Supporting Gary McKinnon. A Personal View

I've been involved with the Gary McKinnon case ever since I joined Twitter, i.e. three and a half years. Today, after a decade of suffering for Gary and his family, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, blocked the extradition of Gary to the US, and thereby the subsequent prosecution by a UK citizen in America.

Relief is not the word. I was glued to the screen all morning, and when the announcement finally came- shortly after 12:30 BST, I was elated.  It seemed like the culmination of everything we'd been hoping and fighting for. When I say "we" I'm referring to a pretty diversified group of activists who'd publish tweets in support of Gary, go to demonstrations, lobby MP's, write blog posts and reader's letters to papers and magazines, howl at the news when it was bad - and at times it was very very bad... and lastly, support each other.

It wasn't always an easy journey (of course it was an awful lot worse for Gary and his family!) but I'm writing from the viewpoint of a supporter of the cause. There were bound to be problems, misunderstandings, misgivings, jealousies and rage. We are a very disparate group, as I say - politcally for example, we have little in common. The initial extradition treaty waas still signed by the Labour government with David Blunkett as Home Secretary. Many people felt obliged to hold up their home grown Labour credentials by supporting this decision. Others, from a conservative angle, wielded a political stick and accused Blair/Blunkett of selling out to a foreign nation and giving up British legal sovereignty. The case which should mainly have been one of commiseration for a vulnerable human being, very quickly became politicised.

There were highs and lows. Expectations raised, when Sarah Brown seemed to take on the challenge to present the cause to the Obamas,  and lowered when she failed to do so. Desperation when the unspeakable Alan Johnson, then Home Secretary, pretended he was unable to do anything at all.

Gary's mother, Janis Sharp was in the eye of the storm. Everything clustered around her, she was Gary's voice in the public and the media. Unfailingly polite, patient, generous, warm and nice, Janis managed to acquire a huge followership, Not just amongst the twitterati, but thanks to her career (which she put on hold for the case of her son), high profile people like Judy Styler, Sting, Bob Geldof and others.

I quickly became very fond of Janis and she became a friend, as well as someone I wanted to give support to. When I went through a very difficult period - having to live in Scotland where Iwas totally out of my comfort zone-  Janis was always there, chivyying me on, giving tips, support and even made introductions for me. Later on, I drifted away a bit (not from the cause though) because Janis had to rely on as many people as possible for their support, and sometimes had to make decisions very fast. Thus, the choice of online campaign manager seemed to me very unfortunate. An elderly gent, with few  insights, but many prejudices he wasn't, in my view, the ideal person for such a high-profile case.

As I said, it wasn't always an easy ride -  just like supporting any case wholeheartedly and full-on will never be easy. If everybody cares very much, and we all did and of course still do,  there will always a clash of strategy and procedures. But we never wavered, we struggled on, boats against the current. Caring, writing, arguing, coming together again.

And today, Gary is finally - as was our hashtag - #FreeGary. Time to look back and say what an amazing journey it has been. Time to wish "Best of luck" to Gary, Janis and Wilson - and time to say thank you to all other #freeGary supporters - for their time, their dedication, and unwavering belief in justice.