A NORTH Yorkshire vicar has criticised conditions in which prisoners are being held in Bellmarsh Prison and at Guantanemo Bay.

Canon Tony Shepherd, vicar of St Peter's Church, Harrogate, is concerned that Guantanemo Bay prisoners are being held indefinitely with no charges.

"It seems to me to be unworthy of those who have died in the great struggles for freedom and justice," writes Canon Shepherd in his November parish magazine.

On Bellmarsh, he writes: "It saddens me beyond measure that prisoners in our own Bellmarsh Prison are held in similar conditions - and again is surely unworthy of the sacrifice of those we remember this month.

"Surely the terrorist has already won if we have turned ourselves into the very kind of regime we were previously fighting to resist."