Maurice Kirk

Latest News

July 2009 - Posts

About anything from Warrant for Arrest to our online petition demanding Fair Trials and Compensation, for Maurice and other victims, in the spirit of human rights. For first time visitors, a one-page summary is on a complementary and introductory blog. The latest video of a 12-minute interview with Maurice on Jersey in Dec 2010.

Breaking News:

Political asylum and protection from extradition granted - for the first time since the French Revolution, to a British citizen. See this post here.
  • Removed from Segregation

    Filed under: ,

    Thursday July 30th - Maurice has been moved from the segregation unit of cardiff prison to the health care unit under the care of psychiatric services.

    He is refusing food. Today he refused to attend court as he had had no prior warning and therefore, no time/opportunity to prepare. He remains a litigant in person and, as  a remand prisoner should be allowed to prepare his case.

    The Rt Hon John Smith MP has requested that the Home Office investigate Maurice's case.

    Kirstie Kirk

  • Serious Developments

    The latest news is that Maurice refused to appear at his bail hearing yesterday, because the court refused him Habeas Corpus (his right to appear in court in person to defend himself against the law). Instead they would have only allowed him to appear via video link. As a result of his unwillingness to attend the hearing, the judge ordered him to be psychiatrically examined.

    Maurice is being held in solitary confinement at present and he belives that after having the examination yesterday, they are going to have him sectioned to remove his right to make judgments on his own behalf.

    In response to this he has begun a hunger strike.


  • Maurice Unwell

    Hello,

    I am rather late in writing as I have spent the evening composing letters to Rt Hon J Smith, MP re Maurice’s treatment and to my “point of contact” at South Wales Police requesting a list of articles removed from my house on 22 June and complaining about lack of adherence to correct procedures during a two day long search here.

    I understand that Maurice’s hearing will be via video link which is a great pity as it will not afford the judge an opportunity to see how very unwell Maurice is, evident by his appearance. He continues to suffer almost constant pain owing to his extensive arthritis, unhealed pelvic fracture and intestinal pain. He really should not be held in prison awaiting trial. Considering his age and health, it is inhuman and disproportionate to his alleged crime. This evening he sounded very tired having spent the afternoon with psychiatrists. This is worrying bearing in mind the line of questioning to which I was subjected on 22 June. However, I take heart from my image of the psychiatrists who spent the afternoon with Maurice needing at least counselling by their own personal psychiatrists.

    My friends from overseas are shocked (as shocked as I was) to learn the extent of police powers here. Few people realise that a warrant is unnecessary to search one’s house.

    Kirstie

  • Prison Letters and a Call to Jury Service

    Filed under: ,

    A couple of letters from Maurice landed on our mat this week franked with HM Prison Service stamps. That's a first for us. What's ironic is that amongst Her Majesty's post was a letter calling upon one of us to do jury service. Should we state on the return form that we work for Maurice on a professional basis, do you think?

    In the letters Maurice has been busy outlining, in his own indomitable way, events leading to his current predicament. Unfortunately, his hand writing is a tad hard to decipher and we've not had time to translate it to type, I dare say it would take us a week to unpick. So we've scanned the most legible and put them up for reading which for the most part just about works...

    Download Timeline Letter here

    Download Other Prison Letters here

    One document is a timeline of events from 1916 to present, yes that's right 1916. As far as we were aware, it was to be a precise blow by blow account of events since his arrest this month, except it also includes a historical prologue about a replica DH2 war plane and a string of pages concerning his engagements with the Police and other authorities prior to the present day. For your information pages 7-9 provide the background details to the arrest.

    The other document contains three shorter letters providing more information over the circumstances of the arrest and his situation in Cardiff Prison.

    Inside with Maurice's letters was a letter from another inmate for us to forward on; we assume this was to save on the cost of stamps or maybe they are suffering a shortage, since taking Maurice in. We do know that Maurice has been making a lot of new friends on the inside. The website is picking up quite a following from friends and family of inmates. If you're visiting the site after hearing about Maurice from someone in the prison, hello and welcome! Please don't be alarmed by anything you read here, your associates are quite safe. Although we do urge you to convey to those inside the prison to please refrain from encouraging Maurice's natural urge to form an escape party or to join it, should he succeed. He currently does not have a pilot's license to fly the matchstick microlite he's building under his bed and by which he intends to gain freedom.

    We recently received a couple of phone calls informing us that Maurice has been given a bail application form for a hearing next Monday. This indicates a change of direction, since it was earlier understood that Maurice would remain in prison with no opportunity to influence his circumstances until a jury case, to be held at the end of the year.

    We also have a copy of the summary of evidence against Maurice. It seems that by and large the contents of this website form the main plank of the CPS case and the fact that he won't go away and do as he's told, says 'inappropriate' things, might be of unsound mind (and/or an alcoholic) and on the testimony of a certain undercover cop code-named 'Foxy' who covertly asserted that at one time he owned a live WW1 era machine gun or "lethal barrelled weapon" before he sold it to the RAF over a year ago. Lastly, various experts have been employed to sign bits of paper that confirm all the worst suspicions.

    It sounds as if a considerable amount of resources have been invested in making sure Maurice goes down, and we must admit that he's undoubtedly provided the ‘ammunition' for them to succeed. What's odd is that most of the evidence is rather old having been in the public domain (on this website) for ages (see blog/picture archive).

    So why now has all this come to light? Was it really to do with an impending court case against the South Wales Police for harassment, we asked ourselves? If this were true it would either mean that there's some truth to Maurice's argument or the legal system is totally incapable of dealing with his accusations. It could well be that the Police genuinely believe that Maurice is a dangerous man who needs to be taken off the street. But having known and worked with Maurice for more than a decade at best, such a thing seems unlikely and at worst it looks like a convenient excuse to discredit and beat him down with.

    Ultimately the charges come down to owning a firearm, whether working or not, without a proper license and we doubt Maurice would ultimately deny the technical fact of the charge. What is open to question are the motives behind the charges being applied at a particular point in time, just prior to a court case involving the South Wales Police. That is the most worrying element whether you sympathise with Maurice or not.  

    Maurice's official reply to all this was recorded as "I think it's rediculous" (SIC)