Let our Charlie die at home
Stephen’s racist killer gets legal aid to sue over jail attack.. Charlie’s parents get nothing for their fight to save him
THE parents of terminally ill baby Charlie Gard will today find out if he will be allowed to die at home. Mum Connie Yates returned to court
ONE of Stephen Lawrence’s racist murderers has been granted legal aid to sue the Government for £10,000.
David Norris, 40, wants compensation for being beaten up in jail – and will have his legal costs met by the state.
The revelation that he had been given legal aid sparked fury yesterday. With defence and court costs included, the case could leave the state with a total bill of £70,000.
And it stands in stark contrast to the legal aid authorities’ refusal to help the parents of tragic baby Charlie Gard.
The judge in the Gard case last month questioned why Chris Gard and Connie Yates did not have legal aid.
Mr Justice Francis said: “It does seem to me Parliament cannot have intended that parents in the position these parents have been in should have no access to legal advice or representation.
“I can think of few more profound cases than ones where a hospital trust is applying for a declaration that a life-support machine should be switched off in respect of a child.
“Mercifully, Mr Gard and Ms Yates have secured the services of a highly qualified and experienced legal team whose lawyers have been willing to give their services pro bono.
“I am aware there are many parents around the country in similar positions where their cases have been less public and where they have had to struggle to represent themselves.”
Labour’s Seema Malhotra, the Gards’ MP, said last night: “The heartbreaking case of Charlie Gard highlights why it’s wrong for parents facing this situation to not have access to legal support or for there to be so much uncertainty.
“The truth is that the Tories have made a shocking mess of legal aid and this now needs an urgent review.”
Victims’ rights campaigner Harry Fletcher said: “It’s disgraceful that many domestic violence victims do not qualify for legal aid whereas a convicted murderer qualifies for it. It is grossly unfair.”
The disclosure that Norris has qualified for legal aid came during a hearing at Central London County Court yesterday.
Gwawr Thomas, representing Norris, said: “The claimant is now legally aided.”
Norris – the son of a London drug trafficker – claims the Department of Justice failed in their duty to protect him from an assault at Belmarsh prison.
The Government say he was at fault for “intemperate words and behaviour” and acting in a “confrontational and risky” manner.
He alleges he was set upon in his cell by three black inmates armed with a knife and a sock filled with tins.
The prisoners were never charged and the MoJ say he must prove the attack took place and the identity of his assailants.
Norris claims Leon Fyle, 28, convicted of strangling a transgender prostitute, was among the attackers who set upon him in February 2011.
The thug had been issued with an Osman warning – a legal alert that his life was under threat – eight days after he was arrested for Stephen’s murder in September 2010.
Norris and a gang of pals ambushed and murdered Stephen, 18, at a London bus stop in 1993.
He claims prison officials left him vulnerable by moving him to a section with a “large number of black inmates with propensity towards violence”.
Parliament cannot have intended that parents like these have no legal advice JUDGE