WOMAN WITH CANCER HELD TO RANSOM BY CROWN COURT

WOMAN WITH CANCER HELD TO RANSOM BY CROWN COURT! IS THIS THE RETURN OF THE DEATH SENTENCE?

Hi, I am Jacqui from The View Magazine, we are a social enterprise platform by and for women in the justice system. we publish a quarterly magazine and we produce the Rebel Justice Podcast. Can you help us raise £30,000 for Farah for bail funds to access chemotherapy for her aggressive stage 3 breast cancer. Also, she has Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She has been remanded to prison by the judge at Woodgreen Crown Court for 6 months. Essentially he is holding a woman with cancer to ransom until she can pay substantial bail funds, for false allegations of non violent offences that arose following a messy breakup, in which she was a victim of violent abuse and coercive control. Last month the court refused £10,000 bail. She had surgery in April at UCLH followed by four life threatening hospital infections, she remained hospitalised for 3 months. She was forcibly returned to the failing private prison HMP Bronzefield on July 25th, after the director's unverified assurances to her medical team that the complex wound aftercare and chemotherapy could be managed in his prison. Her surgeon did not want her discharged to prison, because he was very worried about the neutropenic sepsis risk in chemotherapy patients. However, without investigation, UCLH agreed to her discharge into this unsanitary, unhygienic environment, where she was put into a dirty cell, and immediately contracted another infection. She is becoming increasingly frail. Her oncologist told her on 4 September that she must start chemotherapy immediately or she has less than a 20% chance of surviving to July 2025.

Please help us save her life!

She cannot access chemotherapy in the prison environment, because of the very real danger of neutropenic sepsis, which requires immediate hospitalisation. HMP Bronzefield cannot be trusted to book a taxi to take her to the hospital.

The judge indicated that he would consider bail again, if she could raise more money, making flippant comments about how she might approach her social media followers to raise more money. The same judge has used throw away tabloid headlines about her to make judgments on risk and dangerousness. Furthermore, the court proposed, by dangling a suspended sentence if she would plead guilty to one count, that her legal team of Simon Natas, ITN solicitors and Dominic Thomas, 25 Bedford Row visit her in hospital whilst incredibly vulnerable, directly after her 13 hour surgery, to try to persuade her, then the court reneged on this. Is this how we expect the judiciary to behave? She is an easy target for the Crown Prosecution Service and the Metropolitan Police, who have launched two other malicious prosecutions already in the last year. These were thrown out when they came before sensible crown court judges. Farah has never been convicted of any violent offence, this is not justice, it is judicial thuggery. Please help us to raise the £30,000 to get her out of prison and into chemotherapy that will increase her life expectancy significantly.

Farah has more than paid for her past actions with a great deal of positive contributions to society, eg, she set up The View Magazine with two former prisoners in 2019. It started as a prison publication that now has over 15,000 paid subscribers, including judges, NGOs, government departments, think tanks and people involved in the justice system. She started the Rebel Justice podcast, we have interviewed people on the front line of justice, mental health experts, those with lived experiences and supreme court judges. In 2021 she organised "Someone's Daughter" exhibition at Somerset House to change the public's perception of women in the justice system, by having leading photographers, eg, Nick Knight, Nadav Kander, Amelia Trowbridge and others, photograph portraits of leading women, such as Baroness Brenda Hale, former Supreme Court President UK, Baroness Helena Kennedy KC, and Bianca Jagger, alongside former prisoners, activists and campaigners. Furthermore, she gave evidence to the Armed Forces Bill Committee 15 years ago, before the MOD accepted PTSD existed in the British Forces, pretending that it was an American invention for veterans in the US to access health services. She helped to write an amendment with Lord Alex Carlisle KC, Imran Khan KC, and Baroness Findlay, to force the court marshal to look more widely at military defendants' background and history of drugs, alcohol and mental health. This led the MOD to station two probation officers at the military base in Germany to assist military defendants. Also, she wrote a speech for Baroness Findlay calling for this amendment in the House of Lords. She held conferences in parliament about women in prison, with Geoffrey Robinson MP, Jeremy Corbin MP and Baroness Uddin. She has written reports and given evidence about women in prison. In addition to being accomplished artist. At The View we believe everybody should be given a second chance.

The Backstory

In Autumn 2023, a minoritized woman, Farah, was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. Then she broke up with a man who made false allegations against her to the Metropolitan Police.

Farah was remanded in HMP Bronzefield and her cancer operation was delayed while a bail application was made. Following assurances given by the Prison Director Jonathan French that she would have her operation as planned, the Crown Court Judge denied bail, saying that no bail conditions would satisfy his Court. Bronzefield is rated the worst women’s prison for safety, healthcare, and rehabilitation and has the highest rates for self-harm and suicide, remember the case of baby Ayesha who was killed due to staff negligence in 2019?

For three whole weeks following surgery, Farah was chained to prison guards 24/7 in UCLH hospital, even during intimate procedures, showering and going to the toilet. Her surgical wounds became infected four times, probably because the prison guards refused to observe basic hygiene precautions, including eating and drinking in close proximity to her. The chains and cuffs were never cleaned in all that time.

For six weeks after the operation, Farah was confined to her hospital room with no access to fresh air. She was not allowed visits from family or friends and restricted to two calls per day. She was not allowed to use her own money to buy the fresh, nutritious food prescribed by the medical team to facilitate her recovery. A manager at Bronzefield, Colin Pannrucker, said she could use the UCLH charity to supplement her diet. When the unlawful detention conditions in the hospital were legally challenged by a Pre-action Protocol letter, the chains were removed and the guards had to sit outside the hospital room. Following surgery the prison refused to send her any bras thus directly impacting upon her recovery. The Security Manager, Michelle Brown, at Bronzefield stopped providing clean clothes and she was confined to her room because she only had a hospital gown to wear.

How is it possible that in London, in 2024, black women are being kept in chains? Don’t their lives matter?

Breast cancer treatment in prison

UK prisons have an appalling record for delivering healthcare to prisoners. There have been countless parliamentary inquiries into the prison service but the political will to make changes is absent.

In the 1990s, the UK embarked on a programme of privatisation of the prison estate. There are currently 14 private prisons in the UK. HMP Bronzefield, the largest women’s prison in Europe, is the flagship operated by French catering company Sodexo.

In 2006, the responsibilities of commissioning health services were transferred over from the Ministry of Justice to the National Health Service. Nowadays, healthcare in prison is provided by a medical team from the NHS or private healthcare companies. At Bronzefield, the contract is currently held by CNWL NHS Foundation Trust.

Life-saving healthcare such as cancer treatment is routinely delayed by the prison service. At Bronzefield, one third of breast cancer appointments are missed. This happens because prisons are under-resourced, and the transportation of a single prisoner requires two prison guards, whilst these two guards could be supervising a hundred prisoners inside, which when Bronzefield is already operating at an unsafe level with a third less staff than required, does not suit them. Staff turnaround is the highest of any prison.

In support of the bail application, in March expert opinions were sought on how the Farah’s continued remand in HMP Bronzefield would affect her treatment for breast cancer. According to prison GP Dr Jake Hard, who has been working in the prison service for many years, it was almost certain that her imminent surgery and post-operative treatment would be seriously and adversely impacted. Unfortunately, the court chose to place more weight in unfounded assurances given by the Prison Director with no clinical experience, over the expert opinion of a doctor with many years clinical experience in the prison service. All of Dr Hard’s predictions are materialising and the prison has stopped pretending they can handle this complex case and are supporting the next bail application, as are the National Probation service in HMP Bronzefield.

The consultant surgeon at UCLH, Mr Betal who conducted the surgery was so concerned about the conditions inside the prison, and the risk posed by the overcrowded conditions to an immuno-compromised patient during chemotherapy, that he was unwilling to discharge Farah back to Bronzefield. Largely due to the risk of the life-threatening condition neutropenic sepsis, which must be detected at the earliest opportunity and the necessary skills and expertise simply do not exist in prison healthcare. HMP Bronzefield operational staff are incapable of even organising a pre-planned telephone conference with her oncologist, this failed on two separate occasions causing anxiety and distress, so they cannot possibly be trusted to organise emergency transport when a life is at risk. A month ago she was supposed to attend the Royal Free Hospital and they forgot to book her taxi, they were three hours late for the appointment.

What’s at stake?

Firstly Farah's life!

According to human rights law, prisoners are supposed to have access to healthcare of an equivalent standard to what they would receive in the community. Yet NHS Trusts struggle to provide high quality healthcare to detainees. In a study conducted by Professor Jo Ames, the life expectancy of prisoners with cancer was found to be more than 10 years shorter than the national average.

Chaining prisoners to prison guards following cancer surgery is standard practice at HMP Bronzefield. Invariably, mandatory risk assessments are not carried out as required by the Law. Yet, there are currently three women with cancer being chained to their guards in hospitals in the South East.

Every year, women with curable cancers and other serious diseases die in English prisons because they receive inadequate healthcare. According to Inquest, 13 women have died unnecessarily in HMP Bronzefield.

Arbitrary confinement with no fresh air is also common. Most women detained in these conditions do not have the resources, legal help, or moral support to challenge these conditions. Judges know all this, but with a nod and a wink they accept Prison officials’ false assurances that they know won’t and can’t be honoured.

The bail application

So far, two bail applications have been heard in the Crown Court. There have been repeated delays caused by the non-cooperation of the Prison Director, abuse of court procedures and Trainee DC Yasmin Rinsler of Islington Met Police making unfounded objections, eg, claiming the size of a proposed bail address, a large studio flat in Hampstead, is too small, yet it is much larger (and more sanitary) than a prison cell.

Initially the objective of this campaign is to raise £30,000 to provide security for the Court to grant bail for Farah to access life saving treatment. When the case is completed or dropped and the bail released, the funds will be directed to the following:

1) Further research and case studies of former and current prisoners with cancer;

2) Commission a binding protocol for the NHS and ministry of justice to determine how prisoners with cancer and other end of life prisoners are treated to ensure they retain their human rights and dignity;

3) Update current prison policy framework regarding escorting prisoners with cancer, as current policies are too broad and open to abuse by prison governors and directors;

4) Continue to raise awareness in parliament about how prisoners with cancer are treated and highlight that their basic human rights are not being met;

5) Challenge the incompatibility of the human rights act and the bail act, which allows judges to remand cancer patients to prison, thereby breaching article 3, 5 & 6 of ECHR and imposing a death sentence, without due process, whilst innocent until proven guilty;

6) To ensure that every woman with breast cancer in prison has access to a specialist breast cancer nurse, nutritionist, appropriate food and supplements and access to the treatment and support that would be available in the community. If remand is the only option, it should only be if there is serious risk to the public;

7) Review of the sentencing guidelines so judges cannot sentence people to prison with serious life ending diagnoses; and

8) A report outlining the outcomes published within a year.

We are supported by our fearless legal team, Simon Natas, ITN Solicitors and Dominic Thomas, 25 Bedford Row Chambers, who have been taking on the combined might of the Crown Prosecution Service and Prison Service with eloquence and incisive thinking. We are also grateful to Sarah Hussain of Women in Prison, Inquest, Dr Jake Hard, Professor Jo Ames, Farah's medical team at UCLH, in particular Anne MacLoughin, specialist breast cancer nurse and Victoria, reflexologist and Reiki Practitioner at the Macmillan Cancer Centre., plus Christine Morrison and her team on House Block 4 of HMP Bronzefield.

Happier Times Farah and Nigel Gould-Davies