DRIVER FREED AFTER 27 MONTHS
A 62 year old Irish truck driver wrongly accused of smuggling drugs in his trailer has been cleared after spending27 months in a French prison.
Patrick “PJ” Kennedy, from Cork, is bitter at the ineptitude of several lawyers who failed to point to documentation proving his innocence; official documents showed he was not involved with the actual loading of the truck in which the drugs were found in France.
A Fair Trials Abroad (FTA) spokesperson said PJ’s case was not uncommon; ‘He followed the instructions of his employer throughout, received all the genuine paperwork and was not involved in the trailer-loading process’.
PJ, a driver with Dublin based Heskin International, was stopped by French Customs in Abbeville on December 15, 2001, PJ’s 44ft trailer contained 1039kg of the drug expertly concealed within ceramic tabletops which had to be prised open.
Inadequate legal representation led to PJ’s wife Susan, requesting the help of Jack Straw at his MP’s surgery in Blackburn in May 2002. Susan was met with much enthusiasm from the Foreign Secretary but this was short lived, despite Jack Straw’s assurances that he would reply promptly and look into the case immediately.
PJ was refused bail but Fair Trials Abroad came to the rescue by appointing, with the help of legal aid, an English speaking French Lawyer for PJ in June 2003.
FTA case Lawyer Sabine Zanker said she was delighted PJ had been aquitted but confirmed that his case was a typical truck driver action. ‘PJ would never give in. When the Judge tried to stop him giving his full account, telling him he had heard enough, PJ insisted,’ she added
COPIED FROM TRUCK& DRIVER OCTOBER 2004
