Howes Family Extradition By Billy Briggs

No UK trial to establish evidence of supplying global crystal-meth labs By Billy Briggs.

A SCOTS couple who have four children face the possibility of prison and extradition to America next month despite having not stood trial in a court for the crime of which they are accused.

In a case that highlights the controversial impact on British justice of the post-9/11 extradition treaty signed between the UK and the US, Brian and Kerry Howes of Bo’ness, West Lothian, are facing extradition to America on allegations of supplying chemicals over the internet in a conspiracy to produce crystal meth.

The couple, who deny the charges, face a preliminary extradition hearing at the high court in Edinburgh on January 14. They fear they will be remanded in custody and their four children will go into care ahead of their removal to America.



Under the terms of the treaty, the US can apply to have someone extradited without any trial taking place in the UK. On signing the Extradition Act 2003, the then home secretary, David Blunkett, removed the obligation on US law enforcement agencies to present British courts with prima facie evidence of criminality. Thanks to the Royal Prerogative, the treaty became law without parliamentary debate, which means that the US must only provide “written information” relating to an alleged wrongdoing.

Crystal meth - a form of amphetamine that has been crystallised so that it can be smoked - is a highly dangerous and addictive drug that has pervaded the poorer sections of American society for the past 20 years. Pseudoephedrine, iodine and red phosphorus are the three main chemicals required to make the drug, which produces a high that may last 12 hours or more.



Brian Howes - an amateur pyrotechnician who sold chemicals in the UK legally - denies that he and his wife broke the law by selling iodine and red phosphorus through their internet business. But federal prosecutors at the Drug Enforcement Agency in Arizona allege they were part of a drugs racket supplying a global network of meth labs in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.

Howes said their children will have to go into care if they are remanded in custody and that his wife, Kerry, is 23 weeks pregnant and faces giving birth to their fifth child on a chain gang in Arizona. “We just want a fair trial in the UK but that is not going to happen as the extradition treaty replaces the word evidence’ with information’ - and information is accepted as true, that is the wording of the act. We have no faith in these proceedings as the files from our previous solicitors have not arrived with our current solicitors after three months, so no defence has been able to be mounted.

“In England, people are bailed right up to the House of Lords and then the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but we will be remanded during or after the high court hearing in Edinburgh. We need help with a fund to fight in the ECHR and then we may have a chance of bail. The Scottish legal aid system does not pay for this - in England it is even afforded to people who have confessed to a crime.”
Brian Howes Family



While a passionate debate raged across Britain about the 42-day limit for terror suspects, Brian, 44, and, Kerry-Ann, 30, previously spent 214 days on remand in prison, a detention that lasted five times longer than the proposed terror suspect threshold passed by the House of Commons in June but recently rejected by the House of Lords.

People can be held on remand indefinitely under the extradition treaty.

Kyle: 'Police must apologise for years of hell'

Published Date: 19 December 2008 ( Cleveland Police the UK's most corrupt force on record.)

SUZANNE Holdsworth's solicitor has demanded an apology from police after she was put through years of hell.

Campbell Malone went on to say that Suzanne was "lucky" to have partner Lee Spencer by her side throughout her grim ordeal.

Mr Malone said: "It's difficult to use the word lucky when she has spent years in prison but she is lucky that she has had Lee by her side, he is a great guy.



"He has been the driving force behind this.

"Lee knew that she simply could not have done this and he never wavered in getting the case re-opened after her conviction."

Mr Malone hit out at police for praising their inquiry in a force publication and called on them to
apologise to Suzanne.


He added: "When Suzanne was originally convicted, the police, in their annual publication, congratulated themselves and I hope they are going to take a deep, serious look at this investigation.

"I had hoped the appeal would have been the end of it but although it has been a prolonged ordeal for Suzanne it is great that all of the evidence has come out and she has been cleared by a local jury.

"I know that the one thing Suzanne would like to come out of this case is an apology from the police."

After the case, Cleveland Police said they would not be reopening the investigation into Kyle's death, and later added an apology would not be issued.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Braithwaite said: "The retrial of Suzanne Holdsworth was properly brought at the direction of the Court of Appeal and followed the receipt of new expert medical evidence that was not available to the jury at the first trial.

"This has been a classic jury case. Their job is to consider the evidence against the defendant. To convict they must be sure of the defendant's guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

"The jury has properly done their job and have acquitted Suzanne Holdsworth. It is not our intention to reopen investigations into Kyle's tragic death."

Of the apology, a Cleveland Police spokeswoman added: "We are not reopening the investigation into Kyle Fisher's death and we are not issuing an apology."

Keith Simpson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "The role of the Crown Prosecution Service is to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to justify a case being brought and a realistic prospect of conviction.

"The role of the jury is to decide whether the evidence shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty.

"That is how our justice system works.

"The jury have decided that Miss Holdsworth is innocent.

"I am entirely satisfied that the Crown Prosecution Service and the police were wholly right in bringing this case to court for a second time."

It later emerged that Kyle was not known to social services at Hartlepool Borough Council, and was therefore never deemed to be at risk.

A serious case review after his death concluded that any culpability for Kyle's death "lay outside any professional agency".

It also emerged during the trial that the tragic youngster was due to undergo surgery for a brain condition, but that medical evidence never came to light.