An Phoblacht/Republican News   ·   Thursday October 26 1995

Kelly challenge to Howard

BY LIAM O COILEAIN

IRISH REPUBLICAN PRISONER Paddy Kelly has won the right to seek a judicial review of the repressive conditions in which he is being held at Whitemoor Special Secure Unit in England. His legal challenge to the Home Office comes hot on the heels of the announcement by sacked Director General of the British Prison Service, Derek Lewis, that he is to sue Home Secretary Michael Howard for wrongful dismissal.

Paddy Kelly's barrister, Tim Owens, told the High Court in London that his client was in a "desperate situation". Kelly, who is recovering from major cancer surgery, is on a dirty protest in Whitemoor SSU against the restrictive conditions in which himself and fellow republican prisoner Mick O'Brien are being held. Both men were earlier this year denied transfer to the Six Counties and are being locked up for 23-hours a day in unheated cells without access to facilities and subjected to closed visits.

In the High Court on 20 October, Kelly's lawyer indicated that he would be challenging the Home Office decision refusing to transfer him to a prison in the Six Counties, his placement in a Special Secure Unit, his categorisation as a "extreme high risk Category A" and the regime under which he is being held.

The judge, describing what he had heard as "very disturbing", refused the Home Office lawyers an adjournment, and granted leave for a judicial review, giving the respondents a maximum 28 days to reply although he hoped they would do so earlier.

In the affidavit to the court a Canadian consultant who recently visited Kelly in prison has cited an entry which he spotted in the prison's medical records from 1994 warning of a possible recurrence of cancer. Kelly was not allowed a proper examination until late this year, an example, according to the affidavit, of negligence on the part of the prison authorities and the Home Office.

Kelly's legal team are most anxious to push for his transfer from Whitemoor to a prison in the Six Counties pending his repatriation to the 26 Counties, because of his medical condition. He has already suffered a bout of bronchitis since his operation which required a course of antibiotics.

Michael O'Brien, who on Monday, 30 October, will have been on protest for 100 days, has a wash hand basin in his cell but Kelly, despite his condition, has none. On Tuesday, 17 October the two men, who had been denied access to books, were denied all other reading materials, including newspapers. Their cells are unheated and they are receiving no family visits. An Phoblacht/Republican News has been specifically banned in the SSU.

INTERFERING MINISTER

Michael Howard is also under pressure this week after the decision by sacked Director General of the Prison Service, Derek Lewis, to sue him for unlawful dismissal. Prison administrators in England are now said to hold the Home Secretary in contempt, citing the manner in which Lewis was hung out to dry in order to salvage Howard's reputation

He has been an extremely hands-on Home Secretary, they feel, interfering at will but unwilling to take the blame for mistakes and failures. This is a view shared by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, Judge Stephen Tumim. One top prison headquarters official described him as "the most interventionist Home Secretary in living memory".

It has also emerged that Howard sanctioned the transfer of four republican prisoners from England to prisons in the Six Counties shortly after the IRA cessation last year but misjudged the ensuing Tory backlash against the move. (John Major publicly called for an inquiry). Lewis was persuaded to take the rap for the decision.

Howard also tried to have convicted British Army murderer, Private Lee Clegg moved to an open prison as the high-powered campaign to secure his release got underway. It is also understood that an early draft of the Learmont Inquiry into prisons recommended against the introduction of closed visits whereas the final draft, which met with Howard's approval, came to the opposite conclusion.

But Howard remains one of the best positioned of Major's ministers, due to his loyalty to the leader and also because his draconian law and order card is seen one of their few trump cards for the next general election. However his interference in the administartion of English prisons, quite apart from his continuing persecution of republican prisoners, may yet prove to be his undoing.