Brendan Lillis

[Nally Stand]

For anyone unaware of the story, the above photo is of former republican prisoner Brendan Lillis, who is currently in Maghaberry Prison. Lillis was sentenced to life in prison in 1977 on explosives charges but was released on licence in 1993. In 2009, he was arrested in relation to a separate charge. Around this time, he took sick with a severe bone debility illness and was deemed unfit to even stand trial for these charges. Despite this, his release licence from his 1977 life sentence was revoked on the basis of his alleged 2009 crime and he was thrown back in jail. Since then his condition has deteriorated drastically.

Writting in yesterdays Irish News after a visit with Lillis, Irish News reporter Allison Morris remarked that "pictures have been released in recent weeks showing him in an emaciated state...the reality is much more shocking." She describes his current condition by saying:
- "From the waist down Lillis's legs are withered and wasted, his thighs and calves completely emanciated, like those of a long-term coma victim.'"
- He has the body mas index of a 10/12 year old boy
- He cannot hold down more than a few spoonfuls of creamed rice per day
- His eyesight is failing and he cannot cope with direct sunlight
- He has been unfit to be showered/bathed in over a year
- He has been lying in the same position in his bed for several months as he is in too much pain to move
- Due to the level of his pain when moving him, his bedsheets can only be changed infrequently and are often soiled in between times
- His stomach has swollen out with gas
- His spine has fused


Six county justice minister David Forde has today decided that Brenda Lillis should not be released on compassionate or humanitarian grounds as he still poses a threat to the public
and that he would have to serve the rest of his original life sentence at Maghaberry Prison. How can a man who cannot move, barely eat, barely speak and cannot even see direct sunlight, and who will likely die in prison, be a danger to the public?

[nrico2006]

I don't think that being a danger or posing a threat to the public should be the main factor behind an individuals incarceration or release.  People should be punished for their crimes, and the like of Tracy Andrews getting out last week sickened me - but thats off-topic.

I heard about Lillis last week and initially thought that it was sad that he was in a bad way but I also believed that if he did commit the crime he should do the time.  People who have been released on licence and who then commit a crime deserve to go back in for the full duration of their original sentence, how many chances do they want.  It was only when I started thinking of Forde's words this morning that I actually got really annoyed as I was just looking at the facts of the case and Lillis actually has not been convicted of anything in relation to the robbery so how the hell do they have the right to stick him back in jail in the first place until he is proven guilty in a court of law.  I immediately thought of Torrens Knight and how he has been convicted of another violent crime while on release yet is currently a free man - I would love someone to directly put the question to Forde over how justifies the release of a mass murderer who has been convicted of a violent crime while on release yet sees fit to imprison a sick man who has actually not been convicted of anything since being released on licence.

[Nally Stand]

Well this is the thing, he served sixteen years of his previous sentence and as you say, since then has not been convicted of anything. I don't understand the rational behind saying a man is too ill to stand trial, but is somehow still well enough to pose a threat to the public despite being unable to even move.

Ford has refused to even visit Lillis in hospital to see for himself the condition of the man. He condescendingly stated today "I am not a physician. I'm not psychiatrist....It is not my job to run around the country pretending to be a doctor." He says he came to his conclusion that Lillis should not be released based on advice of his staff etc. Surely, if he showed enough interest/compassion to as much as visit Lillis for himself, he would not need to be a doctor or a physician to come to the conclusion that this gravely ill man presents zero threat to anybody.

[deiseach]

Maybe he's faking it?

- "From the waist down Lillis's legs are withered and wasted, his thighs and calves completely emanciated, like those of a long-term coma victim.'"
- He has the body mas index of a 10/12 year old boy
- He cannot hold down more than a few spoonfuls of creamed rice per day
- His eyesight is failing and he cannot cope with direct sunlight
- He has been unfit to be showered/bathed in over a year
- He has been lying in the same position in his bed for several months as he is in too much pain to move
- Due to the level of his pain when moving him, his bedsheets can only be changed infrequently and are often soiled in between times
- His stomach has swollen out with gas
- His spine has fused

[Minder]

I know a few people that would know quite a lot about the Lillis family, and lets just say jail is the best place for him.

[Nally Stand]

Considering he can barely speak, eat, move or see daylight, what danger might he pose that could possibly justify a claim that jail is the best place for him?

[Bud Wiser]

Well that you can be released for blowing up a plane over Lockerbie along with everyone on it by the same justice system one would have to assume that his spine was not the only thing that was fused when he had the chance. Did he want to be part of the Good Friday Agreement?

[Nally Stand]

He served 16 years and was then granted early release under the Good Friday Agreement. He is now back in jail after almost twenty years of freedom without any conviction to base it on. He is critically ill and is unfit/in too much pain to even move. On humanitarian grounds he should be released. The GFA would have provision for his imprisonment if he were indeed a danger to the public but quite clearly he is about as dangerous to the public lying prostrate in his own bed at home or in a hospital as he is doing so in a prison. The doctor who accompanied the family and the reporter said that his condition cannot be effectively dealt with in prison. He should not be denied the proper treatment which cannot be afforded him in a prison hospital cell.

[JUst retired]

Is David Ford the new Maggie Thatcher? The prisoner should be released on medical grounds.
People who have commited worse crimes have been released and left free.

[Maguire01]

He served 16 years and was then granted early release under the Good Friday Agreement. He is now back in jail after almost twenty years of freedom without any conviction to base it on. He is critically ill and is unfit/in too much pain to even move. On humanitarian grounds he should be released. The GFA would have provision for his imprisonment if he were indeed a danger to the public but quite clearly he is about as dangerous to the public lying prostrate in his own bed at home or in a hospital as he is doing so in a prison. The doctor who accompanied the family and the reporter said that his condition cannot be effectively dealt with in prison. He should not be denied the proper treatment which cannot be afforded him in a prison hospital cell.

Small point, but he was released in 1993 - nothing to do with the GFA.

[Maguire01]

Ford has refused to even visit Lillis in hospital to see for himself the condition of the man. He condescendingly stated today "I am not a physician. I'm not psychiatrist....It is not my job to run around the country pretending to be a doctor." He says he came to his conclusion that Lillis should not be released based on advice of his staff etc. Surely, if he showed enough interest/compassion to as much as visit Lillis for himself, he would not need to be a doctor or a physician to come to the conclusion that this gravely ill man presents zero threat to anybody.

To be honest here, if Ford ignored the advise of doctors in other cases, coming to his own conclusion that people are fit enough to stay in prison contrary to the opinion of doctors, there'd be uproar.

For the record, I find it difficult to buy this 'danger to the public' argument. But I think any campaign to have him released should be based on the fact that he's in there without a fair trial. Lots of people in prison are sick, but if you're in there having been convicted, it's a different scenario altogether.

[Bud Wiser]

Ford must be in the pocket of the likes of Trevor Collins who started the petition to get Torrens Knight released. I'd find it hard to believe that anyone in the world could be as bad as that ould Thatcher cnut but Ford seems to be heading in the same direction.  I just read the CV of Knight on Wikipedia there and if he can be released,  and the Lockerbie bomber, then then there is an anti-nationalist agenda that might mean that Ford will only be happy when there are rubber bullets back on the streets, which is where Maggie got her kicks from.

[Nally Stand]

Ford has refused to even visit Lillis in hospital to see for himself the condition of the man. He condescendingly stated today "I am not a physician. I'm not psychiatrist....It is not my job to run around the country pretending to be a doctor." He says he came to his conclusion that Lillis should not be released based on advice of his staff etc. Surely, if he showed enough interest/compassion to as much as visit Lillis for himself, he would not need to be a doctor or a physician to come to the conclusion that this gravely ill man presents zero threat to anybody.

To be honest here, if Ford ignored the advise of doctors in other cases, coming to his own conclusion that people are fit enough to stay in prison contrary to the opinion of doctors, there'd be uproar.

For the record, I find it difficult to buy this 'danger to the public' argument. But I think any campaign to have him released should be based on the fact that he's in there without a fair trial. Lots of people in prison are sick, but if you're in there having been convicted, it's a different scenario altogether.

Of course but as I say, a ten year old would know that Brendan Lillis is not in a fit state to be in prison, let alone be a danger to society outside of it. It's worth mentioning that Ford is basing his views on what prison doctors are telling him and totally ignoring the views of other independent doctors from outside the prison, including the one who accompanied Allison Morris on her visit who said the man is too sick to be in a prison. It is only to be expected that Ford would listen to the prison doctors first but I think, in the context of the heartbreaking news he was dealing the Lillis family yesterday, his statement "I am not a physician. I'm not psychiatrist....It is not my job to run around the country pretending to be a doctor" comes across as condescending, arrogant and dismissive. Just another failure in David Ford's tenure as justice minister.

[thejuice]

Even if he was proven guilty, he should be in a hospital if he was that sick.

So who will be held responsible if Mr Lillis passes away in prison. Will there be charges of negligence.

[Minder]

The cynic in me would think that Lillis had no interest in going to trial for the kidnapping charge, as from what i remember he was caught red handed, the peelers followed his car from West Belfast and scooped him from behind the house in question, maybe they were orienteering or sightseeing, i don't know. He was facing another long jail term. Perhaps his plan was to "get sick" and get released on compassionate grounds, only a prison quack is a lot harder to fool than your local quack that is filling in your DLA forms.

I would bet what little money i have that if he was released he would live for another 20 years and perhaps even make a "miraculous recovery", and find time to take up his hobbies again, like tiger kidnapping and general criminality.

As regards David Fords competence or otherwise, SF and DUP put him there, so suck it up as they say.