Jailhouselawyer's Blog

Cokehead Dave loses his head

2009-11-24T19:47:00.000Z

Cokehead Dave loses his head

The brutal truth of child detention

2009-11-24T19:39:00.000Z

The brutal truth of child detention

2,000 asylum seekers' kids a year are locked up, and the only beneficiaries seem to be firms running centres like Yarl's Wood

A report by the novelist Clare Sambrook of End Child Detention Now, which campaigns against the detention of 2,000 asylum seekers' children every year, asks the very reasonable question: who does this expensive incarceration benefit?

Clearly not the children who, according to every study ever written on this issue, suffer acutely from being taken from their homes on the orders of the UK Border Agency and placed in a confined space for an indeterminate period.

Jack Straw talks the talk but he cannot walk the walk

2009-11-24T17:44:00.002Z

Jack Straw talks the talk but he cannot walk the walk

Constitutional change and the future of parliamentary democracy

24 November 2009

Magna Carta Institute, Brunel University

An abridged version of a lecture given by Jack Straw at Brunel University's Magna Carta Institute on Monday 23 November 2009.

Fox attacks vulture feeding on carcass

2009-11-24T17:01:00.001Z

Fox attacks vulture feeding on carcass

A vulture was forced on to the defensive when a fox attacked it as it fed on a carcass in a scene captured by a photographer in Bulgaria.

BMW celebrates 25 years of its fastest M cars

2009-11-24T16:54:00.003Z

BMW celebrates 25 years of its fastest M cars

Performance is taken for granted, but cars are only part of BMW's expansion of its motorsport-inspired M label.

Any old excuse to show off my old Beamer. It wasn't an M, nevertheless just tickle the accelerator and it was go baby go...until I was rear ended.

Search for former royal aide after she absconds from jail

2009-11-24T11:29:00.001Z

Search for former royal aide after she absconds from jail

Murderess goes missing from open prison where she is serving a life sentence

Jane Andrews, a former aide to the Duchess of York, was on the run last night after absconding from jail while serving a life sentence for murder.

Andrews killed her boyfriend, Tom Cressman, in 2000 by bludgeoning his head with a cricket bat before plunging a kitchen knife into his chest as he lay asleep in his bed.

She was moved to an open prison earlier this year but was found to be missing from East Sutton Park in Kent when a roll call was carried out on Sunday night.

Roger Avary 'tweeting from inside prison'

2009-11-24T11:08:00.000Z

Roger Avary 'tweeting from inside prison'

Roger Avary, who received an Academy Award for Pulp Fiction, is posting daily tweets with grim, sometimes poignant tales of prison life.

No escape from debt by selling jails

2009-11-23T15:00:00.001Z

No escape from debt by selling jails

Arizona's plan to sell prisons to the highest bidder is a leap back in time for correctional thinking, and a recipe for fiscal disaster

Here's an idea: sell off our prisons to the highest bidders, reap a pile of short-term cash to inflate near-empty state coffers, then lease back the prisons for 20 years at a cost to the state that far exceeds the original purchase price paid by the companies. While we're at it, let's completely privatise medical and mental health services – and mandate that bidders come in with lower per prisoner cost estimates than those currently paid out by the state. And, to cap it off, privatise the day-to-day operations of all the prisons, including supermaxes and death row sites, and, in an incentive to cut corners, split the savings 50-50 between the state and the private companies doing the administering.

Conservative fantasy? Alas, no. This is the set of kooky proposals recently embraced by legislatures in a near-insolvent Arizona, looking to trim dollars from their state budget.

Meeting due over prison walkout

2009-11-23T12:25:00.003Z

Meeting due over prison walkout

Prison Service bosses are to meet with with union officials later to hold talks following an unofficial strike at HMP Liverpool.

Hundreds of prison officers returned to work at Walton Prison on Wednesday evening after a 25-hour walkout over claims of bullying by senior managers.

Representatives from the Prison Officers Association (POA) are to hold talks in London from 1100 GMT.

The Prison Service had called the walkout on Merseyside "unlawful".

Officers at jails in Lancashire, Cheshire and Dorset also joined the strike.

Colin Moses, national chairman of the POA, said: "The dispute at Liverpool was both preventable and unnecessary.

"This is the last chance for the employer to put things right,"

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC Union, will attend the meeting at the POA headquarters later.

The Prison Service has said last week's walkout related to an "ongoing investigation into an allegation within the prison".

The service added that the incident was being investigated under the National Offender Management Service's code of conduct and said it was "our belief that the actions taken so far by the prison management are appropriate within the circumstances".

Sack the bloody lot of them! If prisoners refuse to work they are subjected to disciplinary action.

Jam mobile phone signals in prisons, says inspector

2009-11-23T12:20:00.001Z

Jam mobile phone signals in prisons, says inspector

Technology should be used to jam mobile phone signals in prisons, an inspector at Britain's largest jail has said.

David Jamieson, chairman of Wandsworth prison's Independent Monitoring Board, says illegal phones fuel prison drug trading, bullying and gang problems.

Behind bars, phones can cost £400 each. He said the trade had been worth £9m in 2008, when 7,000 phones were seized.

The Prison Service says signal blocking is technically challenging and not quick, simple or cheap to implement.

Mr Jamieson told the BBC's Inside Out London programme he believed three times as many mobile phones were in circulation within prisons as had been seized.

Tories are wrong on Human Rights Act

2009-11-23T12:10:00.001Z

Tories are wrong on Human Rights Act

Any attempt by a Tory government to repeal the HRA would harm Britain's relationship with Europe, leaving us out in the cold

Conservative party policy is to "replace the Human Rights Act, which has undermined the government's ability to deal with crime and terrorism, with a British bill of rights." The shadow justice minister, Dominic Grieve, does not explain how the act has undermined the government's powers, nor does he say how a bill of rights would differ from the European convention on human rights, to which the UK is a signatory.

The only country in Europe which has not adopted the convention is Belarus. Do the Conservatives really want to leave us out in the cold with a country whose president is described as "Europe's last dictator"?

Hendon MP Andrew Dismore faces £65,000 expenses question

2009-11-23T10:49:00.002Z

Hendon MP Andrew Dismore faces £65,000 expenses question

A second member of the committee that regulates MPs’ conduct is facing questions over his expenses.

Andrew Dismore reportedly claimed £34,000 in second home expenses for a west London flat, which hosts his girlfriend’s homeopathy surgery, while declaring a property just a few miles away in his north London constituency as his main home.

Mr Dismore - who serves on the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee - then allegedly “flipped” his second home designation to the north London property and claimed a further £31,000.

The Labour MP for Hendon split a total of £65,000 in second home allowances between the two London properties over an eight year period.

When the corrupt oversee the corrupt it is easy to see why corruption is not being tackled.

Just a couple of interesting photos

2009-11-22T13:19:00.002Z

Just a couple of interesting photos

A tornado photographed in Colorado, USA Picture: CHRIS HARLAN / NATIONAL

HMS Gloucester sails past king penguins and elephant seals during a tour of the South Atlantic during a mission to help scientists assess environmental changes and locate unexploded ordnance left over from the Falklands War, Picture: PA

Mistaken identity...

2009-11-22T12:27:00.001Z

Mistaken identity...

Criminal past of John Hirst the island fraudster

JOHN HIRST, the financier being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office over an alleged £20m Ponzi scheme, served two-and-a-half years in jail in the 1990s for similar offences.

The SFO launched an investigation into Hirst’s Gilher Inc earlier this month after he abruptly left Mallorca, where he spent the past seven years. More than 150 people, many of them British expats, gave him an estimated £20m to invest on the promise of “guaranteed” 20% annual returns.

He returned to Britain in August claiming to be suffering from leukaemia. He closed the fund but has not returned money to investors. Inquiries have since revealed a criminal past.

Hat-Tip to Barnacle Bill

Johnny Walker: A terrible injustice

2009-11-22T11:29:00.003Z

Johnny Walker: A terrible injustice

Thirty five years ago, the IRA murdered 21 in the Birmingham pub bombings. Six Irishmen were jailed for crimes they did not commit, and spent 16 years in jail before their convictions were quashed. But how was life on the outside? Jonathan Owen talks to Johnny Walker

As blows rained down on Johnny Walker's stomach during a brutal beating at the hands of the police, he realised that in saying almost nothing, he had still said too much. "They were beating me up and my shirt came open and I told them I had stomach ulcers, so all the punches went down there... I should have shut my big mouth," he says, his voice quavering.

Even now – 35 years after he was wrongly convicted of the Birmingham pub bombings – the trauma he endured has left raw mental scars to go with the physical marks left by torture and beatings at the hands of the police and prison officers. "I still got parts of my body that is not right... they knocked all my teeth out... I'll carry these scars to my grave."

Gordon Brown's B and B

2009-11-21T15:30:00.005Z

Gordon Brown's B and B

Is 3 years for this yobbo a mockery of justice?

2009-11-21T14:24:00.003Z

Is 3 years for this yobbo a mockery of justice?

The BBC is reporting that "A boy who drove a stolen car into a pedestrian just hours after he was released from a youth detention centre has been jailed indefinitely".

Judge Anthony James Hammond jailed him indefinitely, describing him as a danger to the public.

He must serve at least three years before being considered for parole and banned for applying for a driving licence for five years.

The judge said: "You are a defendant who is highly likely to commit further dangerous offences and you are highly likely to cause death or serious harm to others."

Whilst accepting that he must serve at least 3 years does not necessarily mean he will only serve 3 years, nevertheless I am puzzled why the judge did not impose a sentence of Her Majesty's Pleasure? If any offence and any offender warranted a life imprisonment it was this case. It is cases like this which make a mockery of justice and lead to claims that sentences do not say what they should say. In my view, this person should not see light of day for at least 15-20 years.

Prostitute in Rome scandal dies

2009-11-21T11:02:00.002Z

Prostitute in Rome scandal dies

A body believed to be that of a Brazilian prostitute involved in a scandal that brought down the governor of the Rome area was found in an apartment fire yesterday.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, looks towards a likely suspect...

Politics is a nice little earner – if you're a Tory

2009-11-21T10:56:00.002Z

Politics is a nice little earner – if you're a Tory

Harvard study reveals the financial benefits of winning a seat in the House of Commons

By Michael Savage, Political Correspondent

After revelations about duck houses, moats and fake mortgages, many suspected it. Now a Harvard study claims to have proof that the life of a politician really is a nice little earner.

In recent history it has been Conservatives who have managed to profit the most, according to Andy Eggers and Jens Hainmueller, who have calculated that a career gracing the benches of the Commons leaves Tory MPs almost twice as wealthy as their unfortunate colleagues who ran unsuccessfully for Parliament.

Evidence, if it was needed, why the electorate should not vote for the Tories at the next general election!

US senator calls for return of Lockerbie bomber to jail

2009-11-21T10:35:00.002Z

US senator calls for return of Lockerbie bomber to jail

A US senator has written to Gordon Brown, demanding the immediate return of the Lockerbie bomber to prison. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, said Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi's early release from Greenock jail in Scotland on compassionate grounds was granted on the assumption that he had only three months to live because he was suffering from prostate cancer.

But three months had now elapsed since he was freed on 20 August and there was "speculation" that the severity of the Libyan's condition had been exaggerated, the senator said. He went on: "The bottom line is Megrahi should have never been released in the first place but it would be even more outrageous if he were to be able to live a long and free life after his release." In his letter to the Prime Minister he said: "Justice in this case was life in prison, no exceptions." Megrahi, who has now returned home to Tripoli, was serving a life sentence for the 1988 jumbo jet bombing which claimed 270 lives.

This headline should have read US senator makes a complete fool of himself. As I understand it, Gordon Brown has got nothing to do with the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi. The jurisdiction rested with Kenny MacAskill the Scottish Justice Minister.

It is not up to this stupid Yank, Charles Schumer, to start telling other jurisdictions what justice entails. I note that he has added the provision "no exceptions". In both the English and Scottish legal systems we have the provision of compassionate release.

If I was Gordon Brown, I would respond to Charles Schumer's publicity seeking bollocks with MYOB Mind Your Own Business!

Bank loses appeal over wheelchair access case

2009-11-21T10:29:00.000Z

Bank loses appeal over wheelchair access case

The Royal Bank of Scotland has lost its appeal over a ruling that it failed to cater for the wheelchair access needs of a disabled teenager who was awarded £6,500 damages.

David Allen, 18, who has muscular dystrophy, took legal action after the bank failed to install wheelchair access at the Church Street branch in Sheffield, close to where he is studying creative writing at Sheffield Hallam University.

Judges at the Court of Appeal dismissed the bank's appeal yesterday and ordered it to carry out the necessary access work, which has been estimated as costing £200,000. They also ordered the bank to pay Mr Allen's legal costs and refused permission to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Lord Justice Wall said that Mr Allen could not access the counter facilities at the bank and a duty "plainly thereby arose" under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Sheffield Law Centre, the solicitors representing Mr Allen, said: "This was an important ruling – the first time a court had ever granted an injunction requiring building work under the Disability Discrimination Act."

Homosexual snails take part in Gay Pride parade

2009-11-20T15:41:00.000Z

Homosexual snails take part in Gay Pride parade

Smuggling prison officer jailed

2009-11-20T13:00:00.002Z

Smuggling prison officer jailed

A prison officer who smuggled drugs in her bra into a maximum security prison has been jailed for seven years.

Lucy Reynolds, 29, of St Philips Drive, Evesham, also smuggled phones and sim cards into Long Lartin Prison, near Evesham, Worcester Crown Court heard.

She had pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and possession of heroin and cannabis with intent to supply.

Prosecutors said the sentence reflected her "breach of trust".

And yet, Liz Truss who was involved with a breach of trust has been selected by Tories in Norfolk to become an MP.

Man gets away with murder...

2009-11-20T12:39:00.002Z

Man gets away with murder...

A man who strangled his wife during a nightmare in the belief he was attacking an intruder walked free from court today after the case against him was withdrawn.

Brian Thomas, 59, of Neath, South Wales, killed his wife Christine, 57, while they were holidaying in West Wales in July 2008.

Meanwhile, down under...

'Weak little bastard' husband jailed for strangling wife

I have had nightmares, and woke up fighting in my sleep. However, given the amount of energy and time it takes to strangle someone I have to say it takes some suspended belief to accept he committed murder in his sleep. I cannot wait for the headline Man robs bank whilst sleepwalking!

Damn the bloody taxpayer

2009-11-20T10:41:00.002Z

Damn the bloody taxpayer

The woman paid out of taxpayers money to look after a MP's love nest also paid for from taxpayers money has stated when questioned "Damn the bloody taxpayer!".

This just about sums up the attitude of the Tory MP for Skipton and Ripon, David Curry. And, to think that this twat was the chairman of the parliamentary standards and privileges committee!