Dominic Raab launches last-ditch bid to keep monster mum who tortured baby behind bars

THE Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has launched a last-ditch bid to keep tortured Tony Hudgell’s mum in jail.

Jody Simpson, 29, who with Anthony Smith, 52, beat baby Tony so badly his legs were amputated, was due out this week.

The pair were jailed for ten years in 2018.

Simpson won a High Court challenge against Mr Raab’s decision to put her release on hold. He has asked the Appeal Court to overturn it.

Tony’s adoptive mum Paula Hudgell, 55, said: “Any extra time Simpson spends behind bars is justice for Tony. She and Smith are monsters.”

Mrs Justice Williams ruled in Simpson’s favour and granted the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) 21 days to apply for leave to appeal but ordered she remain in custody in the meantime.

MoJ officials yesterday lodged an application to the Court of Appeal challenging the High Court decision and Simpson will remain locked up pending a decision on whether to grant a hearing.

Mr Raab said: “Tony Hudgell was mercilessly tortured by his birth parents, the very people who should have loved and cared for him.

“It’s my duty to protect other children from that awful experience which is why we will be challenging this ruling and Jody Simpson will remain behind bars while the courts consider our appeal.”

Tony, also left deaf in one ear and damaged hip, hand, wrist and jaw from cruelty inflicted on him, was adopted at four months by Paula and Mark Hudgell, of Kings Hill, Kent.

The boy touched hearts in lockdown in 2020 when he raised more than £1.7million for the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, where his life was saved, by learning to walk on his first pair of prosthetic legs.

He also successfully campaigned with his adoptive mum and dad for Tony’s Law, which has increased maximum jail terms for harm to a child from 10 years to 14 years and to life imprisonment in fatal cases.