Most of us cannot even imagine what she must have suffered, and many simply cannot bear to hear what she went through, let alone worry about the financial benefits she now enjoys for the directors and shareholders of Sodexo Private Prisons.
For those of you who don't know Melanie Shaw, she is an incredibly brave woman. She was raped and abused by a family member from the age of 3 or 4, then placed in the “care” of foster parents who were also abusive. She was then placed in Beechwood children's home in Nottingham where she was abused until she was finally allowed to leave. With no help to find work she turned to drugs and a life on the streets.
Most of us cannot even imagine what she must have suffered, and many simply cannot bear to hear what she went through, let alone worry about the financial benefits she now enjoys for the directors and shareholders of Sodexo Private Prisons.
But one kind man took Melanie in, cared for her, gave her a nice home and fathered a child she loved. With a stable home and stronger with time, Melanie then found the courage to speak out about the abuse she and many other children at Beechwood Children's Home in Nottingham had suffered. The local police took her story seriously and launched Operation Daybreak. The police soon admitted that up to 150 children may have been victimised. Many other children's homes were also involved.
Instead of being protected, nurtured and praised, Melanie Shaw was quickly returned to prison. Nottingham police had apparently lost their nerve after discovering that she had lied in her witness interviews. Charged with arson and criminal damage, Melanie was ordered to carry out three years' community service and declared mentally disabled. Her real sentence was to begin when she returned home. Exhausted and distraught, suffering from post-traumatic stress from her history of abuse, she received no help from Nottingham Social Services or mental health services. However, it is worth noting that Nottingham Social Services was remarkably effective in “protecting” her son after he was charged with arson.
With no access to financial support other than the generous support of UKColumn readers and members of the public, Melanie has been subjected to repeated harassment from the police. From threatening phone calls, to being chased in a police car in public, to being entered into her home by heavy-duty officers clad in black, to being arrested for visiting her bank, Melanie has been brutalised by the public service that claims to be there to protect her.
The stress took its toll on her and she became irritable, but you'd think she would. Her unpredictable behaviour allowed Nottingham police and the Crown Prosecution Service to fabricate further charges – two counts of false imprisonment of a paramedic and breaching the Communications Act – as well as a further charge of breaching the terms of her probation, which was later dropped.
After a secret court hearing, Melanie was returned to Peterborough Prison where she was repeatedly denied legal representation by reliable and competent general counsel. Instead, she was forced by the judge to use VHS Fletchers Law Firm, the very firm that Melanie had fired in her first trial for poor performance and incompetent staff. Melanie is incarcerated in Sodexo Prison which previously denied her medical treatment, forced her into solitary confinement, bullied her, denied her basic human rights and is now prevented from receiving calls or letters from people who can help her. She is due to appear in court on 8 May 2015 for a “visitation request”. Her next hearing is a case management hearing on 18 May.
In the meantime, and as Sodex profits grow, we must never forget Melanie Shaw or the cruel treatment she received at the hands of the British government. Why? Because when there is no justice and no law, any one of us could be next.
