I’m too thin to go on hunger strike again
Pastor cancels fresh protest against jail sentencing
A CLERGYMAN who planned to do a second hunger strike to prompt debate about ‘unfair’ prison sentencing has backed out because he is not strong enough.
Rev David Syms, 57, had gone on a hunger strike in March to protest after businessman Paul Begley was jailed for six years for evading tax on Chinese garlic.
Begley, 46, of Redgap in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin, failed to pay €1.6million duty on more than 1,000 tonnes of garlic. Mr Syms said that the sentence was too long so he spent three weeks fasting as a protest.
The preacher survived on multivitamins and three cups of tea per day.
Earlier this month, Mr Syms announced he planned to carry out another hunger strike after criticising the ‘unjust’ and lenient sentencing of 51-year-old businessman Anthony Lyons.
Lyons, of Griffith Avenue, Dublin, was jailed for just six months after sexually assaulting a young woman in October 2010. Lyons is to be freed in time for Christmas.
Mr Syms said he felt he would be unable to go through with his protest this time.
He said: ‘I went to see my doctor and he said it was unsafe for me to do; that I had lost too much weight.’
The pastor, who preaches at the Six Principles Baptist Church in Baltimore, Co. Cork, said he had gone from 14 stone to only 11 stone after his last hunger strike. He said: ‘I should have gone for a check-up before I announced I was to do the hunger strike, but what’s done is done.
‘I don’t want to let anyone down but I can’t help anyone else if my health is not fit for it.’
However, the pastor said he is not finished campaigning as he is hoping to carry out another protest next Lent.
He said: ‘Something has to be done about the unjust sentences being handed down in this country.’
Referring to reports yesterday about Mick Wallace TD escaping prosecution over a VAT bill, he said: ‘Mick Wallace
‘My doctor said it was unsafe’
has got off scot-free after under declaring €1.4million in tax.
‘I had admired that man and I felt he did a lot for his constituency in Wexford. But would I or most people get away with that?
‘I think he should have done the decent thing and step down from his seat. So, really there is a lot still to be done.’
Last month, garlic importer Begley was told his appeal case against his sixyear term ‘deserves priority’.
Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman, of the Court of Criminal Appeal, said Begley’s case deserved consideration at the earliest opportunity. He agreed to an application by lawyers for Begley to have his case at the top of the list when seeking a date for the appeal.
The judge said: ‘I think this case does call for priority. It appears to be a case where the maximum sentence was given on one count. And from what I gather it’s a first conviction and on a plea of guilty.’
But Begley’s case must also compete for an early date alongside a handful of others which have been allowed to jump to the top of the list too.
Any appeal will not be heard at the earliest until the next court term, which runs from October to December.
Without priority, the case could languish for a minimum of six to nine months before being heard, such is the volume of cases waiting to be heard by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Mr Syms said he was upset by the light sentence given to businessman Lyons who was given a six-year jail sentence with five-and-a-half months suspended.
In effect Lyons will serve six months in jail after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman.
Lyons had blamed the attack on a combination of cough medicine, alcohol and a cholesterol drug but a jury rejected his defence.
Lyons offered €75,000 compensation in a move that prompted the victim’s family to state that ‘money talks’.
The mother of the victim revealed after the case that her daughter made it clear in a letter to lawyers a month before the trial she did not want any compensation if it would shorten the sentence of Anthony Lyons.
At the time, Mr Syms criticised the leniency of the sentence.
He said: ‘I agree with the family – it is one rule for the wealthy, another for the poor in this country.’
The sentence had prompted his pledge to go on hunger strike again.
He said: ‘I have to go on hunger strike again because the sentencing in this country is completely unjust.
‘I am willing to take the consequences of my actions to highlight this wrongdoing.’
A day after Lyons was jailed last month, the victim’s angry father protested outside the millionaire’s gated home.