Deborah Dark from Richmond in West London is on the run from the French Judicial system, there is a Europe wide arrest warrant out for her. the 45 year old grandmother is the victim of Europe’s fast track extradition system. Her problems started when she went to Spain to visit her sick father.
On her way home she was arrested at French customs when cannabis was found hidden in her hire car. she was tried and acquitted after 8 months on remand. The alleged crime took place in 1988 when she was 24 years old, Deborah was stopped while driving a hire car home from a holiday in Spain with her 8 year old daughter, customs found cannabis hidden in the car.
Miss Dark claimed at the time that a boyfriend had asked her to hire the car in her name as he had no licence, and she knew nothing of the drugs, the court believed her and she was acquitted. She ended her association with the boyfriend and returned home. The prosecution appealed her case 2 years later and she was sentenced to 6 years jail in her absence. Neither Miss Dark or her lawyer were made aware of this.
Twenty years later on a holiday to Turkey she was arrested at gunpoint, detained strip searched and handcuffed, only after Interpol conceded there was nothing on their database was she released, only to be arrested again a year later this time in Spain, who after investigation refused to extradite her to France. The warrant is still active. Our own legal system also refuse’s to extradite her.
What a nonsense of a system where a trial could take place without the defendant or any legal sort of legal representation attending, then once this shambles produced a verdict how could the “guilty” party not be sought out and informed. another example of European law that falls on its face in practise. Our own laws have served us well enough for hundreds of years, the sooner we revert back to them the better.
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