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‘One son is fighting for his future, the other for his country’

10/ 4/2008

WHILE Brendan Glenn fights deportation from a holding cell, his mother has revealed his soldier half-brother is about to set off on his second tour of Iraq.

Micheal Wormald, a Lancashire Fusillier, is currently en-route to Basra in the war-torn country.

Julie Stone, who also has two daughters, has pleaded with immigration officials to let her eldest son Brendan stay in the UK as his half-brother puts his life on the line for Britain.

Speaking from her Barleyfield Walk home, Miss Stone, who moved back to the UK in 1985 after spending a decade in South Africa, insists Brendan is British.

"He’s a proper Manchester lad through and through," said Miss Stone. "He went to school over here, he has a national insurance number and has paid tax. He’s lived here for almost his whole life and his entire family are here. I can’t believe they are trying to deport him.

"I’ve been tempted to tell Brendan’s half-brother to leave the British Army – why should he risk his life while they’re trying to do this to his brother?

"They even told us Brendan won’t be allowed back for ten years once they deport him, but he has two young children, an eight-year-old son and a five-year-old daughter, he will miss out completely on them growing up if they go through with this because they say he won’t be allowed back into the country."

Miss Stone, who is divorced from Brendan’s step-father, says she blames herself for failing to apply for British citizenship for Brendan when the family moved here..

"He has two sisters and a brother who, because they have a British father are allowed to stay here, but because I lost contact with Brendan’s father and didn't get him a British passport sooner they want to deport him.

"I don’t understand how they can do this, he doesn’t even remember South Africa and all his family are over here. He doesn’t know anybody over there.

"I've written to everybody I can think to help him. I’ve written to the Home Office, to Jim Dobbin MP, to the Queen and to the Prime Minister.

"I know my son’s not been perfect and he’s been in trouble in the past, but he's been to prison and he has served his time."

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