A FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD boy kept in solitary confinement for weeks has spoken out, having won a seven-year legal battle against the government that reached the European Court of Human Rights.

The teenager was only allowed out of his Feltham prison cell for about half an hour each day to shower, use the phone and exercise for at least the first 55 days of his detention from December 2016 to February 2017.

The government conceded having breached his human rights by subjecting him to inhuman or degrading treatment and agreed to a settlement of £31,500 last week. 

Only referred to as AB for legal reasons, the youngster received no education and had no contact with any other child during his detention.

Now is his early 20s, he said today: “It shouldn’t have taken them that long, and for them to have changed their mind at the last minute, it is not fair. 

“Separation is horrible. For rehabilitation and communication, people skills are a big thing.

“By them not letting me see children, taking that away, it is hindering your potential to stay out when you get out.”

Andrea Coomber KC, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, which represented him, said: “In the seven years since [his detention], we have seen four prime ministers, seven justice secretaries and 10 prisons ministers, but the government has refused repeatedly to acknowledge that this shameful solitary confinement of a boy with complex needs amounted to inhuman or degrading treatment — until now. 

“Settling at such a late stage, and on terms limited to the particular circumstances of one case, is particularly cynical when we know that there are other children in prison being forced to endure horrendous conditions of solitary confinement today.

“Indeed, prisons holding children are in a worse state now than they were when this legal battle began. 

“Prison is no place for a child. Now that this case is over, and as AB begins the next chapter in his life, we urge ministers to come forward with a plan to ensure that no more children suffer in this way.” 

The settlement is thought to be the largest sum ever paid by Britain before the Strasbourg court. 

Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, said: “I visited Feltham recently and talked to the children there. I have talked to children across the secure estate and they have related to me that they still have concerns about some of the same issues raised by this case.

“I have not heard anything as bad as what this young man has experienced, but I am still shocked at the number of children who report feeling deeply unsafe, receiving poor education, and very limited time out of cell in the large and inadequate Young Offender Institutions.

“It’s time for change and reform now so that these children can grow up to be happy and successful adults, who can contribute to society.”

The Ministry of Justice was contacted for comment.