Read Saving Gary McKinnon Online
Authors: Janis Sharp
US Attorney General Eric Holder came to London on Friday 13 May. Another ominous day – Black Friday.
It proved to be just that when Eric Holder pronounced Gary guilty on British television. This was pretty shocking to everyone, as ‘innocent until proven guilty’ has always been the bedrock of British justice. This confirmed that Gary would have scant chance of a fair trial in the US when its Attorney General had just publicly pronounced him guilty before any trial had taken place.
Gary had always denied the alleged damage that is said to be required before extradition can be sanctioned, but despite the CPS confirming that no evidence of damage had ever been provided to them, our judges had approved extradition.
Eric Holder’s remark naturally added to Gary’s anxiety and to my upset and anger.
President Obama arrived in London later that month,
officially
beginning his state visit on 24 May. The President gave a speech in Parliament and the Queen hosted a banquet in Buckingham Palace in his honour. I’d had such high hopes when Barack Obama was first elected but was becoming increasingly unsure that the US President had the power to lead in the way he might want to.
On 25 May we were watching TV, half-hoping but not expecting anything this time around. However, once again the wonderful Tom Bradby of ITN raised Gary’s case with David Cameron and President Obama, and once again we could barely believe it and were jumping up and down, laughing, screaming and crying as we felt that this had to have been pre-planned and that a deal really must have been done this time around to keep Gary in the UK.
Tom Bradby
: Mr President, you’ve talked about the need for robust action on your country’s deficit and debt positions. Do you agree with the Prime Minister’s supporters that he led the way on the issue or do you feel that, in fact, he has travelled too far and too fast?
And can I just ask you both as a side bar, this time last year we talked about the case of computer hacker Gary McKinnon, on which the Prime Minister expressed very clear views. You said you would work together to find a solution. So, have you found one?
President Obama
: On your second question, Mr McKinnon, we have proceeded through all the processes required under our extradition agreements. It is now in the hands of the British legal system. We have confidence in the British legal
system coming to a just conclusion. And so, we await resolution, and we’ll be respectful of that process.
David Cameron
: Thank you. First of all, in the case of Gary McKinnon, I mean, I understand the widespread concern about this case, and it’s not so much about the alleged offence, which everyone knows is a very serious offence, it’s about the issue of the individual and the way they’re treated and the operation of the legal system. And, as the President said, making sure that legal system operates properly and carefully.
The case is currently in front of the Home Secretary, who has to consider reports about Gary’s health and his well-being, and it’s right that she does that in a proper and effectively quasi-judicial way.
I totally understand the anguish of his mother and his family about this issue. We must follow the proper processes and make sure this case is dealt with in the proper way. And I’m sure that that is the case.
I thought it was wonderful that David Cameron spoke with such compassion about Gary, and when President Obama said that Gary’s fate was a British decision that America would be respectful of, everyone in the country thought that Gary was at last home and dry.
The phone didn’t stop ringing, interviews were endless and people in the street and in supermarkets and even in the bank were coming up to congratulate us. Many of them had tears in their eyes – everyone was so happy for Gary.
President Obama hosted a dinner for the Queen at the US ambassador’s residence in London and we were wondering if the Queen, the Prime Minister and the President might be going to create one of those fairy-tale moments that everyone dreams of and that are seen in so many American films, where
the President, the Queen and the PM jointly announce that the little person is pardoned, and the friendship of both countries is reinforced and celebrated by a royal banquet.
Our world desperately needed some fairy-tale endings, and we hoped that Gary’s story was going to become one.
T
he human rights bar to prevent extradition is set so high that it seems to be designed to ensure that virtually no one can reach it. However, prior to the coalition coming to power, extraditions had been refused in several cases under the 2003 treaty, despite most of these people having significantly less reason than Gary for extradition to be refused.
When Gary’s case was being heard in the Lords in 2008, when referring to the passage of time that could prevent
extradition
, one of the Law Lords had said, ‘It’s not as though it’s been ten years.’
Well, it was now ten years so extradition should surely be refused.
I was feeling tired again; totally exhausted in fact. We had so much on our plate I had forgotten all about our low-carb diet and had been comfort eating instead, so I was going to have to start all over again to make sure I stayed healthy. I weighed 11st 3lbs. (I still tend to think in stones and pounds instead of metric as it was so ingrained in me as a child.)
I bought Quorn burgers that were just seven carbs each, and as eggs and cheese have no carbs, omelettes were another good choice. On a low-carb diet I was even able to have strawberries
and cream, and also home-made asparagus and celery soup, with or without cream, so I thought I should be able to stick to this and reach a healthy weight again.
What I also needed was to get out and away from the computer and into the little sunshine we tend to get. I’m sure London used to have much longer periods of good weather than it does now.
Julian Assange was in court again for three days in July, and Twitter was full of tweets from people either supporting or condemning him. Twitter becomes like an interactive soap, with everyone as judge and jury, speculating on the real-life dramas of people currently in the news.
It always made us feel nervous when any extradition case came up, as extradition is such a terrifying thing for anyone to face.
Wilson and I desperately needed a break and later that day I saw a post on Twitter from Groupon, who were offering
tickets
at a really cheap price for an Elton John concert at Hatfield House.
Hatfield House is close to where we live and hosts various events in the grounds of the estate. I decided that this would get us out into the open air and we’d be surrounded by music, so I bought tickets for ourselves and our friends.
Cliff Sullivan had a daughter named Sophie who was very ill when she was born premature. When little Sophie was fighting for her life Cliff and his wife used to listen to a song I wrote called ‘I Believe in Miracles’. Fortunately a miracle happened and Sophie pulled through. This was before I met Cliff via Twitter. He and Mike Garrick and the Free Gary followers fought tirelessly for Gary and had regular tweet-storms which loads of people supported. Cliff often included a link to a song called ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free’ by the
Lighthouse Family, relating this to Gary’s wish to be free from ten years of mental torment.
I hadn’t heard of the Lighthouse Family for years and didn’t even know if they were still going but we thought of this as Gary’s song.
On 17 July we went along with our friends to the Elton John concert and trudged across the fields to get to the section of the grounds where the concert was being held.
Although it was initially sunny, by the time the main act was about to come on the heavens had opened, and we all stood under umbrellas to create a very English scene – standing in the pouring rain listening to music. There were lots of acts
performing
that day and shortly before Elton John took to the stage it was announced that the Lighthouse Family was the next act to play. When their first song was ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free’ it was an emotive moment for us. This was Gary’s song and tears flowed like the rain as we wished with all our hearts that Gary would soon be free.
Elton John came on afterwards and was amazing. I had forgotten just how good he and his band are and what an
amazing
pianist Elton is. Raining or not, we had a great time.
• • •
The Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal was taking hold of the country and the Twitter jury were out in force. It was mainly celebrities who were affected, and only when it was found that murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked did all hell break loose, as it was thought that hackers had deleted her voicemail messages. The definitive truth about how the messages were deleted is unlikely ever to emerge. However, recent newspaper stories say it was later established
that the messages had probably been deleted automatically by the phone company.
It was now October and we still had no decision on Gary; I couldn’t understand why it was taking so long, especially after President Obama had said it was a British decision that America would respect. It was difficult having your hopes raised to the heavens and then crashed to the ground so many times over. It was a cruel game that fate was playing with our lives. Living through extreme ranges of emotions that you never knew you possessed wears you down.
The three siblings we looked after every fourth weekend were finally being placed with a permanent family, who seemed really nice. The children were lovely and anyone would be lucky to have them as part of their family, so we were optimistic that they would all bond.
Trudie Styler invited me to her and Sting’s house in London, as she was guest-editing the
Big Issue
and doing a double-page spread on Gary.
When we walked into the living room the first thing I noticed were the cushions on the sofa, which I loved as each cushion had pictures of Trudie and Sting’s children imprinted on them. The room is beautiful but, more importantly, it feels like a warm and comfortable home.
Anita Sumner, Sting’s sister, was there with Trudie, as she usually is. Although Anita keeps a low profile, she is a warm and caring human being and she and Trudie seem to work closely together on various projects.
We had tea and cakes and Trudie chatted so naturally that it didn’t feel like an interview.
The
Big Issue
has come a long way since it was first launched and is now up there with the best of the glossy magazines. Importantly the money paid goes straight to the homeless
sellers to give them a hand up and to help them get their lives back on track. So please don’t underestimate the professionalism involved in the
Big Issue
’s production or the hard work of the sellers, who bear the brunt of the coldest of weather and deserve to be treated with the same respect as any other working person.
David Gilmour and his wife Polly care passionately about homelessness and gave over £3 million to Crisis, the homeless charity, from the sale of their London home, in an effort to help people suffering from the damaging and debilitating effect of homelessness.
Apparently, after it became public David and Polly tried to persuade some other celebs they knew to do what they had done, but most tended to look away nervously and to change the subject while wandering towards the other side of the room.
Shami Chakrabarti from human rights organisation Liberty also fights constantly for justice. Liberty contacted me to say that I had been shortlisted for a Human Rights Award because of my campaign for Gary and against extradition. I felt honoured as Liberty are such a fantastic organisation that fights constantly against torture and injustice. I didn’t think I had a hope of winning and thought it was amazing just to be nominated.
I tweeted to let my friends know, and Liberty emailed me to say that I wasn’t supposed to be telling anyone just yet. It was too late – the news was out there.
I had to get something to wear for the Liberty award
ceremony
but I’d had no time to buy any clothes and money was tight. However, Wilson and I had now lost so much weight that all of my very old clothes fitted me again. At 9st 8lbs I had effectively gained a new wardrobe of all the clothes that I hadn’t worn for years.
After trying them all on, I chose a dress that was twenty years old and that I had only worn once. It felt good to be able to fit
into it again and since becoming thinner I didn’t look or feel so tired anymore.
Wilson, Lucy and I went together to the Liberty award ceremony, which was being held in the Purcell Room at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in the Southbank Centre. I tried hard to persuade Gary to come along as I was worried about him never leaving the house, but he just didn’t feel he could face people. Gary has such a distinctive look that everyone recognises him immediately.
When we walked in everyone was so welcoming and Shami and the Liberty staff were all chatting and having drinks. We later went into the main hall and sat near the front row. Sir Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard of the starship
Enterprise
) was seated in front of us and I thought Gary would have liked that.
Attorney General Dominic Grieve, Kenneth Clarke, and the Norwegian ambassador were there. Norway had suffered a horrific tragedy only a few months earlier when seventy-seven of their young people were gunned down by an extremist.
Simon Hughes MP and Justine Roberts from Mumsnet came onto the stage and announced that the winner for the Liberty Close to Home Human Rights Award was Janis Sharp.
I was overwhelmed. When Simon and Justine presented me with the award I felt shy but gave the following off-the-cuff speech:
I’d just like to say thank you so much: it’s an incredible honour to get this award. People died for our civil liberties and human rights and no government of whatever political persuasion has the right to give them away, because they are not theirs to give and we have to protect them, stop them being eroded.
This government has said that it’s going to change the extradition treaty and I believe it will, and they’re going to reintroduce the right to have evidence before the horrendous
punishment of extradition can be carried out – and it is a punishment, a horrendous one.
This year, this Christmas will be Gary’s tenth since he was arrested; it’s the longest time anyone has ever been on bail in this country. He hasn’t murdered anyone. He hasn’t raped anyone. He was on a computer in his bedroom, and of course what he did was wrong, but if it was so serious he would not have been left on the internet by the authorities for three and a half years after the event.
We really have to protect civil liberties and hold politicians to their pre-election promises and what they say they’ll
introduce
has to be the case, and I believe they will do it and when they do change this treaty – not if, but when – at least Gary will know that ten years of what is mental torture will have achieved something.
And Gary said this to me: knowing that no one else will ever have to go through this again will make what he has gone through worthwhile, and that’s the kind of person Gary is.
Gary has Asperger’s. He’s no ordinary man, he’s an
extraordinary
man and he cares about everyone on this planet and I’m proud to be his mother.
And I would like to thank Karen Todner, his solicitor, and his barrister, Ben Cooper, and Edward Fitzgerald, his QC, and Edmund Lawson, his QC who sadly died.
I’d like to thank my husband Wilson, and Lucy, who’s seen Gary through everything, and I also want to thank David Gilmour, who has paid for Gary’s psychiatric fees and more. David Gilmour also puts millions into Crisis, the homeless centres, and into mental health. Thank you also to Trudie Styler and to Alex from The Orb, who has helped Gary so much, and Gary’s amazing MP, David Burrowes, and to all the politicians, peers and people who have stood by Gary and
stood by us, and we will change this extradition treaty, we have to and everybody must stand up and demand it. Because British citizens deserve equal rights to every other nation and no other nation has signed its citizens’ rights away, and please, this government … put them back again. Thank you.
It felt good to have the backing of Shami and Liberty, who stood by us and helped us so much and had done the most incredible Extradition Watch campaign. They made lots of large two-tone paper aeroplanes with ‘Don’t Let Gary Go’ printed on them. Anyone could download the aeroplanes and print them on paper or card, and people all over the world photographed themselves and their families flying the planes in parks, gardens and simulations of space and uploaded them to the Liberty website. It was such an innovative and artistic campaign and seeing people of all ages, abilities and nationalities doing this for Gary was so moving.
This human rights award was for Gary, as I believed it was largely because of his case that forum seemed more likely to be introduced to the extradition process.
On 24 November the Conservative MP Dominic Raab obtained a debate on extradition in Parliament. This was due to Babar Ahmad getting 141,000 votes on a government e-petition asking for him to be put on trial in the UK. Babar Ahmad was fighting extradition for operating a website that allegedly provided material support to terrorism.
Gary’s MP, David Burrowes, told us he was going to raise Gary’s case in the debate.
Oscar-winning actress Julie Christie wrote:
The debate offers a wonderful opportunity for MPs to strike a blow for decency and fairness in the extradition process and
to stand up to bullying and vengeful tactics. It is also
important
that the case of Gary McKinnon is remembered in this debate so that finally the ordeal of this vulnerable man can be ended and his case can be dealt with in Britain, as should always have been the case.
That evening, Wilson and I were intently watching the extradition debate live online when our mobile phones started ringing constantly. We didn’t answer. Then our landline started ringing constantly. We recognised the number and knew it must be a social worker, but still didn’t answer.
We periodically fostered children for respite and on an
emergency
basis during this time, but we were at a crucial point in Gary’s case and this debate could be momentous.