A PLEA by five convicted IRA members and a sixth man that they were suffering unnecessary stress due to intimate bodily examinations was rejected yesterday. Their case against prison officers from Belmarsh Prison was thrown out by Woolwich Crown Court.
The five - Paul Magee, Liam McCotter Danny McNamee, Liam O Duibhir and Peter Sherry, who are serving long sentences for a variety of offences including murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause explosions - and the sixth man, Andrew Russell, who is serving 10 years for robbery, are accused of breaking out of Whitemoor Prison, London, in September 1994. They face further charges of possessing two handguns with intent to endanger life.
Magee, who is on "blanket protest" and refusing to recognise the court, is charged with causing actual bodily harm to a prison officer during the breakout.
The six, who were handcuffed to prison officers throughout the proceedings, appealed unsuccessfully against the body searches, described as "intimate but not internal", on the grounds that they were a departure from normal prison practices.
The men insisted that four body searches in one day were unnecessary and amounted to a "pointless security arrangement".
After consultation with the deputy governor of Belmarsh Mr Justice Maurice Kay rejected their plea add said he understood the body searches had not been introduced as a special measure but were part of prison policy.
In a day marked by legal argument and adjournments, Magee refused to co operate with the court. He has dispensed with representation and has also requested not to be forced to attend every day of the trial.
Members of Russell's family said it was "pathetic" that he should be handcuffed to a prison officer throughout the trial when it would prove "impossible for him to take advice from legal counsel". There were difficult scenes too, when family members attempted to talk to the six men from the public gallery.