Bierton Strict And Particular Baptists, A Testimony of David Clarke

316 attention that Michael’s attitude and behaviour, to some of them, had been unacceptable. He was irritable and awkward and ill mannered, which was contrary to certain rules.

Also it had been noted that Michael had been seen drinking Tuba and smoking in the prison and in our Trojan Horse Office. That a certain Richard Gatwood had been seen late at night in the office and Michael and he had a drinking spree with us. That when I left the office I was smelling of Tuba.

This was their complaint and to them a bad thing. None of this had been checked out to see the truth of the matter.

Trojan Horse Office Michael have built the Trojan Horse Office during our mission to the prison, on derelict land next to the bible institute study room, with the full permission of the owner Rev. Lucas P. Dangaton. It was used for all our mission work and housed all our equipment such as our video camera, television, printer and laptop computer. Michael also had permission to sleep there as a care taker and we use this for our ministry work.

It was later revealed that they were unhappy about Michael using the office as a dormitory they called it a Cabool and now it was not an office but Michael’s room. They did not like this because no one else was allowed in our office it wasn’t like an office they wanted i.e. That they could use it at anytime at all. It was stated that no one was allowed to use the schoolroom as his or her Cabool or as their own room so they wanted rid of the Trojan Horse Office.

They stated they did not know what we were doing in the office and they did not believe Michael. It was stated Michael was a liar.

The summery was that drinking Tuba and smoking was wrong and against the rules of their institution and they were concerned about Michael bringing disrepute upon them. They argued and said that Tuba drinking was not allowed in the prison and if caught it would lead to prison discipline.

Any behaviour, which broke the prison rules would leave their Bible Institute open to questionable behaviour, which they did not want.

I Summarized My Response As Follows I felt at first, on their first presentation of the problem, that there misgivings could be resolved but I was mistaken.

The issue about Richard Gatwood was a straight forward one as they had been miss informed by a gossip monger who slept in their school room and was their water carrier. Had they asked us about the matter I would have told them all about what happened but they never did.

Richard Gatwood was an inmate from London doing a 40 year sentence and had come to see me wanting help and I sought help him in what ever