HC Deb 21 December 1979 vol 976 cc1063-4
Mr. James Johnson (Kingston upon Hull, West)

I wish to present to Parliament a petition on behalf of my constituent, Kenneth Edward Holmes, of Kingston upon Hull, at present detained at Her Majesty's pleasure in Leyhill Prison, Gloucester. The petition reads: To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. The Humble Petition of Kenneth Edward Holmes SHOWETH

  1. (1) That the Petitioner was convicted of rape and indecent assault at York Assizes in 1955 and sentenced to ten years imprisonment;
  2. (2) That on appeal against conviction and sentence the application for leave to appeal against conviction was refused, and on the appeal against sentence being heard the Petitioner was presumed in judgment to be mentally unstable….
  3. (3) That the Petitioner was given no opportunity of rebutting any such presumption….
  4. (4) That the Petitioner was released in February 1964 and recalled to prison in July 1964….
  5. (5) That the Petitioner was then kept imprisoned further until April 1966, when he was released;
  6. (6) That the Petitioner gave notice to the Home Office in February 1967 of his having been threatened by named police officers who stated their intention of securing the revocation of the licence….
  7. (7) That the police by whom the Petitioner had complained of being threatened then issued a warrant against the Petitioner on 16 August 1967, and the then Minister of Defence ordered revocation of the life licence on that same day;
  8. (8) That the Petitioner was returned from the Republic of Ireland under an Order of Extradition….
  9. (9) That on his being taken to Leeds prison in January 1968 the Petitioner was immediately imprisoned under the life sentence….
  10. (10) That at trial for the indecent assault specified in the indictment, it was alleged that the Petitioner had touched the clothing of a youth of fifteen years of age at the Petitioner's 1064 place of business on a date on August 1967….
  11. (11) That it was found by Mr. Justice Lawton that there would be no case to answer but for the police evidence; that there was no medical cause for the offence charged; that the facts did not disclose any serious offence of its kind; that he saw no reason to take any action in regard to any other matter; and that the Petitioner would go to prison for nine months;
  12. (12) That the Petitioner's release was refused in August 1968 when Mr. Home Secretary Callaghan stated that it would not be consistent with his duty to the public to order the Petitioner's release….
  13. (13) That the Petitioner has continually made applications for his release in and since 1968, but all such applications have been refused by the Home Secretary;
  14. (14) That the Petitioner made successive applications to take legal advice and to institute proceedings in the courts but these applications were all refused by the Home Secretary until the judgment of the European Court of Justice in 1975 vouchsafed the Petitioner's right so to take advice and to proceed in the courts;
  15. (15) That the Petitioner requested permission to institute proceedings for conspiracy under the Indictment Act, but this application was refused by the Home Secretary;
  16. (16) That the Petitioner made application to be produced in the High Court for the purpose of making application under Rule 53 of the Rules of the Supreme Court for an order to the parole board and for a judicial review of his case, but these applications made to the Home Secretary in and since 1977 have all been refused….
  17. (17) That the Minister of State for the Home Department has given assurances to the Honourable Member for Hull West that the medical reports did not justify any action being taken in the Petitioner's case….
  18. (18) That the medical reports have at all times certified that the Petitioner is not and has not been in any way disordered, and in particular there is found no change to personality, nor anything of a psychopathic nature, nor any medical or psychiatric reason to justify the Petitioner's continuing confinement in prison….

Wherefore your Petitioner humbly prays that your Honourable House will do all in its power to urge the Home Secretary

  1. (1) to order the release to the Petitioner of the evidence concealed by the Director of Public Prosecutions at his trial in 1955;
  2. (2) to enquire into the use at this trial of an account given by the Complainant which was not the account given when first seen by the police or for a week thereafter;
  3. (3) to remedy the error of the Court of Criminal Appeal in the wrongful presumption of the Petitioner being mentally unstable, and to nullify or mitigate the consequences of that error; and
  4. (4) to secure to the Petitioner his unbounden right to make applications in the courts and for the purposes of justice. And your Petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.

To lie upon the Table.

Back to