From CEN

Group wants ban on gallow exports

HUMAN rights campaigners have called on the Government to close a legal loophole that is allowing a farmer in the region to export gallows.

Amnesty International is calling for changes after it emerged David Lucas from Mildenhall was making mobile gallows to sell to foreign governments. The 58-year-old has denied he is involved in a "sick" trade and said it was a legitimate business.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Lucas said he converts covered lorries into mobile chambers which can be used to execute several people at a time.

He also makes traditional hangman's scaffolds on platforms of solid oak and redwood which have a £12,000 price tag. His customers include dictatorships in Zimbabwe and Libya.

Mr Lucas, of Eldon Farm, said: "It is not a sick trade at all and at the end of the day, business is business.

"I have two systems - the traditional platform gallows or the mobile units which I have designed myself. I build trap doors in the bottom of lorry trailers and you can have them with the sides open so people can see.

"Depending on the length of the trailer you could use five or six gallows at the same time. They are expensive but you can use them over and over again. They could travel around from village to village or prison to prison. It could save a lot of time."

A spokesman for Amnesty International said: "Torture equipment can't be exported but execution equipment can - it's absurd and wrong. The loophole should be closed. This makes a mockery of the UK's efforts to oppose the death penalty around the world."

Moves are being made by the EU to outlaw the export of execution equipment from Britain by July 30.