Blog entry 1st September 2014
Last month was a tough one. No one thing in particular, but the nature of prison builds up and gets to you when you least expect it. Although permanently surrounded by people this environment is extremely isolating and lonely. Whilst there are many acquaintances behind prison walls there are very few true friends. Trusting other prisoners to be a valued friend becomes even harder when you are a victim of a miscarriage of justice.
It's because of this that I value my fiancee Carol's visits so much. Yet HMP Wakefield does its best to destroy even that one small glimmer of normality. Carol and I are yet to be given the full visiting as set out in the prison's published timetable. Despite Carol always being booked in at the prison an hour before the start of visits, prison staff obstruct our visit from beginning by at least 20 minutes. The last visit was delayed by the prison by 40 minutes. Worse still, search staff have taken to openly belittling Carol prior to her being allowed to enter the visiting area. This has included an assault on Carol which the prison's senior management team has refused to investigate or report to the police.
Appeal wise I wrote to my solicitor on August 8th suggesting two different forensic scientists to do the review requested by our instructed barrister. I am still waiting for my solicitor to reply to this letter. Meanwhile Steve, my appeal campaign manager, is consulting with another forensic expert about what instructions and questions should be given when we instruct a forensic scientist to conduct the review.
I have also written to Dr Whitaker, who once worked for the Forensic Science Service. Whilst giving evidence for the Crown in the Templeton Woods murder trial he conceded that if a DNA sample has a missing allele or alleles (bands), the missing allele(s) may well be sufficient to exonerate a suspect. During my trial the jury were told only that the FSS' experts evidence was that crime scene sample (DAR/6&8) was a 1 in a billion match to myself. What the prosecution and FSS hid was that the crime scene sample had numerous missing alleles, any of which have the potential to exonerate me according to Dr Whitaker's evidence during the Templeton Woods murder case trial. This evidence was not disclosed until two years after I was wrongly convicted. As of yet I am still to receive a response from Dr Whitaker.
Until next month, thank you all for your continued support and interest.