Hundreds attend rally in support of Derry prisoner and his family who have been barred from visiting him in Maghaberry Jail
Several hundred people attended a rally held in Derry tonight in support of local prisoner and his family who have been barred from visiting him in jail.
Tony Taylor is currently not allowed visitors from his family following an incident at Maghaberry Prison on Sunday last involving his wife, Lorraine, her severely disabled son, Blain, and a senior prison officer.
The police have confirmed they have received a complaint about the incident.
Speaking at tonight’s rally, Mrs Taylor hit out at what she claimed was the ill-treatment her husband and other inmates were receiving at the hands of prison officers.
She also condemned her husband’s continued detention.
She said: “These people have taken my husband. He has nothing to answer for, nothing! – now they have barred me and my disabled son.
“Something has to be done - people have to come on board and say ‘enough is enough.’
“I have done nothing wrong. Is it against the law to rear my children? because that is all I am trying to do.”
Well-known local community worker, Tommy McCourt, also spoke at the rally.
He said: “We are moving back to the days of the H-Blocks, back to the days to when prisoners sat for years without family visits.
“If the people of this city do not stand up against this, they are going to be facing a lot more of it and we have a history of not letting that happen - and I can assure you there are still enough of us around who will not let that happen.”
Tonight’s protest was organised by the Free Tony Taylor Campaign group in opposition to the decision by the prison administration to suspend the Derry man’s family visits.
He has been in jail since March this year following the revoking of his licence by then Secretary of State Theresa Villiers. At the time, the Northern Ireland Office said his licence was revoked by the Parole Commission because of the risk he posed to the public.
Mr Taylor was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 1994 after he was seriously injured in a premature explosion in Derry.
He was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.
In 2011 he was sentenced to three years in jail for possession of a rifle. He was released in 2014.
In a statement tonight, a spokesperson for the campaign group described his imprisonment as “internment without trial in all but name.”
The spokesperson added: “We would further add that the treatment of Tony Taylor not only flies in the face of natural justice, but makes a mockery of the promises underpinned in the Good Friday Agreement and of any notion of a Fresh Start.”
The spokesperson concluded: “We call on the Parole Commission and Secretary of State to either present formal charges in open court or release Tony Taylor immediately.”
Among those in attendance at tonight’s protest were People Before Profit Foyle MLA Eamon McCann, Independent councillors on Derry City and Strabane District Council Gary Donnelly, Sean Carr and Warren Robinson, and Sinn Fein Cllr Christopher Jackson and Cllr Paul Fleming, the leader of the Sinn Fein grouping on the Council.
Photo shows Mrs Taylor and her son, Blain, at tonight’s protest rally.
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