A NORTH-EAST pro-democracy campaigner has spoken of his brutal treatment in a Burmese prison.

James Mawdsley, 27, returned to the home of his mother, Diana, at Brancepeth, near Durham City, on Monday.

He was released after serving 14 months of a 17-year sentence he received for protesting in Burma against the country's human rights record.

To date, the protestor, who became deeply religious during a previous sentence in Burma, has always tried to highlight the plight of the Burmese people rather than his experiences in a tiny, rat-infested cell.

But now he has told of his beatings at the hands of prison guards, his protests against the regime, and conditions for prisoners in a Burmese prison.

He said: "The beatings followed a pattern. On each occasion 15 men trooped into my cell. They were armed with 3ft wooden clubs, wound around with rubber strips to ensure that the deep bruises did not show up until two weeks later. Their efforts were monitored by the prison governor.

"My punishment went on for three days. On the first day, only one of them laid into me, savagely administering a couple of dozen blows.

"The next morning I had been banging on my door for only ten seconds when they marched in. Before I could say a word five of them laid into me."

Mr Mawdsley, who spent 416 days in solitary confinement, admits he was a "nightmare to control" in prison, as he continued his protests against the regime.

He described how he was tortured as guards squeezed pens between his fingers. Later he began a 20-day hunger strike. When he finally took a meal he blacked out.

He told how his growing religious belief helped him through the ordeal.