Mercy student's Iraq trip

From the archive, first published Tuesday 16th May 2000.

Student Kirsty Gathergood told how she risked a prison sentence to take medicine to sick and starving children in war-torn Iraq.

She said: "It was worth it when you think of all the starving Iraqi children. So many people are dying out there, and I do not regret going.

"I don't think the Government will prosecute me because there is much evidence that the economic sanctions are hitting so hard."

As she returned from Iraq, the 25-year-old from Bartlemas Close, Oxford, went straight to Downing Street to deliver a letter to Tony Blair asking for the strict economic sanctions on the Middle Eastern country to be lifted.

Kirsty landed at Heathrow airport with friend Dave Rolstone, a boat-builder from Wales, who accompanied her on the mission.

Now they must wait to see if they face prosecution. Under United Nations law, she risked a five-year jail term for breaking the sanctions when she flew out with vital medical supplies.

Kirsty, who is studying criminology at Ports- mouth University, went to hospitals in Baghdad and Basra with the Oxford-based campaign group Voices in the Wilderness.

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