18 months ago, I was forced to retract a story on this site. That hurt; I am well known for careful research. I hadn’t written the story myself, Andrew Withers had done that, and within hours I received e-mails which left me in no doubt that the story was manifestly untrue.

Obviously I contacted Andrew and explained the situation. He gave me a version of events which I accepted as being truthful, and I published a retraction which exonerated Andrew in as far as that was possible. Unfortunately for Andrew, the subject of that story, Brian Howes, had recorded his conversation with Andrew, and retaliated by putting that recording on line, thus incontrovertibly proving Withers to be a liar. Withers responded, not by admitting his guilt, but by attempting to bludgeon Brian with the full force of the law in an effort to get the recording removed, contravention of the Communications Act, if I remember correctly. It didn’t work, the recording is still there to this day.

As the owner of this site, I then became a full target for Brian Howes’s undoubted ability to wage cyber warfare. Middlesbrough Council had had to take out an injunction to deal with his displeasure at their publishing information they held on him. I just had to deal with a stream of foul e-mails.

The gist of the problem was that whereas Brian Howes wished to elicit support and sympathy for his position as an ‘honest businessman, running a legitimate chemical business’ who was on the wrong end of the disastrous decision by David Blunkett to sign the Extradition Treaty with the USA, the truth of the situation was a good deal more complicated than that. The chemicals which Brian was supplying are common components of ‘Crystal Meths’, a fact which a cursory delve into his history whilst in the USA would reveal to be unlikely to be unknown to him. The fact that he found it necessary to keep handguns in his house in Scotland also suggests that, let us say, he had some unusual customers, who required unusual methods to keep in an orderly queue.

Like Julian Assange, Brian Howes had used every legal trick in the book to avoid extradition. He has been on hunger strike, he has enlisted the help of the Roman Catholic church, he has run a high profile internet campaign professing his innocence – and all the time, he has concealed some information which somewhat changes the picture.

Three days ago, the Supreme Court heard the last of his appeals – Brian is Father to six children, and by some complicated legal manoeuvres, he was attempting to avoid extradition on the grounds that his children had ‘the right to a family life’. In plain English, that he was such a good and devoted Father, that his children should be allowed to retain him as a physical presence in their lives. The Supreme Court made mincemeat of that argument in a remarkable judgment. I do not propose to link to it here, for sound reasons, which I will explain. Those children are entitled to privacy, the Supreme Court judgment reveals some distressing details of quite what a ‘good Father’ Brian has been to them. I would ask that you resist the temptation to jump up and down in the comments going ‘Please Miss, I’ve got a link to that’…

Regular readers of this site are all ready well aware of the truth of the situation – however, this morning, the Scottish Sun has published a carefully worded story which will come as an unwelcome surprise to Brian Howes.

On Tuesday morning, he was one of the ‘hard men’ of Barlinnie Jail in Glasgow. They won’t have fallen for the ‘respectable business man who had no idea of what he was supplying under plain cover all over the world’ – they know a drug dealer and gun carrier when they see one, and he would have had a certain amount of respect for the way he had been cocking a snook at the law and avoiding extradition to face charges.

Unfortunately, his legal manoeuvring has resulted in the truth coming out – and, oh, dear, Barlinnie Jail will prove to be an uncomfortable place to face up to life as a publicly identified ‘Nonce’ in prison parlance. Doesn’t carry the same cachet at all.

Brian Howes will be extradited to the US, and as part of that process, he will be answering the warrant for his arrest on paedophilia convictions in Arizona, and thus will very probably shortly be wearing the humiliating pink underpants as ordained by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County Jail, Arizona, reputably America’s toughest jail.

I still don’t agree with the one sided Extradition Treaty, as with the European Arrest Warrant, it is deeply flawed; on this occasion though, it is resulting in justice for a young girl who has waited 20 years to see that justice, and I wish her well this morning; she has been remarkably patient and understanding as to why I had to remove so many of her comments on this site. Not something I like doing, but it was for honourable reasons, I didn’t want to affect any forthcoming prosecution.

I am also cheered to know that at least one of the people who has caused me so much hassle behind the scenes has met his Karma.

I’d give the shower a miss tonight, if I were you, Brian.

Cheers,

Anna

Surreptitious
Evil June 24, 2012 at 09:06

Red phos and iodine? Bloody hell. Well, okay, iodine is fairly reasonable
stuff. But red phos? And hydrochloric acid & lye? Damn, making this is
about as safe as gold mining …

Still, I’ve got plenty of pseudoephidrine around.

Robert Edwards
June 24, 2012 at 08:33

That’s not Karma, that is Nemesis.

Well, boo-hoo. I recall a vignette; A fierce and lovely black lady judge in
America saying, almost under her breath, after sending down some utter pervert
for a most appalling kiddy-fiddling crime:
“Plenty of sex where you are
going, buddy…”

john malpas June 24, 2012 at 02:04

So the righteous say he should get what is coming – rape etc because he
violated children.
And of course this is the crime de jour. With all the UK
indoctrinated about it.
But one day the crime de jour might be racism ,
islamaphobia ot who knows what. And you will get the same short shrift.
Too
late to cry then. You have no regard for the law now – and so it will be in
the future.

Amelia Durrant
June 23, 2012 at 19:24

The man in question is certainly not the kind of human being I would offer
any sympathy toward, even if he was raped, battered or even murdered whilst
incarcerated. This may sound harsh, and many will say two wrongs don’t make a
right, but did those children get any choice or sympathy form him before being
allegedly abused? I think not. Reading the various information about him that
is freely available through investigative online research and seeing the way
that he has destroyed the lives of innocent people who have dared to cross his
path, this man deserves everything coming his way.
Amelia

permanentexpat
June 23, 2012 at 18:51

“Thomas Hall June 23, 2012 at 14:23
While I am pleased that unpleasant
people do sometimes see justice- I would have hoped that the commentators here
could have avoided expressing the desire for someone to get raped. The fact
that the state allows such behaviour to go on inside an environment controlled
by it so tightly, is shocking.

Reply

8 JuliaM June 23, 2012 at 14:45
‘Allow’ it to go on? Do they ‘allow’
murders, punishment beatings & suicides, too?”

So, two wrongs make a right, Julia? For many reasons, not least design,
innocent people are also sent to prison. That they find themselves there is
bad enough…but to be tortured, for that is what it is, while lawmakers
complaisantly look on is hardly the hallmark of a civilized society.

JuliaM June 23,
2012 at 19:37

You misunderstand, as did Hall. It isn’t allowed. But (without breaching
their ‘uman rights by imposing solitary confinement or 24/7/365
surveillance) how can the authorities reasonablly stop it?

God may see the sparrow fall, but the 2012 equivalent of Mr Barrowclough
and Mr McKay can’t….

Woman on
a Raft June 24, 2012 at 00:08

If he winds up in the tightly controlled Arizona system he may yet be
better-off than in our own systems, assuming the Louis Theroux documentary
was roughly accurate.

The main reason I’m not losing any sleep is that the extradition system
worked correctly and was reviewed before he was handed over and – from
what I gather – the US never really wanted the dimbo wife and would have
settled for him at the beginning. It was his obstinacy and determination
to play the pussy card to protect himself which has led to her being in a
worse mess than ever.

Mind you, she is incredibly thick. His MO is to batten on to a stupid
one, a woman with a certain insecurity, and then exploit that to the full.
It’s a very old scam; it is the one which Mr Murdstone uses in David
Copperfield. Modern scammers still use it.

JuliaM June
24, 2012 at 07:16

Not unlike the MO of a certain recent newsworthy scumbag, for whose
‘victim’ we should, it seems, have compassion.

I’ve tried. I can’t quite manage it.

GildasTheMonk
June 23, 2012 at 14:56

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Pompey Cowboy
June 23, 2012 at 18:39

I hope your not suggesting his Human Rights should be abused

Thomas Hall June 23, 2012 at 14:23

While I am pleased that unpleasant people do sometimes see justice- I would
have hoped that the commentators here could have avoided expressing the desire
for someone to get raped. The fact that the state allows such behaviour to go
on inside an environment controlled by it so tightly, is shocking.

JuliaM June 23,
2012 at 14:45

‘Allow’ it to go on? Do they ‘allow’ murders, punishment beatings &
suicides, too?

Thomas Hall
June 23, 2012 at 19:12

That’s also part of it- any violence inflicted by prisoners against
other (weaker) prisoners. If the State removes your liberty as punishment
for a crime, should the punishment also include satisfying the sadistic
violence of other prisoners? While I would agree that many would have
little sympathy, this is an area that a supposedly civilized country fails
dismally on- we don’t allow the baying crowd to sentence people (we have a
system with judges/juries etc.), why do we allow control to go out the
window once incarcerated.

Frankie
June 23, 2012 at 21:54

I consider myself to have a tolerant, liberal turn of mind, as, I am
sure have the majority of the readers here but… Any of my finer feelings
go out of the window when I contemplate the fate of a man who has
committed, apparently, a heinous crime against a child. Convicted
paedophiles deserve the rope and whatever awful situation this man now
finds himself in, he is the author of his own misfortunes.

Mark (the one in
Mayenne) June 24, 2012 at 10:06

Agreed. Julia seems to be arguing that two wrongs make a right. I
have no idea why I should not be able to rape some passing stranger who
happens across my path in daily life, but this seems to be permitted if
we both happen to be incarcerated.

I confidently predict a ruling on this matter from the ECHR, who, if
they can decide that prisoners have a “human right” to vote, they
probably have the same right not to get raped.

And by the by, the knowledge of what goes on in prisons is making
juries reluctant to convict, a fact that I think Julia has commented on
in the past. A jail term should be the removal of freedom, not a
condemnation to be raped.

Mark (the one in
Mayenne) June 24, 2012 at 10:06

n.b. agree with Thomas Hall

JuliaM June 23,
2012 at 13:57

You’re clearly a much nicer lady than I – right now, I’d be humming
contentedly, while I carved the words ‘Do not drop!’ into a large bar of soap,
Barlinnie-addressed jiffy bag on the table next to me…

Frankie June 23, 2012 at 15:19

Or, simply posting this creature some ‘soap on a rope’…

Woman on a
Raft June 23, 2012 at 12:12

Time now to ask some very hard questions of Cardinal Keith O’Brien because
going by the comments, if he had access to the family he should have been able
to sniff the rat. Howes took a chance in his campaign; he spoke to people who
were initially sympathetic on the extradition issue. This usually works for
narcissists so long as people can’t compare versions but if they can, they can
spot the inconsistencies and pick up on the hostility when details are
challenged.

There are other commenters out there who did spot his manipulative nature
early on – so why didn’t the Cardinal?

Anna
Raccoon June 23, 2012 at 12:15

And why did it take the Scottish Sun so long to print the unpalatable
truth? At least the Mail withdrew their piece when directed to the evidence.
The Sun was still playing to the gallery I guess.

Surreptitious Evil June 24, 2012 at 08:59

Errm, the Catholic Church? Spotting a nonce? They probably did but
couldn’t ordain him because he is married …

abrupt June 23, 2012 at 11:25

Cold porridge, one of the world’s most delicious foods.

Pompey Cowboy
June 23, 2012 at 11:04

I’m sure he will enjoy meeting some of the end users of his buiness
enterprise. Banged up , awaiting trial with a load of drug addicts.
Any
chance we could extradite Chris Huhne?