Church and State blog: CCTV footage required for a prosecution/conviction

Sunday, June 10, 2007

CCTV footage required for a prosecution/conviction

This morning Declan wrote to the head of the Methodist church of the UK, Rev Graham Carter, given his ongoing difficulties in having the homeless guy that assaulted him in the canteen of the Methodist-run Whitechapel Mission on 17 February prosecuted. This is his letter:

Dear Rev Carter

Re: Harassment and intimidation in the Whitechapel Mission

Further to my letter and enclosures to you of 19 May, please find enclosed copy of my cover letter of 8 June to Chief Superintendent Jerry Savill of Bethnal Green Police Station regarding my request under the Data Protection Act 1998 for a copy of the statement that was written by Detective Constable Alexander Head on my behalf in Bethnal Green Police Station on 27 April in relation to the assault on me in the canteen of the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February.

I can confirm that in the absence of an update, this letter to CS Savill will be forwarded with its enclosures to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg as part of my application against the UK establishing violation, inter alia, of Article 3 (the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

On 9 May, I met with DC Head in Bethnal Green Police Station for a crime report update in respect of the assault on me on 17 February. As stated in my letter to you of 10 May, DC Head advised that he had spoken with the Director of the Whitechapel Mission, Minister Tony Miller, who confirmed that he was aware of what took place and the name of the suspect. On 10 May, as stated in my letter to you of 11 May, DC Head left a voice message for me (see transcript attached), wherein he states:

... I’ve spoken to Sue and Tony. They have stated to me they have spoken to all their staff members. None of them can remember an incident involving yourself taking place. Whether that is the case – whether they just do not want to come forward and speak to police, that probably sounds like the more reason behind itself.

I reconfirm that in light of the fact that no longer can any of the staff of the Whitechapel Mission remember an incident involving me taking place, CCTV footage of the assault on me in the canteen of the premises on 17 February is required for a prosecution/conviction.

As first stated in my letter to you of 5 May, Minister Miller advised me on 1 May that in a matter of days I would be in receipt of a letter from the management of the Whitechapel Mission in response to my allegations of harassment and intimidation in their premises. Please note that I am in receipt of no such letter to date.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

And this is the letter to the CS Savill of 8 June:

Dear CS Savill

Re: Request for information (Crime ref: 4204886/07)

I refer further to the enclosed copy of MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) Refusal Notice of 15 May 2007 in respect of my request to you of 5 May 2007 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the following information:

Copy of the statement that was written by Detective Constable Alexander Head on my behalf in Bethnal Green Police Station on 27 April 2007 in relation to the assault on me in the Whitechapel Mission on 17 February 2007.

I also re-enclose copy of my Subject Access Request form (3019a) of 21 May 2007 under the Data Protection Act 1998, which I forwarded to you on 21 May 2007 with postal order for £10 and proof of identity, as requested. Please note that this Subject Access Request includes the following attachments:

(i) chronology from 19 February 2007 to 27 April 2007 in respect of my efforts to have my statement taken;

(ii) copy of the statement I handed to DC Head on 27 April 2007, some of which he transcribed verbatim;

(iii) copy of my letter and enclosures of 19 May 2007 to the head of the Methodist church in the UK, Rev Graham Carter regarding harassment and intimidation in the Whitechapel Mission.

I note from the aforementioned Refusal Notice of 15 May 2007 that it may take up to 40 days from receipt of my completed application of 21 May 2007 to process my request.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

I am still working quite hard on Declan’s application to the European Court of Human Rights – following the lodgement of his case to the Court on 18 May by introductory letter – and not surprisingly there are plenty of highlights of the week. Here are some: Declan is handed two burnt toasts with his breakfast of cereal and coffee, and then told they can’t be replaced because he has just handled them (Thursday at 9.45am in the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre); my Big Issue pitch by Liverpool Street Station is taken out by a distributor for an escort service (Thursday from 12.30pm to 2.00pm at the George Pub); Declan has to speak with the deputy manager for a 60p refund on six lost prints (Saturday at 4.00pm in the Idea Store Whitechapel library); a homeless spills a full cup of milk over my (new) jeans, (new) bag and jumper without apology (this morning at 6.05am in the Whitechapel Mission).

The serious difficulties with Declan’s Big Issue pitch by Liverpool Street Station (at McDonalds) are far from resolved but he is waiting for The London Paper to involve themselves again before bringing the matter to the attention of the chair of the Board of Trustees of The Big Issue, and then the Charity Commission.

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Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Sunday, June 10, 2007

CCTV footage required for a prosecution/conviction

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