Harassment and intimidation in the Whitechapel Mission

Yesterday afternoon, Declan wrote a letter to the head of the Methodist church in the UK – on Monday morning he narrowly escaped being assaulted in the Whitechapel Mission canteen area by a friend of the homeless guy that punched him twice in the face on 17 February, an assault the Metropolitan Police are refusing to investigate.

As I said in the previous blog, the Whitechapel Mission – where we arrive every morning at 6.00am (opening time) to wash – is fast becoming a place of safety hazards. Yesterday morning, for example, as soon as I had come out of a toilet cubicle, having changed into my everyday clothes, who comes in but the homeless woman that seriously harassed me on Sunday (also in the washroom). She muttered something and then banged the door of her own toilet cubicle. Perhaps she was taking a break.

All my free time, which is not much these days with all the different problems we are encountering at every corner, is spent reading Declan’s book on taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Yesterday I had a very nice breakthrough: Article 34 of the European Convention on Human Rights establishes a duty on Convention states not to hinder the effective exercise of the right to apply to the European Court. Under Article 34, applicants must not be subjected to any form of pressure from the authorities to modify or withdraw their complaints, either by direct coercion or flagrant acts of intimidation.

Where a state prevents the effective right of application, the Court may find a violation of Article 34. Accordingly, if there is any evidence at any stage of a Convention application that the applicant’s effective right of application is being restricted, then the matter should immediately be drawn to the Court’s attention by lodging relevant evidence, including statements.

Well, that’s nice. I wonder if the letters I have published in this blog from Declan to the head of the Methodist Church in the UK (see below), Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (last Monday’s blog) and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Providence Row Charity (last Sunday’s blog) would surface. Perhaps we could even throw in his letter to the chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Big Issue Foundation (last Thursday’s blog). Could it be that the Court would find that the UK has failed to comply with its obligations under Article 34 of the Convention?

Anyway, this is the letter that Declan sent yesterday by registered post to the head of the Methodist church in the UK, Rev Graham Carter:

Dear Rev Carter

Re:   Harassment and intimidation in the Whitechapel Mission

As head of the Methodist church in the UK, I enclose for your attention copy of my letter and enclosures of 16 April 2007 to the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Sir Ian Blair concerning the investigation (or lack thereof) into the unprovoked assault on me in the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February 2007.

Yesterday morning in the Whitechapel Mission I narrowly escaped being assaulted for the second time. On this occasion, the kitchen worker who intervened (Tony) took the view that it was my fault for not talking to the homeless that visit the premises. (That this was the view taken, would be evident from CCTV footage.)

Although I was informed by the acting manager of the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February that I enter the premises at my own risk, this ought not to be the case. I understand that if a visitor is invited onto the institution’s premises then a common duty of care will be owed by the institution to the visitor. This is to ensure that the visitor will be reasonably safe in the premises for the purposes for which he has been invited or permitted.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey