Right Cause – Wrong Man.
Four days ago, Andrew Withers 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 Andrew 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.
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January 22, 2011 at 15:03 -
Capital investigation, Anna, and, as you point out, a mention in dispatches for the Scottish editor of the Mail on Sunday for spiking the story.
The fight against a treaty that allows the citizens of any country to be extradited to any other in the absence of prima facie evidence must go on ; the campaign will be hindered, however, if abused by those praying it in aid for the purpose of merely avoiding justice. Those calling upon good citizens for help must be impeccable ; Mr.; Howes (despite the injunctions against him not a convict) might be innocent but his conduct, whilst not confirming guilt, is certainly not what one would expect of an innocent.
ΠΞ
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January 25, 2011 at 18:37 -
brian howes has never been innocent if the papers could publish te vile torture i went through no one in the right mind would defend him
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January 25, 2011 at 19:18 -
Jenna, although I quite understand your feelings in this matter, I have to tell you I am not — in what I have written — even attempting to pronounce him innocent ; we must, however, in France (where this ’blog is based), U.K., Arkansas and Texas (the places in which matters the subject of this discussion might come before the courts), observe rules relating to what is known as contempt of court.
Quite apart from penalties, both civil and criminal, that might be imposed on those publishing statements that defame others, there is a great danger that such publication will so prejudice any legal proceedings as to render the conviction of the guilty impossible, i.e. to defeat the judicial process altogether.
We are therefore bound to hedge everything we say about with expressions of doubt or reservation, recognizing that — what ever an accused’s victim inevitably thinks, indeed what ever might be the facts — till he be proven guilty of an offence, he is, in the eyes of the law, innocent.
ΠΞ
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January 25, 2011 at 19:39 -
he was proven guilty to what he did to me have the court papers here he just couldnt get tried as in jailed cause it happen in the states but he was to remain away from children so he moved were the law was diffrent and he still continues to get away with stuff if he gets extradited he will also face charges of child abuse thats the big issue why he does not wanna go back there hes a vile man that shudnt even be safe in public and distgust me how even people with kids are defending him would they be defending him if he sexualo abuse there children???
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January 25, 2011 at 22:01 -
It is my understanding, Jenna, that, as you yourself imply, he has yet to come to trial in the state of Arkansas ; as long as those proceedings are pending, what ever administrative steps might have been taken by courts and other authorities in Arkansas (and despite the findings of Judge Bryant, sitting in the Family Division of the English High Court, cited by Sheriff McColl in Edinburgh), anything said in the public domain prejudging their outcome might have the effect of rendering such proceedings impotent.
The only way in which Mr. Howes can be punished is for him to face due process : that is the whole purpose of the extradition.
I realize that the diplomatic note requesting extradition cites relatively minor offences against the U.S. Code, rather than the serious ones of which he stands accused in Arkansas, but you will, I hope, understand that, once he is in the United States by virtue of extradition and has been dealt with by the federal court, it will be possible for Arkansas to apply for his extradition to that state to face the more serious charges under its own penal code. In the meantime no-one, including any victim, should do anything to prejudice the legal proceedings.
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January 22, 2011 at 15:12 -
http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/doc1.html
[66] In relation to the evidence led I did not regard either of the respondents as credible or reliable witnesses.Says it all really doesn’t it Anna? Good for you scouring through these endless documents. A little praise must also be given to the Mail on Sunday for withdrawing their article once they were informed of their research.
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January 22, 2011 at 15:31 -
Typo sorry. Not their research but your research.
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January 22, 2011 at 15:12 -
Wow. I respect your integrity in investigating this, publishing the results and correcting the impressions that may have arisen from your original post. I don’t always agree with your opinions, but you have my admiration for this.
Why did not the Mail on Sunday, with all its resources, manage to uncover what you were able to as a more simply resourced blog?
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January 22, 2011 at 15:33 -
The support of the Archbishop/Cardinal. He’s not The Roman Catholic Church. I expect he had no idea.
Off to post this correction to my previous FB post …
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January 22, 2011 at 16:32 -
Nice job. Well done for your integrity for investigating and reporting what you found, no matter the cost in red faces (mine included)
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January 25, 2011 at 18:55 -
arnt you his brother?????
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January 22, 2011 at 17:26 -
Sorry. Can someone explain this to me in words of one syllable, please, because I am not sure what is going on, and I don’t want to mouth off before I understand.
However, I do believe that the Extradition Law needs looking at. Much too one sided for me.
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January 22, 2011 at 17:45 -
Despite the abuse findings, which turns him from (an innocent) victim into a loathsome person in my mind, the “meth chemical supplier” accusation is separate and should require evidence to be shown to a British court before and to justify extradition.
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January 25, 2011 at 18:34 -
he should of never got away with what he did to me to have even been able to do another crime
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January 23, 2011 at 10:37 -
I have just had to remove a comment by Mr Howes to this post. It is not my usual way to remove comments, and I certainly have not removed it because he disagrees with my post – which he does, surprise.
I have removed it because it potentially breaches criminal law and the police have become involved.
Shortly after this post was published I received an e-mail which contains the following ominous paragraph:In an attempt to move the spotlight away from his own background Howes turns the light towards the whistleblowers who have exposed the truth of his background. Howes does this by stalking his ‘victims’ online, seeking out and contacting their associates by email and telephone in order to gather information, uses multiple user names/profiles on various sites including Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, Myspace, Youtube (to name a few) and on his own website http://www.extradition.org.uk (hosted by WordPress) to post/spread fabricated ‘information’ in an attempt to discredit the individuals concerned. A search of his website will show his many attempts to discredit individuals formally have tried to help him. Howes is a self styled ‘character assassin’.
– for their own safety I do not intend to identify the sender of this e-mail.
It would appear that such a campaign has begun this morning, and regular readers will know that I am sick to the back teeth of threats, abuse and libellous statements emanating from Scotland from people who have connections however tenuous with paedophilia. This time the police have been involved from the very first shot across our bows.
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January 25, 2011 at 18:33 -
brian is a dangerous man always has been i read through my court papers and think he was proven to be a danger to children so why is he free to carry on i will not rest untill i know hes gone and no child is suffering like i did i have severe mental problems down to him which will never go away and he gets away with everything hes a very clever man andfinds a loop hole in everything i hope one day it comes to an end
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January 25, 2011 at 18:29 -
this is the first time ive seen this i was only enquiring to see how the case is going and yet agin my nam is published on the internet so i would like to say brian howes is an evil man he should of never been aloud to have kids i cant believe he goes on with his own life whilst i have suffred throughout knowing hes still in the world people have been excuted for what actions he had done to me and the sickening thing is i know hel be doing the same to others i wish someone would get my story and let the world know how dangerousehe is
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January 25, 2011 at 18:49 -
i would like to say thanks even though it brings memorys back when my name is mention that you have highlightes what else he has done in the past and that him trying to convince people hes innocent when in fact he has a lot in his past that hes hinding comes to light and what he did to me is not forgotten cause i will never forget reading this is like beng 6 all over agin and having a child myself now i could not amagine how a someone never mind a parent would hurt a child i hope he gets extradited cause i would follow and get him done for the crimes against me once andfor all and maybe i could have some rest knowing he not around to cause more hurt
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January 25, 2011 at 19:02 -
sorry keep reaingit and picking up on bits yes we moved about in america from police they kidnapped me from care and then over here i fight in court so it doesnt happen to anyone else and i won only for him to move and be alright with kids again i went through the stress and the torment of facing brian again for him once again to get away with it so are they saying you can abuse kids then move andits ok i dont think so be deiffrent if you murdered someone
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