Kevin refused food from the hot plate and ate no other food for ten days from the evening of 26th May until Wednesday 5th June. Since then he has continued to eat no food from the hot plate and to eat in a limited fashion. He could go on to a full hunger strike at any point. How did he get to this point?

In July 2000 following the Criminal Cases Review Commission's decision not to refer Kevin's case to the Court of Appeal the solicitor agreed to prepare directions for a neuropsychologist to give Kevin a further assessment since so much more research and understanding has been published in the last few years and the CCRC had directed an expert with inappropriate experience to carry out work that simply muddied the waters.

I have long indicated that prison is very much the wrong place for someone with Kevin's profile and the last three years have been particularly difficult. Certainly the situation was not handled well, when the CCRC decision came through, two years ago by an inexperienced officer in charge of lifers. This some of you will appreciate from past letters. One outcome was that Kevin was sent to Her Majesty's nasty little Playground at Swaleside where neither of us wanted him moved. From May until November he was stuck most of the day in his cell before he eventually started a computer studies course. We're now back to that situation because Kevin was said to be doing his own work on the computer and sacked. (The work seen was coursework but more plentiful in it's diversity than most students were producing and by a member of staff who Kevin had already identified as someone who could not be positive about students' efforts and was likely to be affronted by Kevin's ability). The course gave him skills but was limiting. Kevin knows what courses, skills he needs to obtain and has so much work and ability needing expression that the current situation is becoming increasingly damaging.

The recent European ruling on the courts and not the Home Secretary setting the tariff and an expected Lord's ruling in the autumn has to affect Kevin as the Prison Service will have to re think the whole process with the Home Office. It is not something Kevin as an innocent prisoner has given any thought to. The message to him consistently being if you fail to admit your guilt and show your remorse you will never get out. (May/June 2002)