Maurice Kirk, the flying Vet and a true British hero
The aircraft, gun included, was, at one time, owned by the RAF. It has had many owners since, including Maurice. It has appeared at air shows with gun attached. Maurice sold the aircraft one year before his arrest.
By coincidence, the arrest and subsequent search of the family home occurred just after he was required to exchange documents with the solicitors defending South Wales Police in his case against them for harassment.
Following his arrest, Maurice was held without bail at Cardiff Prison. He went on hunger strike.
Maurice Kirk has an adventurous streak. He’s an aviation enthusiast. As a busy farm animal vet, he found that flying himself from farm to farm was the only way he could fit all his calls into the day. One day an American sponsor offered to finance his taking part in the London to Sydney Air Race, which he completed in 2001 in a 1946 Piper Cub. He then attempted an around the world trip, which came to a sticky end when he landed close to George Dubya’s ranch in Texas, and attempted to hand deliver a letter.
It was as a result of that escapade that Maurice discovered how bad things have become in this world. Despite the Federal Aviation Authority agreeing that he had committed no crime, he was arrested, subjected to psychiatric assessment, and deported for life from the United States. His aircraft did not go with him.
Some time later, Maurice found himself at an aviation gathering next door to Prince Charles’ Gloucestershire home. He thought he might deliver a letter to Charles, if he was in. He wasn’t, but that’s how Maurice came to the attention of Tony Blair’s Fixated Threat Assessment Centre.
One of the problems that the establishment has, is that we’re not far enough along the road to dictatorship that they can start actually killing people in any numbers. Occasionally, for example David Kelly, they take the risk.
For Maurice Kirk, and activists like him, they don’t want to draw attention to him by killing him, and they don’t dare go to a full trial. A trial results in facts ending up in the official record. Worse, trials, at least for a while longer, have juries. The truth will out, as they say, and they are scared of that.
So the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre is there to make sure that in circumstances such as these, instead of prosecuting a charge in the courts, the charge is used as an excuse for a corrupt judge to order psychological and psychiatric assessments. All it takes is for some so-called psychiatrist to say that he feels an assessment should take place, and before you know it, you’re “Sectioned.”
And that’s exactly what happened to Maurice Kirk.
Prior to his arrest, the FTAC approached Maurice’s GP, asking for a psychological assessment. The FTAC expert involved was a Doctor David James, who Maurice characterises as “bright, informed and helpful.” Dr. James came to the written conclusion that Maurice was perfectly sane; absolutely no threat whatsoever.
Despite that, after nineteen days of hunger strike, someone from the FTAC, had Maurice taken to court on the 7th August, and an order was made under Section 35 of the Mental Health Act, for him to be incarcerated in a nearby loony bin for “assessment.”
He is still there.
Since entering Caswell Clinic, he has been subjected to 35 hours of one to one interrogation with the following doctors and psychologists:
* Dr Tegwyn Williams
* Dr Gaynor Jones
* Professor Roger Wood
* Dr Ruth Bagenshaw
* Dr Joseph Sylvester
Dr Roger Wood is a psychologist at Swansea University. According to his profile on the university’s website, he researches the “impact of acquired brain injury, particularly orbito-frontal injury, on behaviour, cognition and social functioning. Clinical effectiveness of brain injury rehabilitation techniques in respect of social outcome. Long term sequelae of traumatic brain injury. Forensic neuropsychological assessment to identify neurobehavioural disability associated with ‘frontal’ dysfunction.”
So it is plain to see what they are attempting.
35 hours of one to one interrogation have found no evidence of mental illness. Yet at his latest court appearance, Maurice was returned to Caswell for a further 28 days, for further “assessment.”
But while this ordeal is clearly traumatic for Maurice, he is not alone. We are aware of others who are experiencing similar treatment at the hands of this out of control Government.
The establishment of the Fixated Threat Assessment Centre is a direct attack on those of us who would dare to speak out against the police state we are living in. What’s next? Mental health courts? Maurice certainly thinks so and we agree.
Canada has had mental health courts for a couple of years now. The idea behind them is that people considered to be mentally ill, and charged with “minor” offenses, are given a choice – attend the mental health court, or go through the normal courts and risk a prison sentence. Anyone choosing the mental health court route is closely “monitored” for compliance with any treatment regime, including drugs. Mental health courts in Canada have been hailed as a great success. It is presented as a voluntary scheme, a “moral” contract between the offender and the court, where the offender and opt out at any time and face a normal criminal proceeding. If the treatment programme is completed, the original charge is dropped or expunged.
Maybe I’m just being cynical, but that sounds very much like the choice given to Winston Smith at the end of 1984.
Who is Maurice Kirk?
Maurice Kirk was born on the 12th March 1945 in Taunton, Somerset, West of England. Maurice's father, Denis (1912-2007) was a hard working country vet, his mother Violet, was the daughter of a well known industrial chemist and inventor in the confectionery business. Their immediate family consisted of five boys and one girl: Michael, Christopher, Maurice, Rupert and twins, Timothy and Celia. Denis' brother Maurice was an Officer in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps when he died in Northern France a few days before Maurice's birth; Denis and Violet subsequently named their third son in honour of him.
Maurice's interests as a boy were hunting, shooting and fishing and later as a young man, mountaineering, rugger, old vintage cars and seeing the world.
In 1963 he began a veterinary career studying veterinary medicine at Bristol University, during which time, he also became a climbing instructor in North Wales, hitch hiked 8000 miles around North America and paddled the English Channel in a home made canoe after swimming the ‘Iron Curtain' at the height of the Cold War. He hitched, jumped trains or hid in the back of trucks to get across Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. He was also commissioned into the Royal Air Force Reserve, making him eligible for not just one final year reunion, each year, but three! Needless to say he had problems with his University exams.
Veterinary medicine was a passion inspired by his father with a close second being the ‘breaking of the bonds of earth', flying anything from hangliders, microlites to old canvas or ‘spam can' aircraft. By this he obtained further qualifications and experience, first with a commercial licence and second, seven broken or severely damaged joint injuries, all now coming home to haunt him.
Maurice first married in 1970, the first to parachute to his own wedding, to Janet who later bore him Caspar, Belinda and Alex but married again in 1998 to Kirstie a veterinary surgeon, who bore his second daughter, Genevieve.
Maurice is currently trying to fly around the world in his 1943 WW2 Piper Cub, believed to have been flown by General Patten after the 6th June 1944 D-Day landings. This somewhat risky adventure began when an American read Maurice's old web site in 2001 and laughed so much he donated £25,000 for him to enter the 2001 London to Sydney Air Race. Maurice's life is now dominated with the task of completing this epic solo journey.
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