Blog entry 6th January 2017
Shortly after writing my last blog my barrister agreed that the evidence withheld by the prosecution proving my alibi must be pursued. He has now sent directions and instructions to my appeal solicitor in respect of achieving this.
Of course I expect the police and CPS to deny the existence of any such evidence. After all a crucial part of their case at my trial was that there was no evidence supporting my alibi. Nor are any such items included in their evidence lists. This is difficult to explain though when their own expert witness went on record in 2004 stating that he'd seen witness statements and a computer timestamped item that conformed to my alibi and placed me elsewhere at the time period during which the coroner gave for Susan Kent's murder.
The festive season at HMP Wakefield was a complete non-event. As always I carried on working 7 days a week. My only breaks being to attend the odd gym session. As usual the red banner gutter-press made outlandish claims of prisons serving prisoners mouth watering Xmas feats and ran pictures of prisoners "living the high life". This is very far from the truth. Especially in the High Security prison estate.
In the run up to the festive period the media was awash with reports on prison riots, un-rest, soaring prisoner suicides and rising rates of assaults on prisoners and staff alike. There can be no doubt that the prison system is in an uncontrolled free-fall to total meltdown. Critics and commentators are all pointing fingers at the current Secretary of State for Justice, Liz Truss and, of course, the Prison Officers Association are using the current meltdown to yet again scream that they are under-staffed
The truth of the matter is this. The former SSJ Chris Grayling has sole responsibility for what is happening in British prisons now. He slashed prison staff numbers, he slashed prison budgets, he removed prisoners ability to access facilities and possessions that encouraged them to conform and 'behave'. Then he removed prisoners ability to access legal aid to challenge his decisions and the in-human conditions the majority of prisoners now live in and endure in British prisons. This is the same perfect storm that led to the 'Strangeways' riots in the 1990's. So it is no surprise that Grayling's imposed effects are producing identical consequences. This is the legacy of Grayling that Liz Truss has now inherited and has to deal with.
As a final note on this theme, Grayling is now applying his same bombastic narcissistic attitude to 'modernising' the railways. Outcome... unrest, disruption and strikes, a rail system that is in free-fall towards collapse. If anything can be said about Grayling he is consistent as is the outcome of his decisions!