The news today that Martin Smith has hanged himself in his prison cell has both shocked and saddened us. In a way, we should not be shocked. Martin had made it clear that he would kill himself if he got the chance, and it saddens us that we could not do more to help him.
The stories in today’s media were disgraceful. Full of vitriol; painting Martin as a heinous, perverted paedophile, they destroy his memory while at the same time heaping praise on the disgusting system which permitted the miscarriage of justice that branded Martin with those labels.
Martin was convicted on the uncorroborated word of his step daughter, Sarah Richardson, in a trial which was mismanaged by a vile Judge Irwin, quite happy it seemed, for at least one jury member to sleep through vital evidence. No corroborative witnesses, no forensic evidence and a defence barrister who kept the whole issue of why Martin and Lianne ran to Spain out of his defence. That crucial fact left the jury with no conclusion to draw, other than that Martin was running away from Sarah’s allegations.
What Really Happened
The story of the Smiths is tragic. In August 2005 Lianne Smith, Martin’s partner, started working as the Extended Services Remodelling Advisor for Cumbria County Council, under Mrs Moira Swann, the Director of Children’s Services (DCS). In this role Lianne also worked closely with the Training and Development Agency (TDA) a wing of the Department for Children, Schools and Development Agency. Her prime task was to improve the performance of schools with poor Ofsted inspection reports. In six months, Lianne Smith’s team took Cumbria from a Department of Children, Schools and Families and TDA “County Causing Concern”, to one where good progress was being made. But she had made enemies. During 2006, Lianne’s good performance and ability to win funding for School Improvement, rather than Social Services, had seriously upset SS bosses.
More significantly, Lianne was highly suspicious of Children’s Services talk of a ‘common purpose’ regarding children. Supposedly ‘safeguarding all children from harm’, Lianne saw that the ‘common purpose’ was really a dangerous and controlling State move whereby anyone working with children would become ‘quasi social workers’. This would effectively place every child under Children’s Services control, rather than their parents, even if there were no circumstances around a child or family to merit Social Services intervention.
When Lianne made moves to become a Director of Children’s Services in order to fight these plans, Children’s Services bosses became hostile. Some of her colleagues warned her that she had been very brave to challenge the ‘system’. Unknown to her, she had made further enemies in Children’s Services through her dedication for home education for her own children, and as Regional Advisor for the home education group Education Otherwise. In contrast to the ‘Common Purpose’ approach, properly conducted home education strengthens family ties and undermines control by the State.
In October 2007, Lianne obtained a promotion as Staffordshire Director of Children’s Services. Within a month, Martin was suddenly accused of sexual assault by Sarah. With no corroborating evidence of any kind, Martin was not charged, but was bailed unconditionally until January 2008, and Social Services were informed. They quickly began to take an unhealthy interest in the couple’s young daughter Rebecca. Referring to Children’s Services, friendly colleagues warned Lianne that “these men are very clever”. Their predictions proved to be correct, as Children’s Services began to hunt Martin and Lianne Smith for custody of their daughter Rebecca. This is why Martin fled to Spain, with Lianne and Rebecca. This is why, after Martin’s arrest, and unable to think clearly, Lianne Smith ended the lives of her children. She could see no other way, for with her knowledge of the care system, to her it was better than seeing them placed in that system.
None of this information was presented to the jury at Martin’s trial - the barristers and the judge had done a deal, agreeing what would go in and what would stay out. None of this information has ever appeared in Britain’s “unbiased” media. Martin has been incessantly hounded by that media; by lazy journalists who could not be bothered to do any real research of their own, or speak to us when we offered them the information, preferring to simply rehash the official press releases.
We liked Martin. On the occasions we met him, we found him to be a quiet man, ill equipped to deal with the full force of “the system”. We believe he was never really able to understand what had happened to him.
Martin Smith may have finally died by his own hand, but his death is the direct result of persecution by corrupt individuals within a disgusting Social Services system bent on supporting paedophiles and trafficking children, with the assistance of a complicit media.
This is why we say that Martin Smith was effectively murdered.