Devoted mother Iris Baker has said she will continue to support her son and battle on to clear his name, two and a half years after he was accused of drug smuggling.

Iris Baker told the Gazette of her son Nick's innocence and said he is being treated inhumanely at the Japanese prison where he is serving a 14 year jail sentence.

Mrs Baker, of Oaksey, said her son was also not allowed to see a video of his three-year-old son George when she visited him in prison in September.

"I took the video just before I went and I got George to say 'hello daddy' and took shots of him kicking a football around.

"I would have had to show him (Nick) through a glass screen but their answer was just 'no'.

"It couldn't do any harm. The worst that could have happened was that I videoed Nick but a guard could have shown it to him. There could have been many simple solutions."

Mrs Baker said her son asks about George: "He just asks how he's getting on and does he ask about his dad.

"I talk to George about his dad but not in great detail because he is a little child. I show him pictures of his dad."

Mrs Baker fears the appeal, which had its latest hearing on October 12, will run deep into next year before a verdict is given.

She said: "I honestly don't think it will be finished until 2005.

"Enough evidence was given in the last hearing, that things weren't as they should have been. Yet still we go on.

"The judge should be asking more questions. Why should Nick have to keep going on like this?"

Mr Baker's next hearing is on December 7 when he takes to the stand himself.

Mrs Baker said: "One would hope it would go well but you have got to think he's been in solitary confinement for two and a half years. It's getting to be difficult for him to recall things.

"We know what his own lawyer will ask but what the prosecutor will ask who knows?

"I don't know how well he will deal with being questioned. "

Mr Baker, 33, was caught with £1.4million worth of ecstasy tablets and cocaine in a suitcase at Tokyo's Narita airport in June 2002, but maintains he was duped into carrying the suitcase by his travelling companion.