12:30 - 30 January 2007
 http://www.thisishull.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=136265&command=displayContent&sourceNode=136248&contentPK=16526860&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

A Peace campaigner said today she could not understand why she had been jailed as the controversy over prison crowding continued.

Grandmother-of-six Lindis Percy, 65, who moved away from Hull in August and now lives in Harrogate, spoke after her release from Low Newton Prison for women, in County Durham, after serving half of a seven-day sentence imposed last Friday.

Ms Percy was jailed by magistrates in Harrogate for not paying a £50 fine, as the controversy raged over Home Secretary John Reid's letter to judges about sentencing policy.

Home Secretary John Reid and legal chiefs have asked judges and magistrates to jail only the most dangerous and persistent criminals.

She was originally arrested a year ago at a US listening station at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, during one of the regular Tuesday night protests there.

Ms Percy was found guilty of two charges of obstructing the highway in September last year after a three-day trial, but refused to pay her fine.

Ms Percy's sentence is in contrast to Internet child porn pervert Derek Williams, who avoided jail and was given a six-month sentence suspended for two years at Mold Crown Court, north Wales, on Thursday.

Today, Ms Percy said of her sentence: "I really do think it would have been more imaginative to think of a more creative resolution to this. It must have cost a tremendous amount of money.

"I can't help thinking there are people out there who are more deserving of being in prison. I just think what a stupid way of doing things.

"The comparison is quite stark. They are very dangerous people and should be managed and controlled.

"I thought it was an interesting response from the magistrate. For someone who is such a serious offender, it did seem questionable."

In 2003, Mrs Percy was arrested while trying to climb the gates of Buckingham Palace. She also confronted former US president George Bush Senior as he arrived to address business leaders in Harrogate last year.

Ms Percy said: "I was in prison for two seconds. I just wish and look forward to the day when magistrates come up with imaginative resolutions

when someone is found guilty. I don't know quite what the judges are doing.

"I think it has got a little bit out of proportion. Some women will never go back to prison because it is such a shock.

"But for a lot of women, they are going back again and again so it isn't working.

"I would challenge the whole issue on sending people to prison.

"There are some very violent people around who have clearly done some nasty things, especially sex offences.

"I'm not a danger to anyone. We ask questions and raise issues and are persistent.

"I just think, why aren't we all asking questions?

"What I heard from some of the officers was it seems to be more a problem in male prisons.

"That distinction isn't made I think, it's just prisons are full, but I don't know that is not so."

Ms Percy, a former Greenham Common protestor, is a joint co-ordinator of the campaign group Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases (CAAB) and is responsible for organising protests at the North Yorkshire base every Tuesday.

 k.wood@hdmp.co.uk

Links

Accountability of American Bases

www.caab.org.uk

Crown Prosecution Service

www.cps.gov.uk


Your Views :_
I agree she should have seved the full sentence and pay the fine.. however whether there is more room in Female prisons or not! that paedophile should have been locked up... afterall which is more of a danger to the public... a peace campaigner or a paedophile....
Vicky, West Hull


Not the place to criticise someone's grammar? Fair enough normally, apart from it indicates the intellect of those giving the right wing views on some of these posts. What's happened to this city...? PS. Dave, are we allowed to criticise someone's spelling? If there was sentencing for bad spelling, you would be banged up for ten years mate!
Reply to Anon and now Dave, Hull


Why publish such rubbish. This woman ignores the law and comes rushing for publicity and sympathy. In my view she deserves neither and is another non story to add to the long list covered here.
Andy, Spain


Ok Anon that's fine. Lets all decide which laws to obey and which ones to ignore on the grounds of our "conscience" shall we? Anarchy awaits.
Jeff, Hull


Sadly, it was predictable that the first respondents would prove incapable of recognising the difference between a prisoner of conscience and a common criminal. I would be prepared to wager that every one of them would prance around in praise of Nelson Mandella without recognising the irony. Whether or not you agree with this woman, I suspect she has more moral courage than most (if not all) of her detractors put together. She certainly has more courage than I have.
Anon, Anon


Yes of course she should go to prison .. we cannot afford people like her to get in the way of british & American forces doing there damned upmost to make our countries & the world a better place to live .. if Mrs Percy has got lots of time for places like Iraq .. i'm sure she could go live there!
Nick, Hull


This is not the place to critisise someone grammer
Dave, Hull


Its not that she couldn't pay her fine, she refused to. She had to go to prison. What was the court supposed to do? Let her off and in efferct make the payment of fines purely voluntary?
Ian, Hull


If that's the case Anon, you should be locked up for a year for your terrible grammar - with no parole.
Reply to Anon, Hull


The reason you went to jail and the 'pervert'went free is because you went to a women's prison where ther is spaces. It's a shame you did not do your full sentence, there should be no early release for anybody who is in prison
Anon, Hull