THE woman who represented the Queen in North Yorkshire and oversaw the region's judicial system has backed the campaign to free Ian Stillman.

Lady Clarissa Collin, who was the region's High Sheriff in 1998 and whose grandfather, Lord Urwin, was Viceroy of India in 1926, has promised to do all she can to secure the deaf charity worker's release from an Indian jail.

She said: "I think it's so unfair. This is somebody who has been trying to do good for the deaf of India and to have him in prison is quite incredible.

"He has worked so hard to overcome his own disability, and his one aim now is to help people who need him most, but he's being stopped from doing that because he's locked in prison.

"There has definitely been a miscarriage of justice and we must not let it rest."

Ian Stillman, 51, whose parents live in Tadcaster Road, York, and who has had a leg amputated, is serving a ten-year sentence in an Indian prison after being convicted of cannabis possession - a charge he has always denied.

At his trial he was denied a sign language translator, effectively excluding him from taking any part. Judges have ruled that he is hard of hearing rather than deaf, despite medical evidence proving he cannot hear anything.

Lady Clarissa, who lives in Pockley, near Helmsley, and is a magistrate in Scarborough, heard about Ian's plight through a friend who knew his family.

Since then, she has written to MPs and MEPs urging help for his cause.

She is now keen to join the Evening Press campaign which has gathered nearly 5,000 signatures asking for his release.

"It is absolutely incredible that he is in prison, and it is frightfully insensitive to do this to somebody who has done nothing but try and help others."

"I totally believe that he is innocent and should be released."

Updated: 10:42 Friday, June 07, 2002