Cc. Governing Governor; Area Manager;  Chairman of BOV.  Placed in box

Re. Psychopaths, Prison Rules, & the Law.

A brief word first about psychopaths:  The trait is within us all, but most people try to submerge it.  Some do not.  I was one myself as a youth (see para. 3).

1)       Though this complaint names another prison officer, please treat this as a continuation of the Complaint which carries my reference ‘ArmleyComp-03-12-02’.  That complaint is of course being completely ignored, as are all made by me.  (The ‘Complaints Procedure’ is an obscene farce, designed to drive the victim to despair).  The files will (of course) be closed & destroyed on my death.  That event is rapidly being brought closer by the psychopaths who run our prisons, none more so than David ‘Himmler’ Blunkett, he who was wearing a poppy as he said, “We will get rid of ‘airy-fairy’ human rights” (rights for which millions of men died).. 

2)       Only the gullible believe we still have them.  Only the gullible believe we still have the Rule of Law.  If we did, the ‘Gestapo’ police who tried to assassinate me on 8^th August 1999 (& the ‘barbaric’ prison staff named by Sir David Ramsbotham in his book ‘Prisongate) would be the ones behind bars.  

3)       At the age of 17, I had a desire to kill Germans, causing me to volunteer for the Royal Navy.  Within weeks it was my own brave young shipmates who were maimed, dead & dying around me by the score.  Six months later (Christmas 1943) there came grim retribution as I played my small part in the hunting of that finest, bravest, most feared & most beautiful of fighting ships, the battleship Scharnhorst.  On Boxing Day we sent her to the bottom of Barentz Sea, along with 1,867 equally brave German sailors.

4)       We picked up a handful of survivors, then steamed away, still hearing voices calling for help from the black of the Arctic winter night, leaving the owners of those voices to certain death.  (Being the youngest Ordinary Seaman aboard HM destroyer Matchless, the decision was not mine, but even so, I still feel remorse).  On New Year’s Day 1944 we steamed into Scapa Flow Harbour to a Hero’s welcome. It is perhaps Rough Justice that the poppy wearing British people (especially our supposed ‘watchdogs’) now ignore my own desperate calls for help, as you do.  I now know how those German sailors felt 60 years ago. 

5)       Came the end of the war, my psychopathic appetite sated for ever, I worked honestly & hard as a small farmer, horse breeder & horse ‘whisperer’, proud to be British until the age of 70.  Then came a succession of shocks as I began to learn that corruption is endemic in the civil courts (I knew nothing of the criminal courts at that time). 

6)       I made a dramatic change of career, became a Human Rights activist, a Parliamentary Candidate, & published the book ‘Cause for Concern’ (exposing ‘fraud in the legal system’, vide Paul Boateng, below) ^{FN [1]}:  I attended courts (mainly civil) all over England as an observer, becoming a geriatric student & researcher of law at the University of Leeds:  Most surprisingly (with my limited experience), I became a single-handed reformer of British law!

7)       The main point of my 1997 Election Manifesto (as an Independent Old Age Pensioner) was my concern at the LACK of concern by regular politicians at the violent & murderous attacks on the old & vulnerable – unheard of at one time.  The second point was my concern at the rotten apples among judges in the civil courts (at that time I knew nothing of criminal courts).  The main point would surely not upset anybody – but the second one certainly did!

8)      As a Litigant In Person (a ‘LIP’) in the Civil Appeal Court (24/3/99 & 24/6/99) I gave lessons in law & a beating to Lord Woolf (then MR, now LCJ), Lord Justice Otton & LJ Ward ^FN[2].  A colour spread in Yorkshire Evening Post, 25^th  June 1999 was headlined “NORMAN ‘OUSTS’(routs) TOP JUDGE”.  I had been bold enough to tell them, “Her Majesty the Queen, whose courts these are, is badly served by the shysters who now infest the judiciary” (I intended to stand against lawyer Blair at the 2001 General Election, with that as my main platform).

9)       Six weeks later (8^th August 1999) I suffered a potentially lethal terror attack by a mob-handed gang of ‘Gestapo’ police, being used as a private army.  It was intended to silence me - by fear.  Few men of my age would NOT have had a heart attack or stroke. It was a clever assassination attempt - if successful it would have been ‘death from natural causes’! 

10)    A renewal of the attack eleven months later put me in hospital, but at the run up to the 2001 General Election, it was me – the victim - in the dock at Sheffield Crown Court, my witnesses & my evidence banned – as was the press! 

11)    My intention to stand against lawyer Blair was blocked.  Judge David Ronald Bentley fed monstrous lies to the (specially selected) jury, then sentenced me to ten years - for a first ‘offence’ - at the age of 75!  He described me as a ‘dangerous man’.  Indeed I am – but dangerous only to the ‘fraudsters in the legal system’! (see footnote ¹)   

12)    The reform in British law brought about by me came via my small civil case in the ECtHR (33745/96).  It was incorporated into the 1998 Human Rights Act (confirmed by Geoffrey Hoon MP in a letter dated 1/9/98, when he was Lord Chancellor Irvine’s spokesman in the Commons).  Thanks to little me, hearings ‘In Chambers’ (previously held in secret) are now open to the public.  The change is much hated by lawyers & judges, & I am hated for it.   They will ensure that The Prison Service (like the police) will never have to answer for crime against me. 

13)    On 25^th Nov. 2002, after 19 months in six different prisons, the Criminal Appeal Court (LJ Rose) quashed the savage sentence completely but had me carted off to a lunatic asylum (just as in Stalinist Russia).  I was there for 4 months, but LJ Rose had discovered a ‘Lacuna’ (a hole in the law) & invented a new law specially for me. 

14)    You may say, “A prisoner’s guilt or innocence is not our concern”.  That might be acceptable if you held to the principle.    Trouble is, you do make it your concern, by using criminal means to prevent a prisoner who claims innocence from proving it!   Even without the maltreatment in prison, at my age I have little time to do so.

However, that which follows most certainly IS your concern!

15)    4^th April 2003 I was back in Sheffield Crown Court.  From the witness box psychiatrist Dr. Patrick J.G.Quinn told Judge Goldsack, “SENDING HIM BACK TO PRISON COULD HAVE CATASTROPHIC CONSEQUENCES ON HIS MENTAL HEALTH”.  What did the Honourable Judge do?  Sent me back to prison!  A bullet in the back of the head would have been more humane.  (The Lockerbie bomber will be out when he is 75.  I have killed no-one, & will not be free till I am 85 – assuming I can survive till then).

16)    There is a crime worse than murder, a punishment worse than the gallows - as described by Euripides (480-408BC), “They whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad”.  The kindly warders (especially at Armley Gaol) are experts.  Dr. Quinn knew what he was talking about! 

17)      I am now at Armley to be near Leeds Courthouse, because I have several High Court actions there, & several hearings listed.  One is LS 190 197, N.Scarth v G.Moore (ex Chief Constable of West Yorkshire), my Claim for £1,000,000 damages for the assassination attempts & other crimes, including the perjury which resulted in my conviction.  It has been deliberately delayed for more than two years already, & now the listed hearings keep on being adjourned, knowing that my death will solve the problem.  Diabolical treatment by the Prison Service is rapidly bringing that event closer. 

18)    Included with the case is my application for the committal to prison of Wolds Prison Director Dave McDonnel & Unit Manager Dean Langton for contempt of court – failing to deliver me to court when required to do so.  There was to be a hearing on 18 Nov. 03.  I was waiting all day to be taken to court – but it didn’t happen!  I have been told nothing since.  As Hon. Sec. Of the Litigants In Person Society, I know how LIPs are hated by judges, & thus have not the slightest hope of success, but that application does not endear me to Prison Service staff.  Protecting their Wolds colleagues is another reason to obstruct me every way they can.

19)    In prison for the first time at the age of 75 (then), I was fearful of the vicious criminals with whom I would be locked up.  It was a double shock - part good, part bad - to find that most of the prisoners are FAR better human beings than those with the keys! 

20)   Fighting back with the only means available to me, I have been on a starvation diet for 2½ years, with nothing but sneers, jeers & insults from staff - custodial, nursing & medical - apart from just one honest doctor.  He expressed shock at the obstruction he was meeting when trying to get me to some less brutal establishment.  (See para. 25(2) of the UNSMR).   

21)    When Mahatma Gandhi & the Suffragettes fasted in prison, Imperial Britain had enough respect for the Sovereign’s Oath to release them when close to death.  Will Lawyer Blair’s regime show the same mercy to me?  Not a chance!  I am a canary who has been singing too loudly, & have as much chance of mercy as a mouse in a snake pit! 

22)    It was the ‘great’ Lord Denning, rated (by some!) as the finest judge of the 20^th century, who said, “Better that innocent men should remain in prison than that the integrity of the judiciary be impugned”.  It is the supreme crime.  Parole?  Mercy?  Don’t be funny!  He also said (Sirros v Moore, CA, 1974), “Though (a judge) be motivated by greed, envy, malice & all uncharitableness, he is not liable to any action”.  This self-proclaimed immunity was falsely proclaimed, but is accepted as the word of God.  He once quoted Thomas Fuller (1608 -1661) - “Be you never so high, the law is above you”.  Perhaps someone will quote the words of Norman Scarth (1925 – 2003) - “Be you never so low, the lawyer is below you”.  

Now to the complaint about the one officer, Number LE 100, name Bache.  Though his personal conduct was shocking, it is only one tiny part of the overall picture.

23)    PRISON RULES:   There are three kinds: (a) Common Sense Rules, to ensure security & the efficient running of the establishment: (b)  Those for the benefit of the prisoner:  (c) Those which are seemingly stupid, but actually designed to give an excuse for big & little despots to demonstrate their power over prisoners, used to provoke, oppress, degrade, & destroy any spirit or dignity the prisoner/victim may have. 

a)       Few would argue with (a), though even they can be misused, as when the excuse of ‘security’ is farcical, harmful not only to the prisoner, but a shocking waste of manpower, costing the poor taxpayer many millions of £s – which is itself criminal.

b)        Rules for the benefit of prisoners are flouted, twisted & ignored contemptuously by staff - AS IS THE LAW OF THE LAND!.

c)       These ‘rules’ are often made up on the spur of the moment, as described now:  Having been asking to ring my lawyers all day, I was finally allowed to do in the evening.  Starting to make the call, PO Bache came up from nowhere, found some nonsensical fault with my footwear, & pressed the receiver holder to cut me off.  (Note:  The footwear is perfectly acceptable at HMP Wolds, where I am officially, only being at Leeds to be near Leeds Courthouse for several High Court actions).  He told me to go back & put some ‘approved’ shoes on – which would lose me my place in the telephone queue.  I protested at this high-handed action, when he became aggressive.  About 4 officers came from nowhere, closed up around me threateningly, & I was escorted back to my cell. 

d)       Bache told me I could go back to make my telephone call if I put some approved shoes on.  I did so & started to come out, when Bache threw me violently back into the cell onto the floor.  Another officer did give reluctant ‘assistance’ to Bache, but his heart was not in it, his conscience obviously troubling him (I am 78 years of age, just about the oldest prisoner in Britain, weigh about 7½ stone,  & am weak with hunger).  Whatever about the ‘rule’ I had broken, there was no excuse for such brutality. 

e)      I had broken NO rule when I was here in July.  A group of sneering, jeering officers turned a fire hose on me in the shower.  I was almost knocked of my feet.  Other prisoners were shocked at this treatment of an old man, but my official written complaint about THAT has also been completely ignored.  Senior Officer Vine & Governor T. Cranmer were supposedly dealing with it, but my frequent enquiries meet a blank wall.

f)       A few weeks ago TV & press told of a glowing report about Armley by Ann Owers, the NEW  Chief Inspector of Prisons.  My letter of complaint to her has (of course) been ignored.  She will NOT be sacked for honesty, as were her predecessors Sir Stephen Tumim & Sir David Ramsbotham! 

g)       Though Armley Gaol is by far the worst ‘Hell Hole’ prison I have been in, the staff more blatantly ‘barbaric’, I have suffered brutality elsewhere.  At HMP Wolds I was ‘banged up’ with a deranged prisoner (Brian Roberts DK8347) for two nights.  At unlock on Sunday morning 27/7/03, he burst out of the cell & said loudly to two prison officers “If you don’t get him out of here, I will do him in!”  He meant it!  At lunch time I was ordered back in the cell to be locked up with him.  I told the officer that I dare not go in there.  They took me down the Punishment Block for ‘Refusing a lawful order’, & there I spent all night writing up my defence. 

h)       The adjudication next day was before Controller G.Rawlings.  He was arrogant, bullying & sneering.  I tried to put my defence forward, but Rawlings dismissed it with contempt, saying “I run this hearing as I want – NOT by ‘The Rules’ (or words to that effect). 

i)        No charge was ever put to me, & he ignored my complaint about the officer who had sadistically ordered me back in a cell with a dangerous man.  I was then taken back to B Wing, & put in a single cell.  My official written complaint about the officer has been completely ignored!  Standard practice. 

j)         There is more:  HMP Wolds provided a special treat for my 78^th birthday.  I complained about crime being committed against me, & for that ‘offence’ I was brutally dragged to the punishment block, & given 3 days stoppage of association.

k)       On more than one occasion PO Evans has stuck his head in the door, with hatred in his eyes saying “I will bounce you”, & threatened to cut off the electric for my computer.  Tues. 25 Nov. 03 I was called into office by SO Lumley (LE 285).  Present were Hall, Noble, & another, & the door was closed  (no witnesses).  I thought ‘this is it – the bouncing!’  Lumley complained about my ‘attitude to staff’.  (This is a man who always treats me worse than a dog!).      I told him of the Reports of Lesley Shackleton & Dr. Barber, of 78^th birthday & fire hose attacks, & that I treated with respect those who treated me with respect. 

The facts in this Witness Statement are true:    Signed Norman Scarth (aka Winston Smith)    09/12/2003 (‘1984’ plus 19)

CURRENT ADDRESS:  For more than 6 weeks I have been in virtual solitary confinement 23½ hours a day at HMP Leeds, Armley, LEEDS LS12 2TJ, suffering provocation, oppression, starvation, threats, terror & extreme mental torture from ‘caring’ warders.  Denied newspapers, denied library for leisure or legal purposes, denied Education, church or chapel, ALL my applications are ignored.  Special legal visits all blocked, as were family visits for five weeks .  Other prisoners are not allowed to speak to me through the door.

(Written on back of Pink Form, under “What would you like to see done about your complaint?”)  That after reading this, you will prove that you have a conscience, courage & a soul:  That you will join me in the fight against Lawyer Blair’s terrorist Police State:  That you will allow me RELEASE ON TEMPORARY LICENCE to enable me to progress High Court action LS 190 197 to expose the GESTAPO POLICE who tried to assassinate me on 8^th August 1999 – 11 months BEFORE the ‘crime’ I am supposed to have committed.  It could also expose those who ORDERED the assassination. 

Expressing hope as above indicates that I am as stupid as anyone who hoped for mercy from Hitler or Stalin.

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I asked officer for loan of stapler for the above.  He came back to tell me SO Maddern had refused.  I sent back the message that he was pathetic.

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The ‘aspirin’ given me a couple of days before was ‘Valdic 75 Retard (leaflet gave horrific side effects).  At lunchtime today (2/12/03), on the point of taking it with food (as instructed) I showed it to C.Hall.  Instead of saying he would contact the nurse, he started a long unnecessary argument – ‘What do you expect me to do about it?”  After tea he DID bring black nurse, who understood the seriousness of wrong medication, & took it away. Coming back from Education I had asked an officer if I could ring my lawyer, & was told ‘after tea’.  I asked Hall if I may do so now.  He told me I was asking too late, & I told him I had asked about 4 pm.  More unnecessary argument from Hall.