

Cambs Times: Mandi Blake-Tracy and her husband Blake Blake-Tracy at Whitemoor Prison, MarchMandi Blake-Tracy and her husband Blake Blake-Tracy at Whitemoor Prison, March (Image: Archant)

Blake Blake-Tracy says he has been a model prisoner at Whitemoor, March, but is refusing to attend any more hearings after four years of having his hopes dashed.

The 51 year-old former chef says the stress in recent years battling prison authorities has taken its toll on both him and the wife he married at a special prison ceremony in 2011.

“I will not fight or continue any legal challenges until I have served the remainder part of my illicit sentence with my automatic release date of October 10, 2019,” he said.

Blake-Tracy says his release date has been miscalculated and he has been refused parole since 2015. For two and a half years from 2013 to 2015 he says he was stopped from seeing family members under the age of 18 with no reason given.

He claims there has been a campaign of ‘harassment and victimisation’ over the years both against him and his family but says the last straw came earlier this month.

“My wife broke down in tears over the Government departments that have refused to conduct a simple calculation or disclose my sentencing remarks, saying there were destroyed five years after my sentence,” he said.

“Everyone knows you are not allowed to destroy transcript recordings or otherwise while a defendant is eligible for parole and is still in custody.

“My wife’s health has deteriorated through the unwarranted stress and personal reasons; it is therefore my duty as her friend and husband to protect her health and our marriage.

Formerly known as Robert Blake, he was handed a 22-year sentence in 2006 for attempted murder of PC John Griffiths in an attack in Cambridge in 2004, in which the officer was stabbed multiple times in the neck, head, chest and back.

Blake-Tracy says he was in Cornwall at the time of the offence.

He appeared at the High Court via video link last year, arguing for immediate release, saying his dates were miscalculated and three options should have been open to him of December 2015, February 2018 or August 2019.