Read Saving Gary McKinnon Online
Authors: Janis Sharp
When you expose misinformation or lies, it allows the truth to shine through. But exposing the truth can be a long and difficult process, especially when so many in the judicial process have scant understanding of computers and, as George Orwell said, ‘In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is an act of rebellion.’
• • •
I woke up and the sun was shining. It was the kind of day that in spite of the constant worry made you feel that anything was possible. On days like this I had no doubt that I could win Gary’s freedom.
Michael Seamark from the
Daily Mail
came over to take us out for lunch, as he often did. It was always a huge treat for
us – a change of scene, good food, diverse conversation – and leaving the computer behind gave us much-needed respite. Michael is easy to talk to and, like us, has an opinion on just about everything.
We went to visit our friends Sue and Kooi later that day and Sue said, ‘Come into the garden, Janis, I’ve found something that I think you’ll like.’
Sue took me to the shed at the bottom of her garden and six tiny kittens emerged from under it. They were so beautiful. The mother cat was a gentle stray who appeared shortly
afterwards
and was clearly starving, so we fed her and encouraged the kittens to eat a little food, which they were just about old enough to do.
I love animals and knew we’d have to find them all a home but I was worried about how our hound dogs would react to having a cat around.
We took one of the kittens back to our house for a few days until he could be taken to his new home in Leicester, but when we were packing in anticipation of moving house, I let one of our dogs into the same room as the kitten by mistake. Too late I realised what I had done. I ran into the room and was almost afraid to look but was then amazed to see our dog Jackson lying quietly beside the kitten as though to protect it. Lucy took the kitten to her friend’s house in Leicester a few days later, where he still lives happily with his new owner.
We took two more of the kittens home. Gary and Lucy kept the little tabby one and we kept the white one, so we now have a much-loved cat, Pinksy: named because of her pink paws, pink nose and pink ears – and as a shout-out to the wonderful David Gilmour, whose band was Pink Floyd.
Homes were found for all of the kittens, and also for their mother.
On 8 July the European Court of Human Rights halted the extradition of Babar Ahmad, Talha Ahsan and Abu Hamza, as the ECHR was taking on their cases for review, and this would be likely to take several years to complete.
Unbelievably the ECHR refused to even consider taking on Gary’s case for review, despite his mental health issues and possible sixty-year sentence. I couldn’t understand this. We felt crushed. I was worried about Gary and asked him if he was OK, which was a silly question but I asked it anyway and Gary said:
You know, I’m walking down the road and suddenly I find I can’t control my own legs, and I’m sitting up all night
thinking
about maniacs wanting to have me dragged and locked up in some godforsaken American prison, where I’d be attacked and raped and disconnected from my home and family, and I think about the cruelty in the world, mostly for monetary gain, and I think … I don’t belong in this world.
I looked at Gary as he looked past me with a faraway gaze and I thought, ‘Neither do I, Gary, neither do I.’
• • •
Despite having stopped fostering children for a time as campaigning for Gary was all-consuming, I was beginning to feel extremely tired – really earth-shatteringly, head-
hung-down
, not-wanting-to-get-up kind of tired. I was putting it down to the weeks of hot weather and the fact that I was constantly sitting at the computer.
I got up from my chair and looked at myself in the mirror and saw a face I didn’t recognise looking back at me. Who was this tired-looking woman in the mirror? I felt sorry for her. She
looked sad and broken. Her hair needed a wash, her clothes were shabby and she looked run into the ground.
I thought I had looked OK for my age not that long ago, but suddenly I realised that was years ago. I had been sitting at this damn computer ever since Gary was arrested! But where had the old Janis gone? The roots of my hair were grey, I had put on weight and I looked awful.
What was wrong with me? I was strong, what was I doing feeling sorry for myself? I was angry at this pathetic person who was me, who should be thinking only about her son and what he was facing rather than giving way to such self-pitying thoughts. What was wrong with me? Can anyone tell me if I’m even a person anymore?
I had become an extension of a computer. I hadn’t sung or written any songs for years, or even touched a musical
instrument
. I hadn’t bought any nice clothes, or done anything fun or frivolous. I had also become the most boring person ever, as the only thing I wanted to talk about was Gary. I didn’t want to do small talk about meaningless moments or this shop or that shop, or texting or phoning.
I just wanted to see Gary home and dry.
I sat down and cried in a way I hadn’t done in years. ‘God, I need to get myself together, I think I’m cracking up,’ I thought, as I ran my fingers through my hair, knowing I needed to get back on top of things. ‘I need to look after myself.’
I took time to weigh myself the following day, which I hadn’t done in a long time, and was shocked to see that my weight had increased by a massive two stone. I now weighed 11st 6lbs. 11st 6lbs!
Wilson had put on weight too and I knew we were both going to have to lose weight or we might end up becoming ill or having heart attacks and then what would happen to Gary?
We changed to eating low-carb, but not no-carb, and started losing weight without going to a gym or doing any strenuous
exercise. We just walked our dogs regularly as we always have … and walking in the woods soothed my soul.
I wanted Gary to walk, run, swim or cycle as he used to, as he desperately needed respite, but he wouldn’t, he couldn’t. He rarely left the house and just hid away from the world.
This was sad and an absolute waste of life as Gary is so talented. He has the most beautiful singing voice and writes really good and unusual songs, but all that had fallen by the wayside because of his naivety and foolishness seemingly being deliberately misinterpreted by overzealous prosecutors
hunting
down and trying to extradite computer geeks as terrorists, simply because they can.
Wilson had a dream about asking President Obama to help Gary. Obama asked what Gary had done. Wilson couldn’t remember and said, ‘Oh, something silly.’ And the President said, ‘I’ll see what I can do.’
I laughed when Wilson told me. I loved hearing Wilson’s dreams as they always made me feel optimistic for some reason.
Weeks later I discovered that David Cameron was going to America on 19 July to meet with President Obama, so I wrote to MPs asking for this golden opportunity to please be used to raise Gary’s case. However, what followed surpassed any hope or expectation I had.
On 20 July Wilson and I had our coats on and were going out the door and for some unknown reason I turned around and put the TV on. There looking out at us were the Prime Minister and President Obama.
David Cameron looked over at ITN journalist Tom Bradby and said, ‘I think we have a question from Tom Bradby.’
Mr President, Tom Bradby, ITV News. Quite a lot of people in the UK feel that your determination as a country to
continue to push for the extradition of computer hacker and Asperger’s sufferer Gary McKinnon is disproportionate and somewhat harsh. Do you think it is time now to consider some leniency in this case?
Wilson and I were sitting on the edge of our seats, transfixed at what was taking place. We almost fell off our chairs and I screamed. I couldn’t believe it and I listened with my heart in my mouth as Tom Bradby continued talking about Gary:
And, Prime Minister, you’ve expressed very strong views on this matter, suggesting that Mr McKinnon shouldn’t be extradited. Your Deputy Prime Minister has expressed even stronger views. Did you discuss that with the President today? And if not, would now be a good moment to share your views with us once again?
David Cameron
: Shall I go?
President Obama
: Please, go ahead.
David Cameron
: It is something that we discussed in our meeting. I mean, clearly there’s a discussion going on between the British and the Americans about this, and I don’t want to prejudice those discussions. We completely understand that Gary McKinnon stands accused of a very important and significant crime in terms of hacking into vital databases. And nobody denies that that is an important crime that has to be considered. But I have had conversations with the US ambassador, as well as raising it today with the President, about this issue, and I hope a way through can be found.
It was as though some kind of magic had happened, a
once-in
-a-lifetime moment. The President of America and our Prime Minister, during their first ever joint worldwide press
conference
, were talking about how to help my son.
President Obama
: Well, one of the things that David and I discussed was the increasing challenge that we’re going to face as a consequence of the internet, and the need for us to co-operate extensively on issues of cyber-security.
We had a brief discussion about the fact that although there may still be efforts to send in spies and try to obtain state secrets through traditional Cold War methods, the truth of the matter is these days, where we’re going to see enormous vulnerability when it comes to information is going to be through these kind of breaches in our information systems. So we take this very seriously. And I know that the British government does as well.
Beyond that, one of the traditions we have is the President doesn’t get involved in decisions around prosecutions,
extradition
matters. So what I expect is that my team will follow the law, but they will also co-ordinate closely with what we’ve just stated is an ally that is unparalleled in terms of our co-operative relationship. And I trust that this will get resolved in a way that underscores the seriousness of the issue, but also underscores the fact that we work together and we can find an appropriate solution. All right? Thank you very much, everybody.
This had to be the beginning of the end. Happy tears rolled down my face as I picked up the phone to tell Gary and when he answered I was so shaken that the only words that came out were a scream of ‘David Cameron! President Obama! On TV! All about you! It’s going to be OK!!! You’re going to be OK!!!’
We were laughing and crying and feeling that a miracle had just taken place and Tom Bradby was amazing. I mean, here were our Prime Minister and the President of America talking about Iraq, Afghanistan, the global economy and little Gary McKinnon!
In the past, Home Secretaries had refused to extradite General Pinochet to Chile and had refused to extradite
terrorists
; publicly raising Gary’s case with the US President was something I doubt any other leaders would have done and huge respect to David Cameron for that. It’s something we will never forget and will be eternally grateful to him for.
The phone started ringing and didn’t stop, and another round of non-stop TV interviews took place over the next few days.
The following day in Washington, Tom Bradby interviewed David Cameron:
Tom Bradby
: President Obama said yesterday that cybercrime is an enormous threat to America, which it surely is, you know that, I know that. We also know that it’s about
government
agencies, it’s about the Mafia. It’s not about some lone guy with Asperger’s sitting in a room in north London. That is not what it’s about. So surely, if this great friendship you seem to be developing with Obama means anything it’s got to produce a result on something like this. Hasn’t it? And if it doesn’t you’re going to look very silly.
David Cameron
: Well, that’s why we’re having these discussions.
People on Twitter and in the street and in shops were
congratulating
us, as they all firmly believed that Gary would be OK now. We kept waiting and hoping and expecting an
announcement
but Parliament went into recess on 27 July and wasn’t due to return until 6 September, so despite David Cameron’s brave stance, it seemed that our wait wasn’t over yet.
I felt as though we were trapped in a maze. Every route I took consisted of twists and turns that led to a dead end and I was desperate to find the exit. We needed to get Gary out.
• • •
We had only just moved into our rented accommodation when the local authority got in touch to ask if a group of three siblings we used to care for could come back to spend one weekend a month with us. We immediately said yes. It transpired that the local authority had removed the children from an abusive foster carer and, although their newest foster carer was a good and kind woman, she didn’t normally look after so many children and wanted some respite.
It was lovely having the children back with us, but it was also heartbreaking that they had been abused after leaving our care because we hadn’t been able to keep them with us due to our uncertain future.
That’s the thing about fighting extradition: it affects not just one person but everyone involved in your life.
I did an interview for ITN about pensioner Christopher Tappin, whom the US was trying to extradite despite him being the carer of his seriously ill wife Elaine.
People in this country are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty and that premise has always been an essential part of British justice. If the US really wanted to have
someone
convicted, they could quite easily provide the CPS with the evidence and, as MP David Davis said about Gary, ‘I do not know why the Americans should think it better for Gary McKinnon to spend two years in an American prison than for two American witnesses to spend two weeks in a hotel in Britain while the case is tried.’