Beyond the Rule of Law: Being a Political Prisoner in HMP Cardiff

The Trials and Tribulations by a Chronic Litigant in Person Aged 66

Maurice Kirk

(LONDON) - Maurice J Kirk BVSc[1] was arrested in Tottenham Police Station in London on 21^st September 2011, when he witnessed a street fight and tried to recuperate two mobile phones. The Police had confiscated the phones as evidence, when Mr Kirk tried to help the Nigerian couple whose six children were kidnapped by Haringey Council in April 2010.

He was transferred to HMP Cardiff where he has been harassed by South Wales Police for years. He went on hunger strike, hoping to being taken seriously, when he requests a written statement with his charges and a release date. The Police National Computer (PNC) supposedly states ‘unconvicted, no sentence’.

Court hearings are scheduled last minute so that he cannot inform any supporters. His telephone and stamp budget is curtailed[3], and he doesn’t get access to his own money. On 23rd August 2011, South Wales Police stole his computer, mobile phones, legal papers, credit cards and cheque books from his car and refuse to hand his property over. For he had new evidence against them: painting and re-painting the ‘machine gun’ for his civil action for damages that has been going for 20 years. It is being delayed artificially by the solicitors of South Wales Police as well as HM Court Services.

His medical condition of bleeding ulcers has been neglected and his prescribed medication is being denied regularly. He is moved in and out of the punishment block and kept in a freezing cell where the window does not shut. Recently he was manhandled so badly that he had to be taken to hospital to check his hip and ankles.

At the last hearing on November 14th, chairs for only 3 supporters were available, when 10 had travelled to be there. To book an appointment for visits requires not only long waiting time on the telephone, but also six days before a date is set.

Mr Kirk was a highly respected veterinary surgeon who had set up successful practices in Somerset, Guernsey and South Wales. He was also a highly applauded pilot, especially when he participated in the London Sidney race with an historic aeroplane. But by visiting his patients with his planes, he escaped the control of Somerset Police which began a history of police harassment that merits many mentions in the Guinness book of records. He has won some 130 court cases against South Wales Police alone, while only losing 12.

At the first hearing where supporters were present on October 10th, the judge mentioned that four allegations were before him, but he dealt with only one: harassment of Dr Tegwyn Williams. This Director of Caswell Clinic, the psychiatric hospital where Mr Kirk spent 3 months in 2009, had produced medical records claiming that Mr Kirk suffered from ‘paranoid delusional disorder, severe brain damage and possibly brain tumour’. Hence doctors refused to replace his hip without access to these records. But they have been withheld ever since they were written. Mr Kirk was prescribed extremely strong pain killers for some 9 months, before his hip was replaced in France, when doctors reassured him that there was ‘nothing between his ears’.

To this day, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) refuses to return his commercial flying licence due to these false medical records. Anybody who can help this political prisoner, is invited to do so. For further information, please contact sabine@3d-metrics.com

Notes:

1. HMP stands for Her Majesty’s Prison.
2. Maurice Kirk, a fine and generous Englishman, was asked to fly an historic aeroplane for hunger relief to North Uganda and Sudan, but could not do so because of his current imprisonment.

[1] http://kirkflyingvet.com/content/About.aspx

 [2] http://kirkflyingvet.com/blogs/legal/archive/2011/11/01/163-8-per-week-telephone-money-and-163-6-68-in-the-canteen.aspx

Past reports on Salem-News.com

Nov-16-2011: World Attention Focuses on UK Political Prisoners: Musa Family and Aviation Adventurer Maurice Kirk

Nov-16-2011: Open Letter to Amnesty International - Please Help!

Nov-16-2011: When Speaking the Truth becomes a Crime, Freedom of Speech is on Trial

End Israel's Unwarranted Murder of Kids