Janis' Letter to Parliament

I am writing to you with compelling new evidence re-my son Gary McKinnon.

Please read this and help to ensure that justice prevails.

On the tenth of February 1983 we were compelled to take my son, Gary McKinnon, to see a neurologist on Gary’s 17th birthday, because of our grave concerns regarding the sudden deterioration in Gary’s mental health and the loss of his intellectual faculties, leading us to fear that Gary may have a brain tumour. (I now realize we should have taken Gary to a Psychiatrist)

The details of the reasons we arranged the consultation with the Neurologist are recorded in Gary’s NHS medical records and are referred to in Professor Declan Murphy’s report re- his assessment of Gary.

Our new evidence includes an extensive history of Mental Illness in Gary’s Family spanning generations:

Professor Declan Murphy concludes in his report:

“Gary has very significantly greater risk factors to suffer from anxiety and stress combined with depression and for them to be much more severe because of his pre-existing ASD and long standing history of anxiety which pre-date any legal difficulties. The greater contribution to Gary’s suicide risk is his ASD. That is, he now has a fixed autistic like idea which is currently unshakeable that his best outcome is to take his own life”

Professor Murphy, an expert in Aspergers/autism and a Psychiatrist regularly used by the Home Office, agrees with and qualifies Professor Turk’s evidence re-Gary, in that suicide would be inevitable if a decision to extradite was made. Professor Turk has also concluded that Gary is suffering from major depression.

When Professor Simon Baron Cohen forwarded his published data showing that people with Aspergers are at a significantly greater risk of suicide than neuro typical people, he included the fact that one of his patients, a Cambridge medical student with Asperger’s Syndrome, committed suicide just prior to Christmas 2010.

On December the 13th 2010 Professor Simon Baron Cohen wrote:

“it is now recognized that Asperger Syndrome carries with it a high risk of depression and suicidal risk. In our own clinic audit, of 373 adult patients with Asperger Syndrome seen between 2004 and 2010, 58% had diagnosed depression, 63% had had suicidal feelings, and 32% had actually planned or attempted suicide. These are not trivial risks. Sadly, as reported in the Cambridge Evening News, one of our patients (a medical student) committed suicide”

This demonstrates that no matter what achievements are made, or how intelligent a person with Aspergers is, or what or where on the autistic spectrum a person with Aspergers is; people with Aspergers are at a heightened risk of suicide and are hugely vulnerable when under stress.

I fail to understand the deadlock caused by the TSol/CMO’s bizarre and inexplicable insistence on appointing a “general” psychiatrist, unqualified to form a view, to re-assess Gary for suicide risk. The National Autistic Society have twice written to the Home Office in this regard, to say that it is essential that Gary should be re-assessed for depression/suicide risk only by a psychiatrist with the appropriate expertise in Asperger’s Syndrome/autism. (See extract from article below)

Unfortunately however, ignorance still abounds even among many in the “general” medical profession, in relation to Asperger’s Syndrome.

In an article by the esteemed Professor Digby Tantam he says:

However, as mentioned by Howlin (1997), "the inability of people with autism to communicate feelings of disturbance, anxiety or distress can also mean that it is often very difficult to diagnose depressive or anxiety states, particularly for clinicians who have little knowledge or understanding of developmental disorders". Similarly, because of their impairment in non-verbal expression, they may not appear to be depressed (Tantam, 1991). Link to Full article below:

http://forum.stirpes.net/psychology-sociology-philosophy/495-asperger-syndrome-5.html

In the High Court On the 23rd January 2009 Lord Justice Maurice Kay in his Judgment ruled that Gary having Aspergers Syndrome was unequivocal.

Knowing the facts: Please urge David Cameron, Theresa May and Nick Clegg to have the strength to maintain our sovereignty and to prevent this injustice by telling America “No!”

This is a Litmus Test for the Coalition Government.

Gary after all is not trying to avoid prosecution, he merely wants to be tried in the U.K.

Gary does not deserve either a real or a virtual death sentence for an alleged crime that then carried two years maximum in the U.K, was not extraditable and which the CPS/High Tech Crime Unit told Gary would attract 6 months community service in his case. The head of the High Tech Crime Unit that arrested Gary recently said in an interview that Gary should and still could be tried here in the U.K.

Gary’s alleged crime was committed entirely in the UK, the physical evidence was in the UK in the form of Gary’s hard drive until it was illegally sent to America in 2002 prior to the 2003 extradition treaty even being signed. It was not an extraditable offence without the unproven damage claim that Gary has always denied and was, in truth, naivety driven by Autistic obsession and ignorance of consequence.

In court Lord Justice Burnton conceded that other British Hackers who have appeared before British courts had committed significantly more serious crimes than Gary. CPS disclosure to the court showed that the U.S had given the CPS not one shred of evidence of the alleged damage/financial damage that would have made the crime an extraditable one and had in fact provided only hearsay and inadmissible evidence.

Gary’s first long police interview was conducted without a lawyer, as because of Gary’s Aspergers he did NOT realize that he needed a lawyer. In Gary’s second police interview many months later, the lawyer in attendance had written in his notes afterwards, words to the effect that... Gary was not right in the head. This speaks volumes. Intelligence is a criteria for Aspergers. Gary is intelligent but is naive to the core and although outwardly articulate, Gary is undoubtedly immature.

This case is a travesty of Justice and against any Human Rights and Disability Rights and extradition must surely be ruled against.

On the Ninth March 2011, Gary’s alleged crime will be Ten years old. Gary has served a nine year sentence of mental torture, a sentence more severe than that usually served by even rapists and murderers.

The US waited three and a half years before requesting extradition by which time the new UK/US extradition treaty was in use and evidence was no longer required to prove the damage necessary to make Gary’s offence an extraditable one. The damage that incidentally Gary has always denied.

As Gary's case draws closer to the end; the deterioration in his mental health is increasing significantly, as the mental torture is becoming intolerable. He has already lost nine years of his life.

Gary does not deserve to be driven to suicide, or to suffer irreversible damage to his mental health, or to face the prospect of ending his life in a foreign prison or dying in a mental institution as my grandmother did.

Gary does not deserve either a real or a virtual death sentence.

I do not deserve to lose my only child.

Please Help Me

Yours Sincerely

Janis Sharp (Gary McKinnon’s Mum)

David Cameron - “It should still mean something to be a British citizen - with the full protection of the British Parliament, rather than a British Government trying to send you off to a foreign court” ....(July 2009)

Nick Clegg - "If he boards the plane to the U.S., it is almost certain he will never set foot on British soil again, doomed to pass out the rest of his days in shackles on a foreign shore. This is nothing short of a disgrace” ....(August 2009)

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