Doreen Mann. Photo: Nick Cobbing

A Mother’s Pride

Three years after the imprisonment of her son, Keith, Doreen Mann describes how the experience has affected her own beliefs and priorities. Interview by Andy Johnson. Picture by Nick Cobbing.

Squall 12, Spring 1996, pp. 32-33.

Like all mums, Doreen Mann is proud of her son - even though he’s serving an eleven year jail sentence for, amongst other things, possession of explosives. If Keith Mann lived 600 years ago some musically minded scribe would no doubt have penned a ballad or two in his honour by now. When distilled the saga of Keith Mann does indeed read like romantic folklore.

From humble beginnings using his mum’s pasting table to distribute animal rights literature; to hunt sabbing; graduating to “economic sabotage”; becoming the target of an orchestrated police campaign; captured red-handed planting incendiary devices; a subsequent escape and ten months on the run as Britain’s most wanted felon; recapture and initial 14 year prison sentence; while the Sherrifs of Mammon smugly smile at finally bagging their man.

Reality, though, is always more prosaic than legend. Keith was a committed animal rights activist with a raging thirst for justice, but he was never the ALF quartermaster or “major catch” the police would have him be. And he is now himself the victim of a gross misjustice.

For his mum, however, the juxtaposition of her fifth born child’s quest for justice, and the justice he found, has been a journey in itself.

“I knew he was involved in animal rights,” she told Squall. “But I was innocent old mum. I knew they went out hunt sabbing on Boxing Day and as far as I was concerned that’s what it was all about.”

Doreen first heard of her son’s arrest after he had spent two weeks in prison. Realising that he wasn’t going to be bailed, Keith finally wrote to her.

“Believe me, it came as a shock,” she says. “I was gutted. But I thought he’d be alright. They’d realise they’d made some sort of mistake. I thought the law was there to protect us and judges were there to punish. I realise now that it doesn’t work that way.”

In 1990 Keith caused £6,000 worth of damage to 13 lorries belonging to Striven’s abattoir in Oldham. A year later he was caught red-handed planting incendiary devices, with an accomplice, at a battery farm. The police had had him under surveillance for months.

Keith was following the animal rights path of “economic sabotage” and only attacked property. He never put anyone’s life in danger. He was well-known to the constabulary and seen as a prime mover in the amorphous ALF - which has no leaders.

Doreen first learnt “how bent and twisted the system was” while Keith was on remand. She says that during the 19 months he was held he was moved 20 times, not allowing him time to prepare for his trial.

While at Walton jail Keith passed something to a friend and was taken to Streatham police station for further questioning. The police turned their backs and Keith was off.

“The coppers came to see me everyday,” says Doreen. “They were polite but like a toothache. They wouldn’t go away. And I began to learn about other coppers, how bent they are, and what a twisted law we live and abide by. It’s frightening.”

“I first saw him at Strangeways,” she continues. “I’d never been to a prison before. Most of the screws should have been inmates. And the fact that you weren’t treated as people. I do realise now how cattle feel, and it’s very unfair. I didn’t have any respect for them. Sometimes you’d phone up to arrange a visit and when you got there they’d say, ‘I’m sorry he’s been moved,’ to the other end of the country! And this went on and on.” She also says that in some prisons Keith was denied a vegan diet, and forced to wear leather boots.

Keith spent 10 months on the run and settled for a while with his girlfriend at an animal sanctuary in East Sussex. He was one of the country’s most wanted men and when the police finally caught up with him they arrested everybody who lived there. Keith was charged with criminal damage, attempted arson, incitement (writing a direct action manual), conspiracy, escaping custody and possessing explosives.

“I gave it some thought and it was quite ridiculous. My son’s in prison for a belief and I’m sat here with a steak. I gave it up overnight.”

The last charge related to several household items found in different places around the sanctuary: weedkiller, sugar, whitespirit, batteries, firelighters, and fire-works. The police contested that taken together these could have been used to make explosives.

On the advice of his lawyers Keith pleaded guilty - so as not to incriminate the others arrested with him and expecting a third off his sentence for doing so. He was given 14 years - more than a rapist could expect. He was also classified a category A prisoner - the most dangerous with severe restrictions on visitors.

In the past most ALF activists have received sentences of between six and seven years. But the police were convinced Keith was an ALF ring leader. They tracked him as he travelled up and down the country. They searched his home, finding leaflets and pamphlets he’d written advocating direct action.

Keith’s mum is understandably protective towards her son. She speaks of him in glowing terms, and is intensely proud of him. But when she says the police specifically targetted Keith it is “wised up old mum” rather than “innocent old mum” talking.

“Because they realised that this young man was not going to go away they really put the pressure on him,” she says. “They followed him all over the country. Keith is a determined person. He’d found out something that he didn’t like. He’d found out there was an injustice and he tried to put things right. He then realised that the police were onto him. They were turning over his home and his girlfriend’s home. They were arresting him for nothing. They arrested him a lot of times.

“But he hasn’t hurt anybody. He’s hurt the pockets and that’s what they got him for. He’s a very gentle person. The judge, a huntsman and sheep farmer, realised it was going to be a long and costly trial. So he offered Keith a deal - plead guilty to explosives and I’ll drop the conspiracy charge. Keith said no, you don’t have anything on this. What I will plead guilty to is that I lived in a home where you found certain items. But he just wanted it out of the way, and he should have got a third off his trial, but he didn’t. They stitched him up good and proper.”

Doreen says that it isn’t just the legal system her son has, in a roundabout way, educated her in. She has also become aware of the cause Keith was fighting for.

“I was one of the ignorant people who didn’t think,” she says. “I came from a great meat eating family. I always fed Keith with meat. Then he said he didn’t eat meat, and started to tell me why. I think I was ashamed immediately. Why didn’t I think? He said you can’t go away and pretend you haven’t seen what you’ve seen. He didn’t blow the lorries up, he damaged them, saying maybe we can’t save many chickens, but we can save some.

“I’m a vegan now, but only because Keith taught me how. I used to cook meat for my husband, but I’d give mine to the dog. Then I thought, this is stupid. I gave it some thought and it was quite ridiculous. My son’s in prison for a belief and I’m sat here with a steak. I gave it up overnight.”

Keith lodged an appeal against the severity of his sentence. His supporters, and the Justice for Keith Mann Campaign, were informed of the date of his appeal, November last year, two days before it took place. It succeeded in shaving three years off his sentence.

As far as Doreen is concerned, this is just the start. The next fight, she says, is to take another two years off his sentence.

His initial fourteen years were made up of different sentences for the different charges. When he was caught planting incendiary devices at a battery farm his accomplice had already served a four year sentence for a similar offence. She was tried while Keith was on the run and sentenced to six years because, according to the judge, she had not learned her lesson. But for this charge Keith was given six years for a first offence. At his appeal this was the only sentence not to be reduced.

Doreen also wants her son declared a prisoner of conscience.“The next stage hasn’t started yet,” she says.

A couple of weeks after his appeal Keith was re-classified a category B prisoner following a successful letter writing campaign by JFKM. As a Cat A the only person able to visit him was his mum. Potential visitors had to be vetted by the Home Office to see if they were “suitable” for such a dangerous inmate, undergoing rigorous reform, to mix with. Of course, none of Keith’s friends were deemed suitable.

So a letter writing campaign was orchestrated asking the Prime Minister, the Home Office, and the prison governors at Full Sutton jail, where Keith is being held, to change his status.

Just before Christmas Doreen received a phone call from the Home Office, a tale she relates with relish:

“A secretary phoned, asking if there was anything we can do to have the mail stopped. 'The Prime Minister has asked us to call you,'” Doreen mimicks the voice. “‘The secretaries can’t get on with any work. And we have conceded, he isn’t category A any more’.

“Why didn’t I tape that call? We have conceded. And I said, I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do. She said there were letters coming in from all over the world and could I do anything to stop it. I said no, you made him a category A. I thought it was so funny.”

The phone call was followed a couple of days later by one from the governor of Full Sutton prison:

“Then the governor rang up asking me to stop the letters. I said, then let him out, and he said ‘we don’t think he should be in here either, he’s a right nice lad, but we have a job to do’. So it does have an effect.”

As far as Keith’s long-term, post-prison, future is concerned, Doreen is protective, although when pushed she says that if he felt he had to return to direct action, she would support him. “But he isn’t going to have to do it,” she says. “He’ll fight from behind a desk now. He will always fight for animals. But he has done his share of direct action now. He can prove a real threat from behind a desk. They’ve made a martyr out of this guy they wanted to put away and throw away the key. They don’t know how to handle it.”

Following her calls from the Home Office and Full Sutton prison, Doreen is well aware of how powerful the pen can be.

“If I told you the depth of my pride for him my head would burst,” Doreen says. “If he’d killed someone I’d stand by him, he’s my son. But I’d be ashamed. But I walk around with my head held high and tell people how proud I am and I tell them what he’s done. It’s all been done in the name of compassion. It’s life he cares about.

“Doesn’t it open your eyes when you think how much you have to hate now? I hate the system, what they’ve done to Keith. I have a lot of hate inside me now, and I think it’s a good thing. It accesses things in you that you didn’t know were there.”

Keith Mann
EE 3588
HMP Full Sutton York. YO4 1PS

Justice for Keith Mann
CO ICA
PO Box 1135
Downs View Road
Hassocks
West Sussex
BN6 8AA