Bronson 3

by Charles Bronson

  21. It is submitted that any decision to refuse such examination can only be exercised in exceptional circumstances and to the extent that it does not breach a prisoner s rights under Article 2. It is difficult to think of circumstances that would trump the Claimant’s right to be seen bearing in mind the extent of his current injuries which may (in the case of the renal damage) be a life-threatening condition. His condition demands that reasons be given for the refusal at the earliest opportunity and yet none have been forthcoming. The more substantial the interference with fundamental rights the more the courts will require by way of justification before it can be satisfied that the interference is reasonable in a public law sense: Regina v MOD exparte Smith [1996] 1 All ER 257.

  22. Further, Article 3 of the ECHR is relied upon. The denial of access to medical examination and treatment is causing the Claimant to endure considerable pain and suffering as a result of his injuries. This amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 3.

  23. It is unlawful for a public authority to act in a way which is incompatible with a Convention right: section 6 Human Rights Act 1998. It is contended that the Governor’s refusal amounts to a breach Article 2 in that it is potentially endangering the Claimant’s life and it amounts to a breach of Article 3 for the reasons stated above.

  JUDICIAL RELIEF SOUGHT

  CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

  1. Peter Boddy Solicitors (PB) indicates to HMP Wakefield that AA assaulted by prison officer (stamping on ankle) and requests CCTV footage and record of injuries.

  2. HMP Wakefield confirms no medical record as AA ‘refused to see doctor and have X-ray’.

  3. HMP Wakefield confirms no CCTV footage.

  4. Dec 2002/Jan 2003 – AA transferred from HMP Wakefield to HMP Full Sutton.

  5. 9 January AA assaulted in Segregation Block HMP Full Sutton. HMP Sutton informs solicitor that visits still to be closed visits; no explanation given.

  6. PB indicates to HMP Sutton that AA assaulted by prison officers. Injuries are serious. Requests immediate attendance of doctor and photos to be taken of injuries.

  7. PB attends GB and takes instructions re allegations of assault.

  8. 16 January Humberside Police instructed re assault on AA.

  9. 6 February – Dr Bob Johnson attends AA after threatened High Court proceedings force Governor to grant him access.

  10. 15 February – Further assault on AA at HMP Full Sutton, injuries to back and neck, incident on CCTV. Video requested but not granted. Injuries arising from this assault have not been seen by anyone external to the Prison medical team.

  11. 17 February – Letter from PB to Governor of HMP Sutton stating AA should immediately be seen by: I. ENT specialist re ear II. Renal expert re Kidney. No response received to letter.

  12. 19 February – Henry Joseph (of counsel) instructed to consider generally bringing civil action against prison officers/Governor and/or judicial review of decision to operate ‘closed visits’ policy.

  13. 21 February – PB writes to 9 potential witnesses of 15 February assault. PB informed CCTV video of 15 February incident sent to Directorate of High-Security Prisons at Prison Service Headquarters.

  14. 24 February – PB withdraws from case.

  15. AA transferred to Whitemoor (precise date not known).

  16. 3 March – PB writes to Court of Appeal and confirms conflict has arisen and Malletts Solicitors now acting.

  17. 7 March – RIM attends HMP Whitemoor to be informed attendance to be on ‘closed visit’ basis, AA refuses to see RM in those conditions.

  18. 11 March – Letter before Claim faxed to Governor, cc’d to Treasury Solicitors requesting response within 48 hours. No response received.

  19. 12 March – Letter faxed to the Prison Directorate requesting response within 48 hours. No response received.

  20. 13 March – Judicial Review application drafted.

  21. 14 March – Judicial Review Application lodged.

  7

  WORLD’S WORST, OLDEST, HARDEST AND MOST INFAMOUS

  I start with the worst, but I don’t believe it to be the worst in the world. It was voted, though, along with Holloway, Brixton and Walton Prisons, as being one of the worst jails in England and Wales.

  WORST:

  HM PRISON DARTMOOR

  Location: Yelverton, Devon, England.

  Capacity: 700 beds

  Category at present: Closed ‘B’ – Male.

  Opened: 1809.

  History: The architect Daniel Alexander, who also designed the London Docks, designed the prison. Dartmoor Prison was originally built some 1,500ft above sea level, supposedly using local labour, at Princetown, in Devon, between 1806 and 1809 solely to house French captives during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–15). Claims have been made that French prisoners also helped build the heavily fortified prison with its dungeons and solid 14ft-high stone walls.

  The walls formed a half moon, with three separate yards containing seven mossy stone buildings, capable of holding from 1,500–1,800 men each; these buildings were located on the slope of a hill, fronting the east, each three storeys high, with a flight of stone steps at each end. The centre one was exclusively for black or ‘coloured’ prisoners. Even to this day, there is racism amongst the screws. Some 600 soldiers guarded the prison, as this was a military prison.

  Dartmoor Prison, known as the most brutal and highest-security prison of its time.

  During the American War of 1812, many American sailors and soldiers were also imprisoned here. By 1812, the prison that was designed to hold some 5,000 prisoners was already overcrowded, and held 9,000 prisoners. Between 1812 and 1816, out of some 5,000 prisoners held there, about 1,500 American and French prisoners died in Dartmoor Prison and were buried in a field beyond the prison walls. This was the Auschwitz of English prisons!

  As well as French and American prisoners being held here, it also housed some 200 who came there from the British Navy.

  After the war, the brutal mistreatment of American prisoners of war was investigated by an Anglo–American commission, which awarded compensation to the families of those who had died there.

  Dartmoor Prison closed around 1816 and remained unoccupied for more than thirty years, before it was reopened in 1850 as a civilian prison for convicts sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, or to hard labour; it has remained in use ever since.

  A prison mutiny in 1932 resulted in the prison administration block being burnt out and most of the records up to that date were destroyed when police from all over the county were called into action. A surgeon, Cyril Sprance, who used to call on Dartmoor Prison to tend the prisoners prior to the mutiny, in his own words, is able to describe what it was like during the mutiny: ‘I drove into the prison and got to the hospital. Prisoners were all round the hospital making a tremendous noise. They didn’t attack us although we expected them to do so. Then Colonel Wilson arrived and I saw him lead a little over a score of men against the convicts.’

  In 1959, a government White Paper declared that it was near the ‘end of its serviceable life’.

  In 1961, when Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight was commissioned, it was intended as a replacement; however, Dartmoor remained open.

  As long ago as 1979, Lord Justice May (May Committee) commented that Dartmoor Prison was ‘… simply against nature’.

  The prison remained in use and, following the wave of revolt which swept through British prisons in 1990, this attracted another Law Lord’s dismay at the prison when Lord Justice Woolf deemed that the prison should either be closed or undergo radical changes quickly. The Woolf Report said that Dartmoor should be given a ‘last chance’.

  A year later, a Chief Inspector’s report called Dartmoor a ‘dustbin’, but again said that it should be given a ‘final chance’. As that report was issued, police were investigating a racket whereby desperate prisoners were allegedly paying £250 to prison officers to arrange transfers to other prisons!

  Dartmoor Prison front
complete with fitments

  In 1991, the Prison Reform Trust, usually known for the mildness of its criticisms, called for Dartmoor to be closed: ‘It is isolated and rundown and for 200 years has been dominated by a culture of barbarity and punishment. That culture is all pervasive and repeated attempts to change it have produced nothing but failure.’

  In 2001, Prisons Inspector, Anne Owers said: ‘Dartmoor needs to find a positive role supported by a new culture … It needs to be part of a regional and national strategy for the dignified and decent treatment and resettlement of prisoners.’

  Of course, all of this fell on deaf ears … as usual! Dartmoor currently operates the Extended Sex Offender Treatment Programme.

  Dartmoor was the setting as the site of the fictional Baskerville Hall from the Hound of the Baskervilles in the Sherlock Holmes series of books and films.

  I have selected Dartmoor Prison for a number of reasons, but mainly because of its most notorious prisoner ever held there – Frank Mitchell … a legend! Although Dartmoor was a place where inmates were routinely abused and degraded by prison officers, this wasn’t the case with our Frank … he did the abusing.

  In jail, Frank was a feared figure and he would easily get his own way with prison staff, although he was once flogged for beating a prison officer senseless.

  In 1955, being declared mentally defective, he was sent to Rampton. After escaping from Rampton in 1957, he broke into a house and used an iron bar to attack the owner.

  Frank Mitchell

  During the police operation to capture Frank, he used a pair of meat cleavers to resist arrest; this led to him being sent to Broadmoor. Soon after this, he escaped, broke into another house and was said to have attacked the occupants with an axe, but in reality he did little more than break into an old couple’s house and held them captive with an axe he found in their garden shed, and doing nothing more than forcing them to watch television with him while he drank tea with the axe neatly balanced across his knees. This led to the life sentence being imposed on 7 him and the newspapers labelling him the ‘Mad Axeman’.

  For some reason, Frank was deemed mentally stable and was sent to Dartmoor, where his behaviour took a turn for the better. While at Dartmoor, Frank started breeding budgerigars, which could have resulted in him being called the ‘Birdman of Dartmoor’, but it wouldn’t have sounded as good as the Mad Axeman!

  By September 1966, this marked improvement in Frank’s behaviour led to him being allowed to work on the outside of the prison in what was called an ‘Honour Party’.

  While working outside the prison, Frank would take advantage of the low security applied to him and traipse off to local pubs, always returning back to prison for the end of work; as long as he was back in time for the evening role call he was left to his own devices.

  The Home Office had not issued Frank with a release date from his life sentence and he became disgruntled and word of this soon reached the Kray gang in London. On 12 December 1966, Frank was helped to escape from Dartmoor Prison by members of the notorious Kray gang and whisked away to a flat prepared for him in Barking Road, East Ham, London.

  The friendship Frank had with Ronnie and Reggie Kray had started years before in Wandsworth Prison. Frank kept up this relationship and often wrote to Ron telling him of his frustration at not being given a review date for his case.

  Not surprisingly, the escape made headlines and sparked the biggest manhunt in British criminal history. Exactly why Frank was sprung from the clink is not clear, but such a powerful man could only add to the dimension of the Kray gang. One theory as to why the Kray gang broke Frank was purely to highlight the fact that he hadn’t been given a release date and that if they could keep him out long enough without him getting into trouble, then the Home Office would have to consider his case.

  Being cooped up in a small flat led to Frank becoming agitated. The Krays brought in blonde nightclub hostess Lisa to keep Frank from becoming bored. Soon after this, Frank told some of the Kray minders that he was going to marry Lisa.

  The springing of Frank seemed to have brought problems when, within days of Frank escaping (although these days it would be called ‘absconding’), two letters landed at the Times and the Daily Mirror newspapers asking the Home Secretary for a release date for Frank Mitchell. In order to confirm that it was Frank who had written the letters, his thumbprint was embossed at the bottom of each letter.

  This prompted the Home Secretary to appear on national TV advising Mitchell to hand himself in. Fear started to spread amid the Kray gang that Mitchell was becoming a liability and that, if he was caught, he might talk and give the game away as to who it was who had freed him! As well as this, Frank was making more and more threats saying that if the Twins didn’t come to see him then he would go to them; a solution to the problem had to be sought.

  A plan was hatched to kill Frank and he was given the story by the Kray gang that he was being moved to a place in the country. The next day, 22 or 23 September 1966, a van arrived that was supposed to transport Frank to safety. As Frank stepped out to get in the van, three shots rang out, and these were followed by a further two shots.

  Lisa dashed out and confronted Ronnie Kray, shouting, ‘They’ve shot him. Oh, God, they’ve shot him.’

  Ronnie Kray later told another gang member, ‘He’s fucking dead. We had to get rid of him; he would have got us all nicked. We made a mistake getting the bastard out in the first place.’

  Although Frank was a fanatical bodybuilder and weightlifter, his brainpower did not match his size or strength. He could be lured into anything if the reward fitted what he desired. Although Frank was described as a violent and brutal psychopath, in reality he was as far removed from that description as he could possibly be. Anecdotal evidence points to Frank being nothing more than a gentle giant.

  The desolate landscape of Dartmoor where Frank Mitchell used to roam freely

  Three years later, the Kray twins, Freddie Foreman and several other associates stood accused of murdering Frank; they were found not guilty. At a later trial, Reg Kray received five years’ imprisonment for freeing Frank Mitchell from Dartmoor and another nine months for harbouring him, to run concurrently with his other sentences.

  Debate has continued as to where the body of Frank Mitchell was disposed of; these places range from in the concrete of the Bow Road flyover, in the heating boilers of the local baths, in the boilers of Southwark power station, in the sea off Newhaven Harbour or it was cremated by one of the firm who was also a crematorium worker.

  Following the escape of George Blake and Frank Mitchell in 1966, the developments in the treatment of offenders were inevitably held back when the Prison Department found itself involved in a heavy programme of tightening up security in the wake of the report on prison security by Earl Mountbatten.

  It was rumoured that on hearing of Frank Mitchell’s death that Reggie cried. Many years later, a Kray gang associate, Freddie Foreman, accepted the role of being the gunman, although this is thought to have been a role belonging to another Kray associate. Frank Mitchell – RIP.

  HMP Dartmoor, by all accounts, is a soul-destroying place. The segregation unit is large and is built in a forbidding, medieval, granite-walled wing. The exercise regime in the seg unit was one where you were locked inside what was described by the screws as a ‘pen’. Although this was supposed to be shut down, it was still used for some time after this order was given.

  This is a prison where excessive use of control and restraint has been the norm, were feigned concern from senior Prison Service bureaucrats is followed by standard denials from the Prison Officers’ Association.

  Disturbed and suicidal prisoners were caged like animals, which raises an even more fundamental question about who was running Dartmoor and who had the final say as to how prisoners were treated … was it the Governor or the screws? There are parallels here with Wormwood Scrubs Prison, where prisoners were routinely beaten in the segregation unit, and all levels of st
aff conspired and colluded to keep the lid on it. Quite obviously, Dartmoor has always been designated as a punishment prison for difficult and awkward prisoners.

  Dartmoor has experienced some changes but has a long way to go before it can become anywhere near an acceptable place to house prisoners, in particular the way that allegations of racist behaviour by the staff had almost doubled between 2001 and 2002. Dartmoor is one of the worst – give it a miss!

  A Dartmoor Prison walking stick ornament depicting the front of HMP Dartmoor

  For those of you interested, there is a nearby place of interest – Dartmoor Prison Museum. The museum has a display on prison history and sells gifts and garden products, made by the prisoners. Would you believe that a whole industry has sprung up based on the sale of prison memorabilia?

  Worst:

  HMP MAIDSTONE

  Location: Maidstone, Kent, England.

  Capacity: 650 beds.

  Category at present: Closed ‘B’ and ‘C’ – Male.

  Opened: 1819.

  History: Going back to the times when the so called ‘mad priest’ of Kent, John Ball, was released in 1381 by the leader of the Peasants’ Revolt from the dungeons, a massively buttressed fourteenth-century building. You would think that this is enough to catapult Maidstone Prison to the front of the queue when it comes to the oldest of the prisons … not so. For this event in 1381 didn’t take place at or on the actual prison site that exists today, although it did take place in Maidstone.