THE mother of convicted drug smuggler Nick Baker has accused the British Government of leaving him to rot in a Japanese hell hole.

Iris Baker says her son, who has been held in solitary confinement for three years, has lost five stone and is even vomiting blood.

Yet she says the British Government has done nothing to improve the 'barbaric' conditions he is being kept in.

And she is praying that an appeal against his 14-year sentence will prove successful this summer.

Mrs Baker, who lives in Cirencester, says she is appalled that nations can support Japan's bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council while western prisoners are being treated like her son.

She said: "He's already lost everything. The treatment he's had to face is barbaric.

"I know the Foreign Office has its hands tied but for the British Government to even contemplate the Japanese being full members, knowing that there are British prisoners being abused is unbelievable."

Former Cirencester sandwich shop owner Nick, who was caught with a suitcase containing £1.4 million worth of drugs at Tokyo Airport, has always maintained that travelling companion James Prunier engineered it so they would carry each other's cases through customs.

Prunier committed suicide last year while awaiting trial for drug trafficking offences himself in Belgium but evidence of his case was never presented to the court during Nick's original trial.

Nick's lawyers are using fresh evidence and raising doubts over the fairness of Nick's trial in a bid to clear his name but he continues to be held in solitary confinement, where Mrs Baker says he spends most of his time sat on a concrete floor.

She said: "He's been vomiting blood and has got ongoing back problems. He very rarely gets the chance to exercise.

"However, the doctor says he's fine and has even refused his request for a chair.

"If we were asking for a luxury sofa and Sky TV I could understand it, but a chair?

"If he even leans against a wall and the guard sees him, he's told off."

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We're still offering full consular support to Mr Baker.

"When Mrs Baker raises concerns we do raise them with the Japanese authorities.

"Mr Baker is visited regularly. His last visit was at the end of April and he is due another one shortly.

"What we can't do is intervene in the judicial process of another country." Mrs Baker is due to travel to Japan for the summing up of Nick's appeal, which is due to take place on July 21.

A verdict is expected sometime in September.