A ‘dangerous’ thug from Huddersfield has failed in a bid for freedom - despite telling top judges he is ‘stagnating’ behind bars.

Richard James Schofield, 27, of Bishop’s Court, Berry Brow, was caged indefinitely for public protection at Bradford Crown Court on August 10, 2012.

Schofield admitted robbery, affray and burglary and his open-ended sentence means he will not be freed until the Parole Board is convinced it is safe to do so.

On March 8 2011, he broke into a garden shed at a home in Edgerton and stole a strimmer, Judge Nicholas Hilliard told London’s Appeal Court.

When confronted by the home owner and two teenagers, he waved a small axe towards them and said; ‘Come on then’ before getting away on a bike.

Then, in August 2011, Schofield went up to a woman in her 40s in Red Doles Lane and punched her in the face.

She fell to the ground and he stole her handbag, phone and groceries.

Later the same day, he was ‘threatening and aggressive’ towards a 21-year-old man in Leeds Road, demanding cigarettes and money.

He had previous convictions for crimes including five counts of battery, two of common assault, robbery, affray and possession of an offensive weapon.

A psychiatrist’s report said he had a dissocial personality disorder and a mild learning disability.

He had no ‘victim empathy or remorse’, which made it difficult to reduce the risk he posed, a probation officer’s report added.

Schofield argued on appeal that he did not deserve an indefinite sentence, from which he might never be freed, and was ‘stagnating’ behind bars.

But Judge Hilliard, sitting with Mrs Justice Cox, said that ‘does not provide an arguable ground of appeal’.

The judge who jailed Schofield rightly concluded that there was ‘sadly no prospect’ of a less severe sentence meeting the public risk he posed.