A GRIM picture of life behind the bars of an Indian prison has been painted by jailed North Yorkshire arms dealer Peter Bleach in letters home to his anguished mother.

Bleach, from Fylingthorpe, near Whitby, has just spent his sixth Christmas in a Calcutta jail, after an appeal against his conviction for taking part in an arms drop in West Bengal was rejected earlier this year.

The former pupil of St Peter's School, in York, has sent letters to his 80-year-old mother, Oceana, who lives in Brompton-by-Sawdon, near Scarborough, telling of his battle with his second bout of pneumonia and his ongoing campaign for freedom.

He has written of his hope for an inquiry after five Latvians, who were jailed with Bleach as accomplices, were released last summer following the intervention of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He also tells how he feeds cats in his cell in the Alipore Centre Jail, in Calcutta, so they will kill the cockroaches, and how the walls of his cell are coated with fungus.

"All the walls have thick black mould growing on them, and it is never cleaned off or killed with chemicals," wrote Bleach in one of his last letters at the end of November.

"I strongly suspect that this is what has caused my lung problems."

Mrs Bleach has spoken of her continuing distress over her son's plight and the years of false hope she has been through.

"Every time there is another hearing, I keep thinking I won't need to send him something because he'll be coming home, but then he doesn't. It always comes to a pitch towards Christmas."

Bleach was arrested in December 1995, after arms and ammunition were dropped from an aircraft in West Bengal.

Updated: 11:16 Thursday, December 27, 2001