A Fair Cop Blog

In light of the CCRC’s decision not to refer my case to the Court of Appeal, I have been advised to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights. I shall be doing that in early course.

The CCRC has received a lot of bad publicity since its inception in 1997 and I have resisted joining the exposition for a number of reasons. There comes a time where one has to speak out and that time will be in the form of my next book. I have plenty of material. I asked the CCRC to assess the judge’s comments about a very strong defence witness. He had told the jury that this particular witness may have had a reason for giving such evidence and in effect told them to be cautious when considering what she had said. The reality was that she told the truth and there was absolutely no evidence to suggest otherwise. The CCRC said that the judge had not been prejudicial because he had merely ‘told the jury to look at all witnesses from all angles.’ What the judge said could never be interpreted as this and the CCRC is obviously wrong in its assertion here. A further reality is that there was evidence that Millburn’s (the Sgt who gave evidence against me) evidence was unreliable. She had different accounts of events, her pocket book strongly suggested that there never were repeated kicks (as she said in her oral evidence) and she wrote of a rather strange encounter with my assailant in the cells that does not feature on the custody record (in fact he was fast asleep in his bed at the time). I could go on, but I’ll save it all for The Dark Side. I intend to challenge the CCRC and what they stand for at the very highest political level. I have unanimous support from you, the public, and this gives me an extraordinary position of power, something that I am priviledged to have.

I’ll keep you posted. Thank you all.
Mick.

Ever since a Facebook page was set up to support my cause, my blog has been a lot quieter. At the time of writing this, I’ve had almost 5,000 people join the group in around 2 months and it’s getting busier. The support I continue to get from the public is fantastic and helps me in the fight to clear my name and expose the people who have acted inappropriately in the investigation, trial and subsequent attempts at quashing the conviction. Please visit my Facebook page here.

I read this article by Leah Borromeo in The Guardian regarding the acquittal of Sgt Delroy Smellie after he had been charged with assaulting protester Nicola Fisher at the G20 demonstrations.

I have two more talks planned for libraries in Kirklees. The first is at Golcar on Monday 29th March 2010 starting at 7.30pm. The second is at Kirkburton on Wednesday 31st March 2010 also starting at 7.30pm. These are ticket only events, so please contact the library to reserve your place.  I’ll be giving a full update on the status of my case and an outline of my next book, The Dark Side.

I’ll be signing books, which will be on sale on the evening.

I received an email last week from Neil Askew, a gentleman who has taken it upon himself to set up a support group on Facebook. Naturally I’m very humbled that anyone would give up their time to help me, and I promised Neil that I’d mention this on my blog in the hope that you’ll log onto Facebook, type ‘a fair cop’ in the search and add your name to the group. It would be even better if you could tell  all your Facebook friends as well.

I’d like to thank Neil for his time and thank you all in advance for helping in this potentially massive way.

I am currently researching my next book, The Dark Side, which will not only take a more detailed look at the police investigation into my case, but also at other aspects of our Criminal Justice System. Over the past 18 months or so, dozens of police officers have contacted me to give their experience of being investigated by Discipline and Complaints (PSD).  I would like to feature some of these cases in my book and learn more about the way they were treated by the investigating officers, their force, the judiciary and their peers. I’d also like to look at the evidence in their case and look at the punishments the courts give police officers in comparison to non-police and habitual offenders.

If you would like your case to be featured in my next book, please do get in touch preferably using the ‘contact the author’ section of my website. Anonymity will be guaranteed.

So far today I have received ten emails via my website. Last night the total number since the release of A Fair Cop was exactly 3,990. They have come from all corners of the globe – New Zealand, Australia, China, America, Canada and of course the United Kingdom. Every single one says something unique and different and makes me stop for a moment to think about the person who has given up some of his or her time to contact me.

They also have something very important in common; their contempt for the way I’ve been treated at the hands of West Yorkshire Police’s Discipline and Compaints Department (Professional Standards) and the judiciary in its handling of my case. I am yet to receive an email that does not support me and what I did at the hands of this violent thug who did what he did to me. I’d like to thank everyone who has supported me in my bid to clear my name and I’ll keep my blog updated with any news once I get it. I’m expecting contact from the Criminal Cases Review Commission in the next few months. I still believe that what happened to me is not representative of the English Criminal Justice System and I hope that one day my conviction will be quashed.

Whilst composing this post, my 4,001st email came in from a Corporal in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Edmonton, Alberta. Knowing that ‘what happened to you (me) would never happen here (Canada)’ is a source of comfort and helps me reason that even if our country has gone mad, at least the world hasn’t.

My next talk will be held at 7pm on Thursday 21st January 2010 at Birstall Library. I’ll be giving a full update on the status of my case and an outline of my next book, The Dark Side.

Tickets are available from the library and I’ll be signing books which will be on sale on the evening.

Following the success of a recent talk I did at Borders in Birstall, I have been asked to do another. The talk will be on Tuesday 24th November 2009 at 7pm at the Birstall store again.

I’ll be talking, reading and answering questions at this year’s Morley Literature Festival at Morley Town Hall on Sunday 18th October at 3.30pm. I did last year’s event the day after I received the first copy of my hardback. This year I’ll be talking about the success of my paperback, and I’ll also be giving the audience an update on my case. Here is this year’s programme.