Rebel Justice - changing the way you see justice

Free Siyanda - Camilla's fight to clear her daughter's name

June 29, 2022 Rebel Justice - The View Magazine Season 1 Episode 24
Rebel Justice - changing the way you see justice
Free Siyanda - Camilla's fight to clear her daughter's name
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Free Siyanda - Camilla's fight to clear her daughter Siyanda's name


In today’s episode, our intrepid law student Narince Erkan from Durham University speaks to Camilla, Siyanda's mother, about the Free Siyanda campaign to clear her daughter's name in what she perceives to be a miscarriage of justice. 

Camilla tells The View how two white males and one female racially abused and attacked her daughter. Siyanda tried to fight back, but when the police arrived on the scene, only Siyanda was arrested.  

Siyanda alleged  that she was verbally abused and attacked, and the other female claimed that Siyanda attacked her. However, the police never investigated Siyanda’s allegations against the racist white female.

Camilla claims that her daughter suffered lacerations, bruising, a black eye and a boot print on her face.  The case went to the Court of Appeal, but it failed. However, Siyanda’s legal team established that she was attacked, and the court agreed that Siyanda was stamped on which they could identify her attacker by the boot print.

The Free Siyanda campaign helps people through its activism on social media by encouraging its supporters to  write  to their members of parliament (MsP). The racist institutions of the police, the CPS, the courts make it difficult to establish wrongdoing by the police but it was clear in fresh evidence presented to the Court of Appeal, that proved  that the police were lying and hiding the truth and evidence in Siyanda’s case. In some cases, people are considered criminals while they are victims. 

The injustice of her daughter’s case  opened Camilla’s eyes to how the country is run and how justice is not meant to serve  black or brown people.  Racist assaults happen frequently and are covered up and Camilla has heard of other mothers in her position or worse. The Court of Appeal  does not appear to want to help anyone racially abused but would rather you suffer instead of admitting to the  failure of racist institutions.  Camilla says that it has been a common experience in the wider community. 

Camilla says, “The police have been given too much power.”

There needs to be a system that polices the police because there is no system in place that polices the police. Siyanda has gone through the complaint system and the Independent Office For Police Conduct (IOPC). 

The police need to be held accountable to the community that it serves.  The white jury had not experienced racial abuse so they would not understand Siyanda’s situation and might  be biased; they did not believe her even with evidence—cases where racism is involved would benefit from  having a mixed race jury.

Most jurors are white, and most serious cases of assault and other crimes  in the area where the family was living are held at Swansea Crown Court where there is a low population of people of colour.  Camilla's next step is to prepare for the Supreme Court and she is  also looking to forge bonds with other organisations and create a united group for people going through hardships caused by the justice system  that affect black and brown people. 


You can support the campaign here and follow the campaign on Instagram here 

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the View Magazine's Rebel Justice Podcast. We speak with people on the frontline of the criminal justice system, prisoners women with lived experience, jus barristers, human rights campaigners. Today we were honored to speak with Camilla Sienna Mag's mother about the impact of the miscarriage on justice and how it has affected her. S was a vulnerable 22 year old black girl with disabilities who fought her attacker back. What happens next? Beggar's belief, the independent witnesses were all connected and related to her attacker. S was charged and sentenced to four and a half years of prison, although there was no independent witness who saw the attack on her alleged victim, just these connected relatives. Recently, the Court of appeal ruled that the imprint of a boot on Sienna's face probably belonged to one of these alleged independent witnesses. However, the CPS is still not charged anyone, Sienna's mother's fighting to take the case to the Supreme Court to get justice for her daughter and what mother wouldn't.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for, um, agreeing to speak to us. Camilla, you are CI's mother and also heading the campaign on the free Ciie campaign. Obviously I think we've, we've written about Sienna before on the View Magazine on issue, not this one with the previous one, and I think it's a very worthy course to talk about. So thank you to agreeing to come and talk a little bit to us about it. Would you wanna just give a short kind of summary of what happened? What's the campaign about? A little bit for the, for the listeners?

Speaker 3:

Yes. Yes. So back in May, 2019, my daughter suffered a racist attack in Brecken Wales on a camping trip. So she was beaten horrifically by a group of three adults, white adults, two of them male in their forties, one of them female in her thirties. CI was 20 at the time. And she was viciously beaten because of the color of her skin. The other woman was injured with glass jar. Um, however, when the police were called, it was only CI that was arrested and two allegations were made. One where cider explained that she was verbally abused and called horrible racist names, then attacked. And then the other story from the racist was that my daughter smashed the glass in the face of the woman for no really good reason. My daughter being 20 at the time, suffering from Ed, debilitating disability really, which affects her mobility. At the time that she was attacked, she was recovering from an operation, an osteotomy, which was a reconstruction of her knee and had metal plates down her leg. So she was unable, she was not mobile and she was unable to run away from her attackers. My daughter suffers many other ailments, which affects her joints and, and her mobility. And my daughter was a HR officer for the So Wales fire Service at the time of the attack. And she'd never been in any, any trouble before. So my daughter was the only one that was arrested. No one else was arrested. The police didn't look into CI's allegation. My daughter was kicked and punched many times. She suffered various lacerations and bruising and black eye. And what was significant was a footprint on her face. Now the racist versions of events, which I mentioned before, and they said that no one harmed si well, someone harmed ci. The failing started with the police really by not investigating. They didn't listen to what we had to say. They promised that they would interview CI as a victim. However, they did not SI was subsequently charged, attended trial and unfortunately convicted of GBA with, with intent. In, in February she was convicted of 2020 and then, uh, in March she was sentenced to four and a half years in prison basically. So, yes, so from there we've been campaigning really since she has been sentenced really. And we took the case to appeal. So we appealed twice. The second appeal was at the appeal courts in London where we failed to, you know, the, um, application to appeal. However, it was a, it was significant really cause we proved that CI was attacked because at the actual trial, the investigating police officer said that they, that he did not, He admitted that he did not look into CI's allegation and the very pic pictures of the footprint that I sent the police officer, they did not send to the cps. So those very pictures that we used in the appeal court, the appeal judges agreed that CI was indeed at least stamped on the face and we was able to confirm which one of the male attackers stamped on her face as well. And they agreed that they agreed that CI is a vulnerable person because of her ailments and disabilities. They also agreed that her previous solicitors did not do what they should have done to defend cider effectively. So there's a lot of issues there. So what came out of the outta the appeal was quite significant, even though we wasn't able to overturn the conviction. So we have now been campaigning for witnesses and we have been championing the be palace police who was in charge of the negligence of CI's, um, racist attack to arrest the witnesses, which there were five witnesses, three of them were ciders attackers, two of them were relatives of the attackers. So we were appealing for those non-independent witnesses, uh, to be arrested for perjury, for perjury in themselves at the trial because they all said that no one harmed cider. However, clearly we know we already know this, but we've now proven it in an appeal court. CI has been released from prison and is recovering at the moment and our case has moved from that as well as that we are now championing now to clear her name. So that's where we are at the moment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, hoping that she makes a really speedy recovery. So all from all that you've been talking about, we see that there's, you know, really failures of justice from sort of a lot of different like fronts from the police, from, you know, solicitors like you've mentioned, and how can we perhaps campaigning for further measures to be put in place so that this doesn't happen to other women or other people of color in the future? So obviously Sienna's a a good example of great failure of justice, but it's not, it's not a very isolated incident usually in the uk unfortunately.

Speaker 3:

Well, you know, the, the support that we've been getting for the San uh, the campaign has been fantastic. And in relation to this campaign, we had asked people in the beginning to write to their mps to share it on their social media, to contact the Duffy Post police directly<laugh> and, and, and, you know, demands because SI has been convicted of a crime, you will find that the racist institution really doesn't want to cooperate because in their eyes they've convicted a person and they feel that it has been done rightly so, regardless of the evidence that has already been put put in the courts. And we have revealed the police as lawyers and hides of evidence which they had, which they had with, with CI's case. So we are asking supporters really to write to their mps to continue to do that. We need to bombard the mps, I continue to bombard my local mp, um, to contact the police to share through their social media platforms really. Um, and if they want to invite the campaign to any of their events or anything like that, because what we've learned outta this really is that there is not much help for families like ourselves when any of our family members end up in this type of situation. Uh, there are many cases out there where you are a victim are the racial violence and you become, the police criminalize you and you are in fact the actual victim. And once the police get their claws into you and you have no kind of support or any kind of expert help from the very beginning, it goes downhill very quickly from there, from what we have experienced. So really we are asking people to make Xander's story loud and clear and the injustice that we are facing and how hard we are having to fight because our next stage is the Supreme Court really, and we are gathering further evidence for that and, you know, planning our appeal really, which will take time in the courts. It's not a a quick process. We're also asking people to sign the petition as well. It has over 570,000 signatures at this present time, which is fantastic. The more people sign it, the more people are going to be aware and people that can actually probably, that take notice that can actually do something with it. So the more it's spoken about, the more publicized it will be and the more the racist institution has to take notice. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course. And to everyone else listening, um, if you just Google free or the campaign has its own website and the the campaign, um, fundraising page, um, where you could, which way you can help out. I dunno if then's anything else that, you know, that we you want us to like mention here, but obviously those are the ones that, um, the, the website is great. It highlights really well all the updates. So if you wanna see how the campaign is going. Um, and I also kinda wanna ask maybe a little bit of a personal question. Like you said, it's such a traumatic experience going through something like this where your family is when you're the victims criminalized by the police. Um, how has this incident overall affected you as a mother and, and also as a family in general?

Speaker 3:

I mean, it, it, it was, it was a, a horrible and approach time in our lives and it has affected us tremendously. However, it's as opened our eyes, uh, into the injustice in this country and how this country is run. And my eyes are certainly open in how the laws of the united kingdoms and do not serve people of brown skin. If you, you know, want ask questions if you want to, you know, if you want to scream and shout and know that something's wrong, the police are not there to serve black and brown people. My eyes have been opened about how often this type of thing happens in the uk. I have been educated really by being, um, involved or speaking to other mothers that have suffered even worse injustices where their sons have been murdered, killed by the police and are still fighting just until this day. They have helped educate me into how difficult the racist institution makes things so difficult to get answers and how they deliberately want you to suffer<laugh> instead of admitting their failures. They would rather see you suffer. So for me, really, as much as it has been a horrendous time, it's actually been an enlightenment and enlightening experience into the wider community, which means really we will not be the same after this obviously, however, it has forged a new path for us as a family, even though, you know, s went to prison served a sentence and that was horrific for her. Again, on the bright side, she has learn tremendously about the system and to some point it has benefited her. So she's not come out of this, you know, oh whoa is me quite the opposite. She's come outta this very determining to clear her name and very determining to highlight the further issues in the prison system where again, you know, which is the last stage of the racist judicial system process that you go through. And, you know, she has benefited from understanding the failings and the uselessness of the prison system when it comes to black and brown willingness especially. So it has been an education for her. Like I said, as much as it, it's not been an an a nice journey, it has been an enlightened journey because of what we have learned, the people we have met, the supporters we have spoken to, the hope that we have been given by that support as well. And the education really of what we know in society now and how black people and brown people are still suffering today over the same things. And nothing has changed.

Speaker 2:

Obviously with this campaign, the, the main end goal is obvious to clear CI's name and get justice for her. But a little bit about what also would you like to see in general about how maybe even if there's a change in the system a little bit, what sort of change would you like to see, um, implemented by the, by the courts maybe or the police system, you know, if you wanna talk about that a little bit as well.

Speaker 3:

I think the police have too much power as we see in the news already with the crime and sentencing bill, they've been given more power still, there needs to be a system that polices the police because there is no system in place that police is The police Zander has gone through the complaint system and through the iop C and IOP C serves the police. They do not police the police. We are championing to find some way where the police are answerable to the community that it serves. When it comes to the judicial system, uh, CI was sentenced by 12 white jurors, 12 white people that would not have an understanding what it is like to be racially abused. Even though we put as much as we could through the courts at that time, even though a lot of it was hidden, a lot of it we was not allowed to show in that trial. The jury would not have had that understanding and they would've had a natural bias. Sagara was the only black person in that court other than her family that was sitting in the gallery. Yeah, and for s it was raw bear on her shoulders. She had to tell her story and the, the jury did not, did not see that, did not believe her one bit considering her history, her her health, her place of work as well. She worked for public services and she hired firemen and she tried to recruit black and brown firemen from black and brown people to the public services. She already forged a wonderful career. And the jury, because they were white, did not have an inkling and chose not to believe elements of Zander's story which would've casted out within itself. When it comes to cases where there is racism involved, there needs to be a mixed jury. There has to be a mixture, especially when there is racism involved. To have an all right all white jury in a case that involves any form of racism is not productive. Is not productive. And especially where it's the defendant victim or defendant, but where it's a defendant that is claiming certain racism to racist elements as their defense, there needs to be a mixed jury of their peers. Sian had no jury of her peers, There was no one of her peers there. Her trial was held in Swanzi, a place that we did not reside. Um, and they were by, you know, there were local jurors that were not of her peers. So we believe that this needs to be looked at more. There's a lot of comments saying, well, you know, how did the, the selection of the jury is and it's automatic and it's computerized and things like that. I don't care. The fact is the majority of jurors are white at a trial. For me, on that day when Sie was sentenced, which was three weeks after her conviction, there were three other black people that were convicted of crimes in that same court and also had white jurors,<laugh>, you know, and that's in Swanzi where the population of black people is minimal and the, and all of those people were not from the Swans area, they were not from the Swanzi area, but they had to go to Swanzi because they dealt with more serious crimes to conduct their trial, which is not fair and disproportionate. So these are the elements that we want to highlight and to hopefully bring attention to and find ways to champion change in the future.

Speaker 2:

Amazing. It's very inspiring, the campaign and in general, I think the story is very inspiring. Like you said, it's awfully painful, but hopefully it brings awareness of things that people often don't bow nail, at least at our society. Like you said, if you're not a a part of the minority, then you never have to think of things like this happening to you because they always happen to, to other people, you know, so it's quite important to raise awareness to it. So it's really admirable what you're doing alongside campaigning obviously for CI's innocence. So what are the kind of next steps for CI and yourself and the campaign?

Speaker 3:

Yes, for us now, as I mentioned earlier, is now campaigning to clear CI's name and we're working behind the scenes to prepare for the Supreme Court. Once we have prepared and done what we need to do ready for our submission, we will update. Then while we are doing the work, we are unable to kind of elaborate on what we are doing there, but that's what we are doing in the background. We're also looking to forge with other organizations and to create, I suppose a united group really of, of all different organizations, not just in justices, you know, women's rights, refugees, that, that sort of thing. Really in order to forge like a bigger group really for people that are going through hardship, injustice, any, anything like that that affects the black and brown community especially they have got someone somewhere to go to and to be able to get help quickly. So this is what we are trying to start to, to build really, and that will be announced, it's gonna be over the coming coming months because we are just, you know, kind of building the foundations of that and how it would look like and what kind of subject matter experts that will have available for people really. And that's what we also going to do on the back of this because we and Sian does not want this to happen to any other person. Like I said before, it was horrific, it was horrible. It, it's life changing. We recognize that in most parts of the UK there isn't any specialist help for people that find themselves in certain situations as a black and brown person and the help is minimal, whether it's due to lack of funding, whether it's due to no one in the area or it's such a minority, there is no organizations in the area. So we want to be able to, to provide something where people can reach out and say, okay, this is my issue. Where do I find help or where do I go to.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for agreeing to speak to us and furthering raising awareness, um, on this podcast as well. It was really enlightening to speak to you. If anyone that's listening wanna support the campaign, like I said before, it's free.com. You can go over check updates and best of luck in your campaign and everything else. We'll keep championing for you. We'll keep supporting the cause and it was lovely speaking to you today and have a lovely Sunday evening.

Speaker 3:

Will do. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Come on. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences on the Rebel Justice Podcast. See, story is horrific and one of many about the injustices inflicted on minoritized women by the police, the state and its agencies. We pray you will raise the money that you need on your crowd justice appeal to take the fight of the Supreme Court. If you would like to support the Justice for Sunder campaign, please search s on the Crowd Justice website or check out the link below this podcast. Thanks for listening. Be sure to listen to some of the previous podcasts to find out more about how the justice system is working to harm women deliberately, and how with your support and understanding we can fight to make it fairer and better.

Camilla gives us a background of Siyanda's experiences
Appeals to the Court of Appeal
Siyanda's release
Creating a movement to combat miscarriages of justice
How has the trauma affected Camilla and her family?
What bigger changes would they like to see?
Racism and bias in juries
Next steps
Building community for minoritised communities
Support the campaign