A PRISON rights campaigner shocked a judge by begging her to jail him for life after saying he could not face life outside prison.o

Appearing for sentencing for arson at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Glen Fielding, 40, of Bulwer Road, Leytonstone, told Judge Judith Hughes that he had been in and out of prison throughout his adulthood.

He told her: "As you know, the sentence does not mean life. A life sentence would allow me to seek release only when I felt comfortable with life outside.

"I would be able to be assessed by psychiatrists and get the intense support I need.

"If I was given a determinate sentence I would not be able to choose when I was released. I will have had no help to reduce my offending rate."

His last offence of dishonesty in 1996, had earned him a total sentence of four years.

Fielding, who is openly gay and was wrongly diagnosed with HIV, said the home assigned to him on his release was "not much more than a crack house".

Since then, Fielding had launched a campaign to force prison chiefs to provide contraceptives to inmates and was taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The court heard how Fielding grew depressed and on June 22 decided to commit suicide.

After warning a neighbour, he doused his room in cooking oil because it would be slow burning and set fire to it.

He then lay down on the bed and inhaled the smoke. But fire crews arrived and Fielding was dragged from the flat.

Representing himself, Fielding, who pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to arson at the Stoneham Housing Association Property, told the court: "I would like you to consider jailing me for life considering my state of mind."

The surprised judge replied: "Most people in your situation tend to ask me to make their sentence shorter, and I think a life term might be a bit long.

"This is a tragic situation and I do hope you can get some help and feel better when you are next released."Glen Fielding: begged for a life sentence