by Sharp, Janis
Gary had been individually assessed, face to face, by Dr Thomas Berney, Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Professor Jeremy Turk and Professor Murphy, all of whom were leading experts in the field and all of whom agreed on the diagnosis.
To try to appease the Home Office we arranged for Gary to be assessed by Dr Vermeulen, a Home Office-approved consultant forensic psychiatrist recommended by the NAS. We first invited the Home Office to solely appoint Dr Vermeulen, or any consultant forensic psychiatrist recommended by the NAS, but they refused.
This all seemed to fly in the face of logic and I was feeling deeply uneasy. So I did what everyone regarded as the unthinkable and flatly refused for Gary to be assessed by either of the Home Office’s choices.
Gary’s legal team hastily arranged a conference and concluded that although it was far from ideal, we had no choice but to do as the Home Office said. We had a very heated discussion in conference as they felt I was making their position difficult and that the Home Secretary might well just decide to extradite Gary if we did not agree to comply.
I’ve always believed in fairness and transparency, and I firmly believed that what was being forced on us was wrong.
It seems to be well known in legal circles that even the barristers and lawyers refer to certain doctors as hitmen. I’m certainly not saying that was the case with either of the doctors concerned, but I was determined to ensure that absolute fairness was applied.
I was not going to fail in my duty as a parent.
• • •
On 16 December 2010 Lord Maginnis raised Gary’s case in the House of Lords.
Extradition: Gary McKinnon
Question
Asked By Lord Maginnis of Drumglass
To ask Her Majesty’s government what is their current position regarding the request for the extradition of Gary McKinnon.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Neville-Jones): My Lords, a judicial review of a decision by the previous Home Secretary to uphold an order for Mr McKinnon’s extradition stands adjourned. My Right Honourable Friend the Home Secretary is reviewing the case against the sole legal test, which is whether, given Mr McKinnon’s medical condition, extradition would breach his human rights. My Right Honourable Friend has sought Mr McKinnon’s consent to a psychiatric assessment by clinicians recommended by the Chief Medical Officer. A response is awaited from his solicitors.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass: I declare an interest in so far as I chaired the independent review of autism services in Northern Ireland and currently chair the Northern Ireland autism regional reference group. I am grateful to the Minister for her Answer, but does she accept that inadequate recognition and the total lack of appropriate interventions for those with an autistic condition, which was first identified and defined by Kanner in 1943, have deprived someone in Gary McKinnon’s age group of his human rights and that to extradite him would exacerbate the social neglect that he has suffered? Do we not have a more compelling moral responsibility in this instance than a legal one?
Lord Dholakia: My Lords, many of the judicial avenues open to Mr McKinnon have now been exhausted. The sad part about it is the particular state of disablement that he suffers. A conversation was recorded between the Prime Minister and President Obama in July this year where they said that they were looking for agreeable solutions. Has such a solution been found? Will the Minister confirm that the Extradition Act 2003 does not require contestable evidence? Does it not work to the detriment of British citizens, and should it not be reviewed?
Baroness Neville-Jones: On the first point, as my Right Honourable Friend the Home Secretary has made clear, we have a legal framework within which Mr McKinnon’s case is being considered. On the second point, my Right Honourable Friend has asked for a review of extradition provisions, including the US–UK treaty as well as the European extradition warrant. Sir Scott Baker will be considering some of the issues to which she has made reference.
Baroness Browning: My Lords, having been actively involved in the other place in the Gary McKinnon case, I have read his psychiatric reports that were made available to the Home Secretary before the general election. I understand that the Minister is seeking further medical reports. Does she agree that the evidence already before the Home Office shows overwhelmingly that the threat of self-harm is not an idle threat but is very real? Does she also agree, in the light of the damage that has been caused to the American government by WikiLeaks, that, rather than trying to imprison an autistic savant, the Pentagon would do well to employ Gary McKinnon to sort out the weaknesses in its computer system?
(Much laughter even from Baroness Neville-Jones)
Shortly after this the Home Office instructed their doctors to assess Gary in absentia i.e. without seeing him. Once again, I was shocked.
In the meantime Karen, Gary’s solicitor, asked Dr Vermeulen for an assessment. He was a Home Office-approved expert who had worked in Broadmoor Hospital for many years and had also performed hundreds of assessments on behalf of the Home Office, including being an expert witness in murder cases. We concluded that the Home Office could not ignore Dr Vermeulen’s evidence from his face-to-face assessments of Gary.
Karen Todner had stuck by Gary for years and always appointed the very best QCs, barristers and medical experts. She had saved Gary’s life on countless occasions by never giving up; even when we had supposedly come to the end, Karen, Ben and Edward, Gary’s legal team, always found another way to keep Gary here.
I knew we were firmly on the same side but as Gary’s mother I also had to follow my instincts.
Gary’s barrister, Ben Cooper, also fought long and hard for Gary and refused to give up on him and was determined to win.
Gary’s QC, Edward Fitzgerald, is gentle and kind. Whenever Edward’s wife rang him, he would always stop what he was doing and take the time to speak to her. The character played by Colin Firth in the film Bridget Jones’s Diary is reputed to be based on him.
He also studied all the evidence and paperwork beforehand and didn’t just look at the paperwork at the very last minute and then walk into the court and wing it.
Edward would also argue with me, sometimes heatedly, but we didn’t fall out and Edward didn’t storm off the case in a huff as many QCs could have done. Edward listened and discussed everything, as did Karen and Ben.
No QC or lawyer is infallible, no matter how revered they are. It’s important to make sure you fully understand what’s happening, trust your instincts and fight your corner if need be.
Edward said to me one day, ‘They think I can tell you what to do and they don’t understand that I can’t.’
I assumed Edward meant the judges and I wondered why anyone was trying to persuade Edward to tell me what to do. Of course, it could have been the DPP or even the prosecutor, but I suppose I’ll never know for sure.
Christmas and New Year was the saddest time: arguing with Gary’s legal team had made us really fed up. It’s always more upsetting to fight with people you like. We were all on the same side, but we each thought we were right, so the atmosphere was tense and highly charged.
I was working on Gary’s case on New Year’s Eve and I emailed Lord Carlile, not expecting an answer at two minutes past midnight, but he emailed me straight back with a very kind message that made me feel better. Gary’s barrister, Ben Cooper, was also working on Gary’s case as the bells of Big Ben chimed to bring in the New Year.
When you’re feeling scared and vulnerable and are fighting against the odds, simple acts of kindness mean a lot.
Professor Turk was talking about Gary possibly having to be sectioned. The thought of my son being confined to a mental institution like his great-grandma terrified me. What was happening to Gary was wrong on every level. He had never hurt anyone and was gentle to the core. He was also very talented and seeing him imprisoned in fear for so many years was such a waste. He hadn’t touched a computer or a musical instrument since 2005.
Gary’s psychiatric treatment was
expensive and the NHS trust had refused to pay for the care Gary was receiving from Professor Turk at the Maudsley Hospital. They said that Gary would have to see the local mental health services, but when we contacted the local mental health services they told us they had no one there with any expertise in ASD and to contact the National Autistic Society. But it was the NAS who had recommended Professor Turk, who the trust was refusing to pay for. It was a catch-22 situation.
We were incredibly lucky as David Gilmour and Alex Paterson from The Orb had donated royalties to pay for Gary’s lifelong psychiatric care. What happens to those who need expert care who can’t get it on the NHS and can’t afford to pay for it privately?
We were feeling stressed and once again Michael Seamark of the Daily Mail came to our rescue by taking us out for lunch. It was such a relief sitting there having pear tart, toffee sauce and ice cream, real comfort food. Just being in another environment to discuss our views and options was often extremely helpful, and Michael always managed to make us smile.
One late night the police brought a two-year-old boy and his baby sister to us as an emergency. When Michael Seamark arrived the following day to take us out for lunch and saw the babies, he just smiled. I said, ‘We can all go for lunch together, or we can’t go.’
Michael said, ‘Of course we will all go out to lunch.’
It was quite an upmarket restaurant and the baby slept peacefully in her carrycot by my side and the two-year-old sat happily in his high chair, smiling and eating.
It had now been eight months since the Home Secretary, Theresa May, had put a halt on extradition, and Gary’s anxiety was at an all-time high. ‘How long can this go on?’ I thought. It felt as though we were trapped in some sort of time warp that we couldn’t seem to get out of.
Julian Assange was in court on 7 February and I’d heard that he had chosen to come to the UK because Gary had managed to fight extradition for so many years, and Julian thought he would be safer in the UK. I wondered then if he had made the right decision.
• • •
We were still fostering the three young siblings for one weekend out of every month. Taking them swimming and on outings gave us respite from the relentless routine of working from dawn to dusk, and it was good to see them laughing and having fun.
After each enjoyable weekend the children went home and at the start of a new week I got back to working as hard as possible on the campaign. I wrote to Lord Maginnis and Baroness Browning to thank them for raising Gary’s case in the House of Lords.
Lord Maginnis quickly responded and told me about his extensive background in autism and that he was determined to do all he could to help Gary remain in the UK. Ken Maginnis was a fighter with a wealth of experience in politics and in all things to do with autism.
Angela Browning wrote back with an invitation for me to meet her in the Palace of Westminster to discuss ways that she could help. We met there with Angela and with Gary’s MP, David Burrowes, the following week.
Baroness Browning is the vice-president of the National Autistic Society and has a first-class understanding of the condition. She talked to me about her son who also has Asperger’s and the challenges he faced. She also mentioned the time she had a meeting with adults with Asperger’s syndrome who were accompanied by their parents, who did all the talking. Eventually Angela asked one of their sons what he did for a living and he told her he was an astrophysicist.
Angela smiled and said that only in the Asperger’s community would you find adults who are astrophysicists and the like, all sitting silently around a table while their parents did all the talking for them.
David Burrowes and Baroness Browning suggested we cancel Gary’s appointment with Dr Vermeulen to give the Home Office an opportunity to agree to appoint him to assess Gary. Unfortunately, even with their input, the Home Office still wouldn’t budge on its insistence that Gary be assessed by a forensic psychiatrist with no expertise in ASD.
Lord Maginnis has a strong background in autism and always answered my emails, rang me, did TV interviews and stood by my side at 10 Downing Street. He raised Gary’s case in the Lords time and time again; he is a fighter who made his voice heard.
Lord Maginnis was a teacher and joined the army and left with the rank of major. He entered politics and was an Ulster Unionist spokesman on internal security and defence. There were a number of attempts on his life, both as a soldier and as a politician. He described his relationship with religion as saying that ‘if my neighbour needed help, I’d help him and he would do the same for me. It didn’t matter where you went to Church on Sunday.’ He described his passion for rugby as being a good way of building relations between the north and south of Ireland.
Lord Maginnis raised Gary’s case in the Lords again on 23 March 2011 and the other lords came on board thick and fast.
Asked By Lord Maginnis of Drumglass
To ask Her Majesty’s government what recent discussions they have had with the government of the United States about the extradition of Gary McKinnon.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass: My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for that Answer, but it tells me little more than I already know. Is it not ironic that a Parliament which has voted against the lengthy detention of criminals should keep a young man suffering from the condition known as Asperger’s syndrome in psychological torture for more than 3,300 days? Is it not time for the Home Office to liaise with those who have expertise in autism? Perhaps the department should go to the National Autistic Society and ask for a list of people with expertise in the area rather than relying on the normal line of, ‘Let’s see what the Chief Medical Officer says.’
Baroness Browning: My Lords, when I met Mr McKinnon’s mother last week, she informed me that his state of health is deteriorating all the time. I hope that my noble friend will be concerned to learn that Mr McKinnon spends every day behind closed curtains and does not participate in life as he used to.
When the Chief Medical Officer chooses an appropriate psychiatrist or a panel, it is essential that the psychiatrist is someone who specialises in adults with an autistic spectrum disorder. That is because to date, the doctors who have seen Mr McKinnon at the behest of the government have not been specialists, and at the end of their investigations have openly admitted that this is not their specialist area.
Baroness Wilkins: My Lords, does the Minister accept that Gary McKinnon had a history of mental health issues prior to any of these legal issues? Indeed, there is a history of mental illness on both sides of the family going back three generations. It is not just a matter of him having been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.
Lord Tebbit: My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that we are all sympathetic to him personally, for he is the victim of a very unfair, unbalanced extradition treaty? If he has any trouble with the American authorities, will he tell them that he has no more confidence that Mr McKinnon would get a fair trial there than some Americans had that IRA suspects would get a fair trial here when the extradition of IRA terrorists was refused by the United States on the basis that they could not get a fair trial in this country?
Lord Tebbit served with the Royal Air Force, during which he flew Meteor and Vampire jets and once had to break open the cockpit canopy of a burning Meteor aircraft to escape from it.
Lord Morris of Aberavon: My Lords, are the government giving any consideration to the fairness of the extradition treaty and will they revisit it?
Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames: My Lords, accepting the requirements of the extradition treaty and given that the Home Office already has reports on Gary McKinnon’s case from two of the best-known experts on Asperger’s and autism – Professor Jeremy Turk and Professor Declan Murphy, both of the Institute of Psychiatry and both of whom are regularly relied upon by Her Majesty’s government in relation to these conditions – why has it concluded that it needs a further medical report, and why was it originally looking for a non-specialist report rather than specialist reports, which we now understan
d the Chief Medical Officer is hoping to provide?
Many politicians want to get rid of the House of Lords but I personally think they frequently act as a safety valve that can prevent unwise or hastily thought-out ideas being pushed through because of government knee-jerk reactions. Although some are political appointees, the lords often tend to act together as a counterbalance that can rein back the government with a tempering voice.
Shortly after the Lords debate we got a letter from the Treasury solicitor giving us seven days to agree to Gary being assessed for suicide risk by the same non-expert doctor we had consistently refused. I had no intention of allowing this.
Gary was assessed by Dr Vermeulen, for the first time on 1 April 2011, April Fool’s Day. We hoped this wasn’t a bad omen. Gary was incredibly nervous on the way into town and couldn’t understand why he had to keep having assessments as he had been assessed multiple times already and was seeing Professor Turk on a regular basis. We sat in the waiting room, which was also the waiting room for Icelandic Airways, and flipped through books with fascinating photos of Iceland.
The harsh-looking way of life was like stepping into the past. It looked cold and bleak and the people were very self-reliant, much as they were in the crofts in the Highlands of Scotland where my dad came from.
We all liked Dr Vermeulen the moment we met him. You knew you were in the presence of a gentle genius whose modesty attempted to disguise that fact. After talking with Gary, Dr Vermeulen interviewed Wilson and me at length and then spent several hours assessing Gary. It was a sunny day and we walked around London and sat in Fitzroy Square until Gary’s assessment was complete. Lucy arrived later and while she was being interviewed, Nadine Stavonina came in with a painting to help raise funds for Richard Mills’s Research Autism charity. Nadine and Bernard, who works for Research Autism, told us that at their last charity auction a painting of Gary by the Scottish artist Peter Howson had sold for a fair amount of money.