Right Cause Wrong Man

Four days ago, I was contacted by a man called Brian Howes, in respect of his imminent extradition to America. The interest of this site in the unfair oppression of the individual by the State is well known, and I duly interviewed Brian and published a preliminary and sympathetic account of his plight based on the information he gave us. We also reported that the Scottish version of the Mail on Sunday was about to publish a story which would have been particularly sympathetic to his wife.

However, it is equally well known that this site does dig into stories, and look for confirmation of facts. We have now done so, and the outcome is most unsettling. So unsettling that the Mail on Sunday, after consultation of the documents discovered by us, have decided not to publish their story. It has been ‘spiked’.

It is fashionable to jeer at the Mail group of papers for their lack of journalistic research and their habit of copying and pasting articles without any attribution, but on this occasion they have acted with alacrity and professionalism.

The true story of Brian Howes was buried deep within the Scottish legal system’s papers; there was nothing in their cuttings library; nothing apart from a note of the public support of Cardinal Keith O’Brien who had spent time and energy writing to Kenny MacAskill saying that he wrote on ‘behalf of Brian’s children, and in their best interests, to ask that ‘any trial be held in Scotland’ to ‘maintain the integrity of the family’.

As this tale unfolds, it may seem strange to you that a Roman Catholic Cardinal should be so concerned to keep these children with their father – I have e-mailed and telephoned the Cardinal to invite him to comment on this support, but he has, so far, declined to comment further.

Whilst the one sided extradition laws with the USA are undoubtedly wrong and unfair on British citizens, Brian Howes has additional reasons for not wanting to be extradited to the US over and above the issue of the US government not being required to supply evidence of the crime in respect of which they are demanding he be extradited.

He would like your support to be given to him on the basis of being a fine upstanding British citizen, selling a product which is legal in the UK, unfairly targeted and entrapped by Arizona Drug Enforcement Officers. Those statements may indeed be true; however they conceal a far murkier web of ‘truths’.

If we go back to the earliest extradition hearings, we find that the Scottish legal system made extensive enquiries into the welfare of Mr Howes children, they too were concerned at the possible disintegration of a good and decent family. They found that:

"The bleak scenario of the four children of necessity being taken into care and housed separately without maintaining their relationship with one another and without being able to sustain their relationship with their parents to the extent that it will be extinguished or irreparably damaged is not made out".

The reason being that the following facts were either admitted or proved:

• Brian Howes has three children from previous relationships. He spent a period from around 1989 to 1994/5 living and working in the United States. He and his partner had a daughter who was born there. Her name is Jenna Millward who is now aged 21. In a Judgement dated 30 January 2004 His Honour Judge Bryant, who had granted the injunction in November 2003, found at paragraph 91 that Brian Howes sexually abused Jenna on a number of different occasions in Arkansas and Texas in 1993 and 1994. At paragraph 94 he found that he was satisfied that Brian Howes remained a real and continuing danger to young girls. In terms of that Judgement, Judge Bryant continued the proceedings for the purpose of ascertaining Kelly Ann Shanks' position in relation to his findings. She accepted Judge Bryant's findings. On 6 September 2004 Judge Bryant granted an injunction against Brian Howes from having contact with DH, BH and EH. This injunction was not complied with at any stage by either of the respondents. In April 2005 the respondents and the three elder children left Middlesbrough and moved to Scotland. Kerry Anne Shanks has relatives in the Bonnybridge area. They have resided in the area with their children since then.

Mr Howes has a history of getting very upset with people who raise this matter – in 2003, before Judge Bryant’s findings that the allegations were true, the local authority in Middlesbrough were made aware of the (then mere) allegations by Jenna Millward relating to the sexual abuse said to have been perpetrated upon her by Brian Howes in the United States. There were proceedings raised in the family division of the High Court in Middlesbrough.

In response to this Brian Howes mounted a denial of service attack on the local authority's e-mail system which resulted in their taking out an injunction against him in the Middlesbrough High Court in November 2003! Since this is also a man for whom search warrants have been granted by Teeside Magistrate’s court on March 23 2005 in respect of firearms offences, I am perhaps doubly unwise to publish the back story of this man’s fight against extradition.

However, I have worked hard to get the reputation this site enjoys, and while no blame can be attached to Andrew for his sympathetic report, nor to the Mail on Sunday for their proposed story, I am not prepared to see this site used to support a man who has not only dodged prosecution for child abuse by moving from Arkansas to Oklahoma, but who continues to use the difference in legal systems between England and Scotland to ignore the ruling that he should not have any further contact with the remaining young children in his large family.

The support of the Roman Catholic Church for this man remains a mystery. Hopefully they were also hoodwinked.

©Anna Raccoon and Andrew Withers.