UK Pilot held in Belgium over made-up drug smuggling charge talks to the YEP


Published Date: 08 July 2008
By Tony Gardner
EXCLUSIVE

A pilot has spoken of his nightmare eight months in a Belgian jail after being falsely accused of smuggling cocaine aboard his light aircraft.

Steve Jackson, 50, was locked up when Belgian authorities suspected him of flying the drug between Yorkshire and the continent.

Mr Jackson, a member at Sherburn Aero Club, near Leeds, was arrested with fellow Sherburn club member Leon Franklin, 41, in July last year amid claims that 27kgs of cocaine was hidden inside his aircraft at a tiny aerodrome.

The case against the former military policeman proved to be completely unfounded. The drugs were in fact found in a taxi in which Mr Franklin was being taken to a tiny aerodrome outside the village of St Ghislain in the Hainaut region.

Yet Mr Jackson was held in custody and only charged three weeks before a court hearing.

Mr Jackson and Mr Franklin of Wakefield, were eventually freed in March when charges were kicked out by a judge before a trial due to lack of evidence.

Mr Jackson, a father-of-two of Sherburn-in-Elmet near Leeds who is writing a book about his ordeal, told the YEP of his relief to be back home with his family, his disgust at his treatment under the Belgian judicial system and what he claims was lack of support from British Foreign Office officials.

He said: "It feels like I have woken up from a terrible nightmare. I have been locked up in a cell for 23 hours a day next to murderers and armed robbers despite there being no evidence against me.

"My aircraft was searched from end to end and I was nowhere near any drugs. To anybody who knows me the idea that I could be involved in smuggling drugs is completely absurd. I would not even know what that amount cocaine looked like let alone have the bottle to do it."

He and Mr Franklin, both IT technicians and flying enthusiasts who were friends for 10 years, were arrested as they were due to fly back to Sheffield.

Claims by Belgian police that the cocaine was found hidden under crates of beer on board the plane were false.

Mr Jackson said he was appalled by the lack of support from the Foreign Office and the Belgian Napoleonic Code under which he was held a suspect without being charged.

He said: "I was told at first that I would be out within a few hours. Then it became days, weeks and months.

"There is huge controversy in Britain at the moment over bringing in laws to detain terror suspects for 42 days, but most people are unaware that in supposedly civilised European countries you can be held for months without any proper evidence. It's medieval.

"The Foreign Office did practically nothing to help. It took them over 48 hours for them to inform my wife. She thought I had crashed and was floating in the North Sea."

Mr Jackson, who has held a pilot's licence for more than 20 years, hopes to return to work as an NHS community responder in his home village.

But he says the experience has cost him dearly, both financially and emotionally.

"Being locked up has cost me eight months of lost income plus around £20,000 it has cost for my wife to come and visit me once a fortnight which I have no way of ever getting this back. I am still struggling to get back my love of flying because of what has happened.

"The whole episode still feels unreal and I still can't believe how an innocent, ordinary guy like myself can be put through something like this. I just hope it serves as a warning to other law-abiding people to be aware of what can happen."

Mr Franklin could not be contacted for comment at his home in Stanley, Wakefield, or the West Yorkshire company where he works.

A neighbour said the residence had stood empty for months.

A Foreign Office spokesman would only confirm that both men had been cleared of all charges.