PAULINE MCKINNEY was arrested in December 1982 on the evidence of 'supergrass' Christopher Black. She was among the first of the women in Armagh to be subjected to the strip search procedure Pauline was imprisoned.
don, a packed meeting heard Pauline explain the strip search regime and its purpose.
I WAS arrested through canstopner was a paid informer. The had Sure scary uncl been in progress for around three weeks.
We didn't know this when Well in. We didn't know it until the second day of the trial until we had go down to reception.
We were into There were three to four When we went in they told us to strip off. thought SuSU jumper änd skirt. But they it was introduced two or three weeks before On Thursday 28 March in Stratford, East Lonsaid everything off.
There were four or five screws the reception aled that They stood in front of me, lookine over my body then thes turned me round to check the back. Then they said put your clothes back on.
Liz was brought down and then Margaret. This happened to the three of us about 30 times if week.
Then started to WC question They said security. It was not security.
They didn't whether you had a period or not. They "didn't care whether it was a heavy period or not.
We pressed for the plained. But they wouldn't callall. The reason that this was being done to us was not only to break our spirits, but also to degrade us, to dehumanise us, to numulate us.
Security It was just another tactic along with others that had been used in Armagh jail over the years to break une spirits or lae womta fl that jail. But they didn't They petty harassments. Only this was not a petty harassment. This was serious.
You've all heard of the film The Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, well these were the body-snatchers of because ther WELC trying to take our bodies, they were trying to They did not strip search the men. We do not men to go this procedure, but if it's for security why doesn't the cedure apply?
Nicholas Scott claimed that the strip search was for security reasons because the massive break-out in Long Kesh, But the strip search started November '82. The break-out was in November '83.
can stripping stop LICH escaping?
Because of the protests the strip searches have been scaled down. But it's still going on.
It does leave a mark on you when you get out. It's left its mark on me, I just haven't got the guts to exit has afOut of a proposed 17 speakers at the NUS ference, top of the was placed speaker, Leonora She outlined portance of the curre tacks on abortion represented by the Bill and the Gillick called unions to mobilise them.
They should in their colleges to 1 ple to the
Young British coulagerus But now we
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NAC at NUS