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From: Norman Scarth (born 1925): Lucky to survive when my shipmates died around me in World War 2,

fighting to keep Hitler's Gestapo from our shores.  They died in vain.

Now Political Prisoner GV5409, HM Prison Wolds Gulag, BROUGH, East Yorkshire HU15 2JZ                 

To The Rt. Honourable David Blunkett MP, Secretary of State for the Home Dept.                   Monday 29th September 2003.

50, Queen Anne's Gate, LONDON SW1H 9AT.  Tel: 0870-3000.  Fax: 0207 273 2065

You being responsible for the Police, Prison Service & the fight against crime, I bring to your attention

Serious Crime by the Prison Service & others, obstructing the course of Justice being only one of them.

1)            "BETTER THAT INNOCENT MEN SHOULD REMAIN IN PRISON THAN THAT THE INTEGRITY OF THE JUDICIARY BE IMPUGNED" said the 'great' Lord Denning, in gross contempt of his own judicial oath & that of the Queen.  Those who promote or follow that precept are committing crime.  They include not only members of the present judiciary, but Home Secretaries, the Home Office, the Prison Service (& ALL our puppet 'watchdogs' ). 

2)             They purport to act in the name of the Sovereign, & are thus (supposedly) bound by her Coronation Oath (sworn before Almighty God) "To Deliver Justice with Mercy".  Whatever about Justice, they have shown as much Mercy to me as was shown to little Lesley Downey by Myra Hindley & Ian Brady.  There were only two of them:  The whole of this brutal Police State are determined to destroy me(see document 'TheEnd23Sept03' & others)

3)             After one & a half years of ill-treatment by 'barbaric' guards in a succession of  'Hell Hole' prisons (vide Martin Narey & Sir David Ramsbotham) I was sent to the slightly more humane Newton Lodge Secure Hospital, in the care of psychiatrist Dr. Patrick J.G.Quinn.  From the witness box in Sheffield Crown Court on 7/3/03, he told Judge Goldsack "Sending him back to prison could have CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCES ON HIS MENTAL HEALTH". 

4)             What did judge Goldsack do?  Sent me back to prison!  Only a depraved monster could do that.  Who is the biggest criminal, him or me?  The supposed immunity of judges does not allow them to pull out a gun & shoot a defendant - nor should they be immune from punishment for less obvious crime.  Acting in breach of their judicial oath IS crime – ‘obtaining money (their salary) by false pretences’ being the least of them - but I leave that for now.             

5)             Crime by the Prison Service:  They are as hostile as the judiciary to any prisoner who claims innocence, especially one who tries to prove it without a lawyer.  They will use any criminal means to obstruct, frustrate & delay him.  'Obstructing the Course of Justice' is a Common Law offence, subject to life imprisonment.  The Prison Complaints Procedure is an obscene farce, DESIGNED to drive the victim to despair.  Prisoners who use it are punished for doing so. 

6)             Crime by Police:  Why did your predecessor Jack Straw ignore my desperate call for help after a mob-handed gang of West Yorkshire Police (acting as a private army) tried to silence me by a terror attack - ELEVEN MONTHS BEFORE the 'crime' I am supposed to have committed? 

7)             Why did Huddersfield & Bradford Magistrates' Courts block my attempts to start private prosecutions against the police, when it is the right of everyone in the land to do so? 

8)             Why is the Appeal Court using fiendish means to delay my appeal against the savage sentence imposed on me - the victim of crime, when I have already served more than many killers?  (I have killed no-one, attacked no-one).                  

9)             Why have they not even acknowledged my ‘Application for Bail Pending Appeal’ - submitted 1^st June 2003?       

10)          Why is the High Court deliberately delaying my action against the police for the attack, for false imprisonment, malicious prosecution & perjury?   There is to be a Case Management Conference in Leeds on 31st October 2003.  For a previous one on 14th July I had to spend 14 days in Armley Gaol, which is far worse than even this evil place.  I am terrified at the thought of going there again.   The new book by Sir David Ramsbotham confirms that my fear is justified! (see para20).

11)          My official complaint about mistreatment there has been completely ignored - as always!  My application for Release On Temporary Licence to avoid that terror, to enable me to access vital evidence & to attend the High Court hearing has been refused with monstrous lies & fiendish excuses, as has my request for Category D - completely disregarding Prison Rules & Standing Orders.

12)          Why are the lawyers of the Criminal Cases Review Commission doing absolutely nothing?   Giving the matter a Case Number two years ago, they ignored their own rules to drop it for a year or so, now sitting on it until I die!    

13)         

My blood will be equally on the hands of the British people who (like the Germans under Hitler) allowed it to happen.

The answer to all those questions is that if the truth about this matter were to come out, it would bring infinitely more disgrace to the nation than the death of Dr. David Kelly, & that the best way to ensure it never does is to keep me in prison until my death, which at 77 cannot be far away.  It is rapidly being brought closer by maltreatment in these 'Hell Holes'. 

14)           I protest against this evil with the only means left to me, as used by Mahatma Gandhi & the Suffragettes.  Imperial Britain had enough respect for the Sovereign's Oath to release them when they were close to death.  Will Lawyer Blair's regime show the same mercy to me? 

15)          In The Gulag Archipelago, Alecksandr Solzhenitsyn quoted from KGB instructions to Soviet prisons, "Suppress hunger strikes, ... or information about them.  If forced to admit that someone is on hunger strike, do not delay in informing (the public) of the (supposed) crimes of those on hunger strike".  A reviewer of the book wrote, "It is gripping because it shows how ordinary people can be turned into the planners or executives of oppression, brutality & torture".

16)          I send these documents with no expectation of meaningful response, but with the faint hope that the truth may be on record after my death.  A foolish hope.  Those who can terrorize, brutalize, torment, torture & destroy an old man who has given much to this nation are not likely to have compunction about destroying the record!   

17)          With derisory access to a computer (as opposed to Dovegate Prison, where I had full access), I was forced to continue by hand, as I was anxious to get the document in the post to the Home Secretary.  Now given full access to a computer (but not to a printer!), I type below that which was handwritten on the original. 

21)          You & every other politician compete in your determination to "Clamp Down On Crime".  I agree! - but let the clamp down be on those with power who abuse it, & the BIG criminals as well as the little ones!  (See my message to The Serious Fraud Office in my ‘Coroner-14/12/01’ document). 

22)          Until my incarceration I had believed (as we are constantly told by the media) that prisons were ‘Holiday Camps’.  They are certainly not fit places for an old man who has given as much to the nation as I have – much more than any of those who put me here & keep me here.     

23)         There are amendments to the original in this copy of the letter, & ADDITIONS, AS BELOW:

24)          I hope you - & the nation – are horrified at the exposure by Sir David Ramsbotham of criminality in the Prison Service, & how not only prisoners suffer, but the few good officers.  The despots (big & little) in the Prison Service do harm not only to the prisoners & the good officers, but to the nation.  They turn out not reformed characters, but resentful ones.  It COULD & SHOULD be different. 

25)          After a long lifetime of service to my country, in prison for the first time at the age of 75 (then), one of the greatest shocks was to find that most of the prisoners are better human beings than many of those with the keys. 

For expansion of the points made in this letter, see documents ‘Wolds13/9/03’ || ‘TheEnd23/9/03’ || ‘The Disappeared24/9/03’ |  ‘Bail1/6/03’ || ‘Coroner14/12/2001’ || (enclosed with the original)

I enclose now a copy of document ChC-1-Oct03.  The conduct described in it may or may not be technically ‘Contempt of Court’, but it is certainly ‘Misconduct in Public Office’, a Common Law offence (see R. v Dytham, 1974, CA All ER).  About 1998 I made submissions to the Law Commission on that subject.  A member of the Law Commission (I cannot bring the name to mind at the moment) had an article published in The Times, in which he said “The level of culpability should be high before anyone is charged with the offence”.   What about the ‘Zero Tolerance’ which is promoted so strongly now?

I have a great deal of evidence of the criminality, & will send it - if I retain strength & a degree of sanity long enough!   

I paraphrase Martin Luther King: “I fear not the words (& actions) of the wicked, but I DO fear the silence of the (supposedly) honest.  I fear there is no hope for me, but more importantly, there is none for Britain.

(amended 5/10/03) Norman Scarth.     .

1)       Cc: The Appeal Court, CCRC, the nation & the world.                  1,745 words