Film Fleadh debate hears about lack of resources for the wrongly accused

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Wednesday, 18 July 2007

One of the highlights of this year's Film Fleadh has to be the public debate with Paddy Hill, Gerry Conlan and Sunny Jacobs, which took place on Wednesday 11 July in The Town Hall Theatre.

After the showing of the award winning film 'In The Name of The Father' the trio, former Judge John Garavan and M.O.J.O's John McManus took to the stage for a lively interactive chat. During the heartfelt three-hour discussion both Gerry, Paddy and Sunny talked of their miscarriages of justices and what their lives were like upon their release and today.

They all spoke about the lack of resources for people who are innocent and how there is no rehabilitation of any sort for those wrongly accused of crimes. "When your name is finally cleared, you are put back on the street with nothing no support, no counselling and no apologies," said Paddy.

Several years ago Paddy Hill and John McManus set up MOJO (Miscarriages of Justice Organisation), a human right organisation dedicated to assisting innocent people both in prison and after their release.

The group's main objective is to help counsel innocent people after they are released from prison and gradually help them come to terms with the modern world. Their second objective is as an advocacy service helping innocent victims who are still inside prison. This is carried out by recommending 'good' defence lawyers, as well as forensic experts and contacts within the media to raise the profile of their cases and bring them to the public's attention.

The organisation has been involved with high profile cases who have won their freedom after serving sentences ranging from four years to 25 years.

"These people were wrongly imprisoned because of a miscarriage of justice and since their release have had great difficulty fitting back into our modern society," said John.

Now MOJO are looking to the people of Galway to help fund a Retreat to help depressurise victims, and prepare them to get back into a society they should never have been taken out of.

"The retreat will be unique project, using shared counselling experiences to help victims gradually come to term with what has happened to them.

All of them suffer from posttraumatic stress disorders and are in desperate need of help.

It is for this reason we are launching a new campaign to raise ?500,000 to set up a MOJO Retreat," said John.

To make a donation, write to MOJO Scotland:

G MAC 3rd Floor, 34 Albion Street, Glasgow, G1 1LH, phone 0141- 5527253 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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