Blog entry 13th November 2013
Since my last blog my solicitor (Gavin Rose) has visited me. This happened on October 23rd.
Although at first I felt as if I was wasting my time Gavin went on to admit that he was playing 'devils advocate' with me. Fair enough. Afterall, anyone can say that they are innocent. We went through the key points of my case, both from the prosecutions perspective and then in view of the evidence that the prosecution withheld until after my trial.
By the end of the visit Gavin left with an extensive list of points to follow up on. He has quite rightly warned me that my case may be hard to pursue due to 14 years having almost passed. This has of course given the prosecution plenty of opportunity to remove evidence that would help prove my innocence. Although not of the prosecutions making we have already encountered the first problem of this nature.
After my case files were eventually sent to Gavin by my old solicitors, Gavin has discovered that two essential bundles of documents are "missing". I know as a fact that Harrison Bundeys had these two bundles as I handed them to the solicitor whom Harrison Bundeys appointed my case to whilst I was with them. I've written to Bundeys asking for the files return but they are denying any knowledge of them. So yet again I will be forced to take another complaint against them to the Legal Ombudsman.
Life at Wakefield continues to deteriorate. I am still having to fight the prison tooth and nail to access the facilities I need to pursue my degree studies. Currently a review is underway of my security category. However, despite having risk assessment scores lower than many prisoners in 'open condition' prisons, never having had a discipline warning or charge for 14 years and working with the system as much as I can in view of pursuing my appeal, I already know that being de-categorised from "A" to "B" will be refused.
The law states that de-categorization cannot be withheld due to maintaining innocence. The truth is though that this is exactly why my de-categorisation will be refused. Of course the prison system will use the usual word play to disguise the fact that my progression and de-categorisation is being refused because I maintain innocence, but that will be why it is.
Along with any new appeal updates, I will go more into how the prison system discriminates against those of us who are wrongly convicted and the mental bullying and intimidation we endure in my next few blogs.