Remember that British sci fi series Dr Who? In which "the doctor" has to fly his tardis ( time and relative dimension in space - it's quite roomy inside but outside looks just like a phone booth - pardon me, a call-box) back from interesting alien time through various epochs of boring earth time, dodging cheap special effects and being attacked by mind-bogglingly dull robots? My Welsh friend Alan can do that sort of thing too, apparently - it's the only explanation for his current situation. Before he became interested in time travel Alan was an ordinary village lad in Carway, Carmarthenshire, Wales. Wales is a beautiful but strange place to a rural American rodent, a place with plenty of sheep but a desperate shortage of vowels, the birthplace of Richard Burton, Tom Jones, Charlotte Church, a place filled with dark, brooding castles ( like Kidwelly Castle in Carway, pictured) and the dark, brooding women who have to clean them. Alan was a carpenter for his village council from the time he was 16 until a medical retirement in his 40's. In 2003 he was looking into the possibility of some light work for his uncle Kevin Gorman's fishing company in Ghana. Unfortunately uncle Kevin was casting his nets for other things besides fish - as he explained to Ghanaian authorities, he was offered 50,000 pounds sterling to "look after some boxes" but had "no idea" what they contained. The police understandably found this unlikely. The boxes had been unloaded onto a beach on December 31, 2003 and contained a large amount of cocaine. They were found concealed behind a mirror in Gorman's home in a police raid. A housemaid claimed she saw Alan walking back from the beach on the 31st, quite extraordinary since his stamped passport clearly shows he entered the country a few days later on January 3. See? No problem. Just like Dr. Who. Or like that young lady named Bright /whose speed was much faster than light /she set out one day, in a rel-a-tive way/ and returned the previous night. It seems the authorities got overzealous and swept up everyone remotely connected with Kevin Gorman, and in fact two other men arrested at the same time despite a similar date discrepancy were released on appeal. Alan however has had lawyer difficulties ( though he is happy with his new lawyer) and the bureaucracy in Ghana grinds along very slowly. In the meantime the sentence is twenty years.
Alan and his son in happier times on the family farm and vacationing in Spain, about ten years ago.
Twenty years in an overcrowded third world prison for a drug crime he didn't do, while he waits out a seemingly endless appeal cycle - to a Schapelle Corby supporter this is all so horribly familiar. I know about Alan'a case because my support for Schapelle led me to the Nick Baker support site ( Nick is home now, praise God! ) and in December 2005 Nick's mother Iris opened her heart and her son's support forum to Alan's mother Shirley. Alan has a much smaller support base than Schapelle and anyone who writes him and/or sends a care package has a high likelihood of getting a personal response, though maybe not right away - you have to allow for the vagaries of what Alan calls "pigeon post."Alan has spent the last several months in the infirmary with spinal arthritis and is having a really hard time. The address is
Dr. Dyer - for Alan Hodgson
Box 1766
Community 1
Tema, Ghana
Alan insists that Wales is not so bad, brooding castles or not, and that they have pubs there where you can play darts or "snooker," whatever THAT is. He says the movie Twin Town (1997) explains it all. It is long past time he was back there. The address given is that of a family friend who visits Alan once a month at Nsawam Medium Security Prison where he is held. Care packages are opened before they reach him ( standard practice) but his detailed letters to me indicate that he has safely received everything I've sent. Alan has to pay for some of his food so basic easily mailed food items are ideal, but you can send anything you would send to a prisoner anywhere else ( no weapons, alcohol, etc.) Alan likes football ( what we Yanks call soccer; he supports Manchester United) and was a near-professional darts player when he was younger. Just a regular guy caught in a "wrong place, wrong time" situation - but he has been there for over 4 years.
Kidwelly Castle in Carway, a few miles from Alan's homeMay God bring all our Innocent Ones home.
