Executed: Drug trafficker from Staffordshire was offered no mercy in Kuala Lumpur
Kevin Barlow’s exposed feet – a tag hanging from them – protruded from the rattling truck that rolled through Pudu Prison’s yawning gates.
His lifeless legs swayed as the well-worn vehicle attempted to cut through the noisy sea of humanity that churned excitedly outside the Kuala Lumpur prison.
They had gathered before sunrise turned the Malaysian skyline burning gold, simply abandoning cars and motorbikes to witness the moment the bodies of Barlow and fellow drug trafficker Brian Chambers were transported from the gallows.
They celebrated their deaths. They applauded the defiance of a government that remained unmoved by the western world’s pleas to spare the two men, its cold indifference when the pleas turned to condemnation.
When publicly informed “no-one has the right to take a life”, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad responded: “Tell that to the drug traffickers.”
Our Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher appeared to agree. She was approached but declined to add her powerful voice to the growing protests.
Kevin Barlow, born in Stafford, Stone or Stoke, depending on which newspaper report you access on the internet, ate a meal of satay beef in a spicy peanut sauce hours before he was led handcuffed to his death at 6.08am on July 7, 1986.
“They can request a last meal, but there’s no guarantee they’ll get it,” said one warden. Barlow probably didn’t: Chambers was served the same dish.
There was no alcohol to dilute the terror of that last long walk, no spirits to strengthen weak and disobedient legs. “There’s no such thing as one for the road,” a Malaysian executioner revealed.
Those awaiting the call to take the pair to the gallows glugged Coca Cola and chatted.
The deaths of Barlow and Chambers will divide readers. Some believe those who trade in misery deserve no mercy - others see capital punishment as state-endorsed murder.
Writing for the Melbourne Herald Sun, Bruce Dover said: “Barlow and Chambers were not evil men. Stupid, naïve, greedy even, but capable and perhaps deserving of redemption and a second chance.”
The Staffordshire man, only 28, had been caught in his very first attempt to smuggle heroin through Bayan Lepas International airport to Australia where he and his family had made a new life.
Partner-in-crime Chambers, 29 when executed, was an old hand at the grubby business. He had made 12 runs before his luck ran out as a result of Barlow’s bungling incompetence.
