Scandalous!
Not the Mail’s verdict, but a judge’s fury over the crazy human rights laws that have allowed this ‘ baby smuggler’ to beat extradition for a decade
THE decade-long human rights battle to extradite a man calling himself the ‘Archbishop of Peckham’ to Kenya was described as ‘scandalous’ by a judge yesterday.
Gilbert Deya, 65, has been on the brink of being sent back to East Africa several times to stand trial for allegedly stealing five children.
But aided by human rights laws, the Kenyan self-proclaimed ‘miracle worker’ has repeatedly come up with new ways to prevent his return.
These have included claims that he could face the death sentence, allegations that inmates are tortured in Kenyan prisons, and a host of other arguments that have ground the extradition process almost to a halt. All have been rejected by the courts.
At one stage, former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Lord Ramsbotham was asked by Theresa May, the then Home Secretary, to examine conditions at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison in Kenya where Deya would be held on remand.
After flying 4,500 miles to East Africa in 2013, the peer found nothing wrong.
Yesterday, however, Deya’s delayed extradition prompted an extraordinary outburst from one of the judges involved in the latest hearing at the High Court in London.
In a single paragraph comment at the end of a 7,000-word ruling by fellow judge Sir Kenneth Parker, Lord Justice Gross called on the SSHD, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to get a firm grip on such cases and pledged the assistance of the court. He said: ‘The delay in this matter is truly alarming. The claimant was initially arrested in December 2006.
‘It is little short of scandalous that the proceedings have taken until now to resolve. It is essential that cases such as this are firmly “gripped” by the SSHD to guard against incremental and massive slippage of this nature.
‘The Court will be more than willing to play its part.’
In all, Deya’s marathon extradition case has been overseen by five home secretaries – Labour’s John Reid, Jacqui Smith and Alan Johnson, along with the Tories’ Theresa May and Amber Rudd.
Deya has claimed he would be ‘ subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment by reason of the prison conditions in which he would be detained whilst on remand and, if convicted, after sentence’. In particular he objected to conditions at Kamiti.
However, the High Court in London said the prison was one of the
‘It is little short of scandalous’
best in Kenya. In an extraordinary move, Mrs May sent Lord Ramsbotham to Kenya to investigate conditions following a string of claims of abuse and torture made by Deya’s lawyers. In November 2013, the peer reported from the high security wing of the Nairobi prison.
He said: ‘The atmosphere in this compound was very relaxed, and, amongst others, I spoke with an elderly American Bishop, who had been imprisoned there for a year and was still awaiting trial.
‘He told me that he had no complaints, was able to see his lawyer, received visits from the American embassy, and felt safe and secure.
He said Deya’s only problem if held there would be a ‘lack of access to work’, although he ‘would have access to education’.
Lord Ramsbotham added: ‘I can see no reason why Mr Deya should not be extradited, as soon as possible, to stand trial.’
Deya runs the Gilbert Deya Ministries, which is said to have a British membership of 36,000 and several churches in the UK, and claims he can give infertile couples ‘miracle babies’.
The website of the Gilbert Deya Ministries shows him wearing a suit as he meets the Queen and Prince Philip, although no details are given of the reason why he was being introduced to them, or when the meeting took place.
Last year, it emerged that Deya was selling £1.99 bottles of olive oil from Aldi, passing it off as a miracle cure for cancer and HIV.
He claimed the ‘power of God’ helped to give the oil ‘magical properties’.
He is wanted in Kenya after being accused of involvement in a baby- smuggling operation at Pumwani Maternity Hospital in a Nairobi slum.
Prosecutors claim he was planning to use stolen babies to trick desperate infertile women who had paid him thousands of pounds into thinking they had given birth to ‘miracle’ children.
More than 50 women in Kenyan slums have claimed their own babies were stolen.
The former security guard denies the allegations and claims