Andrea calls out HMP Brixton governor

Mar 3, 2018 by

by Andrea Williams, Christian Concern:

I have been responsible for overseeing hundreds of Christian interest cases in recent years. Only a few are high profile. Pastor Song’s is one of them.

A common thread in such cases is the way in which the authorities, when exposed for their wrong doing, distort the facts (which often become ‘established facts’ on which unfair judgments are founded) and do not think twice about maligning a person of hitherto impeccable character and an amazing record of service.

This week we have seen the Governor of Brixton Prison, David Bamford, doing just that in his response to a letter I sent requesting a meeting with him following Pastor Paul Song’s removal from Brixton in August 2017 after 19 years serving as a volunteer Christian Chaplain.

Reading Governor Bamford’s response dated 26 February 2018, I could be forgiven for thinking that Pastor Song’s removal was both warranted and procedurally correct. Many others of you have written to Governor Bamford in similar terms and he has responded in the same way. Some of you have called our office asking whether we have set out the facts correctly. I am here to state, categorically, that we have.

In short, Governor Bamford’s response grossly misrepresents the facts, and is a clear attempt by the prison to cover up their ill-judged and unfair treatment of Pastor Song.

Governor Bamford claimed that a prison officer provided a witness statement affirming that Pastor Song called a prisoner a terrorist. Whether such a witness statement was written has never been established, despite numerous requests from the moment of Pastor Song’s removal. Repeated requests were made over many months by Pastor Song for the name of the alleged accuser and to see evidence from the prison, all to no avail. At no point has Pastor Song been provided with any way of conclusively establishing that an allegation was, in fact, made.

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