The Blantyre House Prison Affair: Lessons From a Modern-day Witch Hunt

Tom Murtagh OBE was a governor at The Maze Prison and Armagh Prison, Northern Ireland before becoming Area Manager - one of the highest ranks in HM Prison Service - for Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Building on a fine record and long experience he set out to raise standards in all the prisons under his charge, only to be demonised by a Parliamentary Home Affairs Committee in 'The Blantyre House Prison Affair'. In this autobiographical account, he tells his side of the story: the background, key facts, matters of intelligence that were confidential at the time, and about how the events led to his vilification as his strategically-informed messages and voice were ignored.