Legal: Hunger strike to go nationwide

Dozens of prisoners will go on a co-ordinated national hunger strike around Britain later this week. They are unhappy with the progress of the Criminal Cases Review Commission which was set up to address miscarriage s of justice. Ian Burrell reports.

Winston Silcott never has liked prison food. But his reasons for refusing the offerings of the canteen at HMP Maidstone this week have nothing to do with the quality of the cuisine.

Like Michael Davis of the M25 Three gang, who will be leaving his tray untouched at Swaleside jail on the Isle of Sheppey and the convicted killer Susan May who will be deliberately going without food in Durham prison's female wing, Silcott will be taking part in the first national hunger strike by British prisoners.

More than 60 inmates at 21 prisons are to participate in the action from Thursday, all of them claiming to be victims of injustice.

The protest will pitch the CCRC against a national movement called Action Against Injustice, which believes the government-appointed body is already failing in its task. Supporters of the prisoners will join the hunger strike outside the commission's Birmingham headquarters. The hunger strikers have been told to stop fasting after Saturday.

Chris Moore, of Action against Injustice, said: "If the CCRC carries on like this it is going to take until the next millennium just to deal with the cases already sent in."

He said the composition of the CCRC made it biased against convicted prisoners. "It is headed by a mason. It is a non-elected body and it is heavily-biased with people with prosecution experience," he said.

Nearly eight months after becoming operational, the CCRC has been sent details of 959 alleged miscarriages. Five have so far been referred to the court of appeal.

One was the case of James Hanratty, who was hung 35 years ago for the so-called A6 murder. Also referred for appeal were the case of convicted Hyde Park bomber Danny McNamee, the conviction of a burglar who served five years in the 1960s, and Mahmood Mattan, who was hanged for murder in 1952.

Meanwhile new cases come in at the rate of five a day.

Sources at the CCRC said that the commission was satisfied with its progress. "We always knew that there were going to be a very busy first couple of years," said one.

Meanwhile, Silcott awaits a decision from the CCRC on his life sentence for the murder of boxer Anthony Smith in 1984.

Having been acquitted on appeal of the murder of PC Colin Blakelock, who died in the Broadwater Farm riot in 1985, he maintains that he stabbed Smith in self-defence.

His brother, George, said: "If Winston Silcott was not wrongly convicted for the murder of PC Blakelock, he would not still be in prison today. Most people would not have even heard of him."

Earlier this year the CCRC indicated that it was unlikely to refer the case further but Silcott's lawyers have made another submission which is under consideration.

Also fasting will be two members of the M25 Three - Davis and Raphael Rowe - who were convicted of carrying out the murder of a hairdresser and a series of other attacks around the motorway. The pair claim they were denied the right to a fair trial.

Susan May, 52, has always denied she murdered her wealthy aunt, Hilda Marchbank in 1992. Her application for a re-trial was rejected.