No internet and we are paying British Telecom £55 per month. BT Infinity for the fastest fibre speeds? (WITH UPDATE)

UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

Part 1 (10 December 2015): My laptop rendered useless for work in an unprecedented attack that may prove to be terminal (VIDEO)





UPDATE: Almost four hours later and we still have no internet on one of three laptops:


Our broadband provider is British Telecom (BT) but I am also mindful of Edward Snowden's revelation that Telecoms, internet providers, encryption and internet security companies are not only cooperating with the US National Security Agency (NSA) and UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) on a daily basis, but they provide them with back doors into supposedly secure software. This is paragraph 12 of Declan's recent updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in respect of GCHQ.

HEAVEY v. THE UNITED KINGDOM

COMMUNICATION SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER
THE FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE INTERNATIONAL
COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations re the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in the "4 D's": deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive. It has been branded by the press as the spy agency's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until 2014, JTRIG has developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on GCHQ established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. Simon Davies, president of the London-based Privacy International, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"

Related blog post 25 March 2016: Threat to life: Updated complaint to the United Nations



'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' - Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

About Church and State

Letter from our Chairman

Donations are our only source of income to keep our Church and State website going, so even a small amount will make a big difference! An overview of the e-books we have published so far is available at Church and State Press here. All proceeds from these four e-books go to Network for Church Monitoring with the authors' permission.



Purchase straight from Amazon's Kindle Store:

From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013 for $4.67

The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy for $6.64

American Democracy and the Vatican: Population Growth and National Security for $4.99

The Pope and the New Apocalypse: The Holy War Against Family Planning for $2.99

The Mayor of London's Clearing House service (run by St Mungo's) takes Declan to the brink of a small claims court action for the second time in two months

The Mayor of London's Clearing House service, operated for the Mayor by St Mungo's, has taken us to the brink of two small claims court actions under the Data Protection Act 1998 in the last two months. In the last two years we have brought four court actions to court orders just to keep a roof over our heads, including three against the Greater London Authority (GLA). The next time Declan has to file a case in some court or other, our latest dispute with GLA Clearing House over its handling of our personal information - which was only resolved yesterday - will be dealt with as in (iii) below.

For our next court action

... To pick out three particular historical examples fuelling this belief [re St Mungo's] that involve a High Court action and the threat of two small claims court actions:

(i) During the second period the Claimant and his wife spent on the street between April 2013 and May 2014, St Mungo's (then called Broadway) denied them support to access the private rented sector despite the fact that they had the funds to do so. On 29 August 2013, the Claimant filed a claim in the High Court for judicial review against Commissioner of Police for the City of London Adrian Leppard and Home Secretary Theresa May, arguing that it was unreasonable for the Police Force to refuse to ask the charity to help them break an alleged accommodation blockade whilst at the same time threatening them with hosings by street cleaners. Deputy High Court Judge Bidder ruled: "The refusal of the First Defendant to ask the charity 'Broadway' to engage or help the Claimant and his wife with their welfare or accommodation is not arguably unreasonable. It is not its job to intervene in any disagreement between a charity and those seeking that charity's help."

(ii) On 8 May 2015 District Judge Brooks sitting at the County Court at Central London declared that the Single Homeless Project had "acted unlawfully in holding or uploading information about the Claimant relating to his debts, his employment status and an alleged mental health condition", and ordered the charity to pay damages to him for distress of £750. However, three months later, following a subject access request, the Claimant discovered that St Mungo's had failed to comply with the court order which also requested that it remove from its website any information about him and his wife "in relation to debts that they have, their employment status and to specifically remove the word 'grandiose'." It took St Mungo's a further six months, and the threat on 11 February 2016 of an immediate small claims court action, to finally remove all inaccurate financial and other information held against the Claimant and his wife on the Clearing House system.

(iii) On 5 April 2016 the Claimant issued St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair a Letter Before Claim in respect of the handling of his and his wife's personal information on the Clearing House system. The Claimant challenged as misleading Clearing House's decision to mark their Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) support as closed when Housing First ceased on 31 March 2015 because "an exception was made for you in that you were not required to engage with TST", according to Mr Sinclair in an email dated 16 February 2016. The GLA had repeatedly falsely accused the Claimant and his wife in court papers of refusing support, something it could not have done had their support status been marked as 'open'. It took St Mungo's a further two weeks, and the threat of an immediate small claims court action, to finally change the Claimant and his wife's status to 'open' on 18 April 2016.

Heavey v St Mungo's

Background

3. The Claimant is a former teacher and his wife a former psychologist. They have no children. They are employees of the London-based Network for Church Monitoring (N4CM), the Claimant as the company's Managing Director and his wife as Webmaster of N4CM's website called "Church and State". Edd Doer, President of Americans for Religious Liberty: "Let me recommend an important website churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well designed and exciting website covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out."

4. The Claimant and his wife have been forced to sleep rough on the streets of London for almost 4 years in total – from 4 November 2006 to 13 July 2009, and again from 14 April 2013 to 17 May 2014. Before coming off the street the second time, the Mayor of London's Clearing House service, operated for the Mayor by St Mungo's, matched them to a property owned by Family Mosaic Housing Association. They moved into this property on 17 May 2014 as clients of the Greater London Authority ("GLA") Housing First project, with support being provided by the Single Homeless Project ("SHP"), one of three charitable organisations funded by the GLA to operate the Housing First service within the Greater London Authority area.

5. Housing First is an internationally acclaimed programme for people with a history of rough sleeping, the core principles of which are the provision of permanent accommodation and non-compulsory support (Johnsen with Teixeira, 2010). These principles are reflected in the funding agreement of 13 March 2014 between the GLA and SHP, which provides that "Clients who meet the criteria for a Housing First offer will be offered long term tenancies…. Long term tenancies would mean for a minimum of two years with the possibility to extend and preferably for the lifetime of the client ... Whilst the client is under no obligation to engage with other support services the Housing First worker will work with the client to give them information on services that the client could access."

6. On 4 September 2014, less than four months into the Claimant and his wife's tenancy, the Claimant received an email from SHP informing him for the first time that GLA Housing First was a pilot project which would come to an end on 31 March 2015, stating that "Clearing House has asked that clients who want to remain in their accommodation and who are managing their tenancies well, are referred back to the clearing house for them to assess. They will then assess these clients to ensure they feel they are able to manage the tenancy with TST support."

7. GLA Clearing House departs significantly from the key principles of the Housing First model, in that it does not provide the permanent accommodation and voluntary support characteristic of Housing First. It requires clients to engage with the GLA's commissioned Tenancy Sustainment Team ("TST"), formally provided by Look Ahead and now provided by St Mungo's; clients are expected to comply with holistic support plans; and "eligibility for flats, issued on two-year renewable Assured Shorthold Tenancies, terminates when individuals are deemed to no longer require support to live independently" (Johnsen and Teixeira, 2012).

8. The Claimant wrote on numerous occasions to SHP and provided the GLA with two pre-action protocol letters protesting his and his wife's referral to GLA Clearing House, but to no avail. Finally, on 18 June 2015, the Claimant filed at the High Court an application for permission to apply for a judicial review against the GLA. The GLA in its Grounds of Opposition to the Claimant's claim for judicial review stated: "At the end of the Housing First pilot, the tenants would revert to being standard Clearing House tenants and as such would fall to be referred to the TST like all other Clearing House tenants…. The GLA, acting reasonably and within its statutory powers, was entitled to choose Clearing House as a replacement for the Housing First pilot."

9. By order dated 12 August 2015, High Court Judge Lavender refused the Claimant permission to bring judicial review proceedings on the grounds that his claim form should have been filed within three months after the grounds to make the claim arose with SHP's email of 4 September 2014, and that the GLA had not committed a violation of the applicable law by referring him and his wife from GLA Housing First to GLA Clearing House, thereby terminating their eligibility for their flat within one year of the commencement of their tenancy because they are able to live independently.

10. On 10 September 2015 the Claimant filed a claim for damages in the Central London County Court against the GLA for depriving him of a review of its decision to refer him and his wife to GLA Clearing House. He cited Connors v UK (2004) in saying that the legal framework applying to the referral decision that had deprived him of a review had not provided him and his wife with sufficient procedural protection of their rights.

11. At a jurisdictional hearing on 3 February 2016, District Judge Silverman ruled that "The County Court does not have jurisdiction to hear the matter pursuant to CPR Part 11". He rebuked counsel acting for the GLA for saying that the Claimant had refused support, clarifying that there is a distinction to be made between refusing support and not accepting coercive support. He also spoke in his judgment of the "home" the Claimant and his wife have made for themselves with their own money, how impressed he was with the Claimant's behaviour in court, and the commitment he had received in court from the said counsel to arrange round-table talks to try to come to some agreement.

Our access to our Church and State website is blocked for the umpteenth time

Our chairman in North Carolina, Dr Stephen Mumford, pays SiteGround $1,000 a year to ensure that our Church and State website runs smoothly, even with 100,000 daily visitors. We actually have a very good Cloud hosting package (2x3.0 GHz CPU Cores, CentOS, 4GB RAM, and 20GB SSD), which is why we shouldn't be experiencing this sort of non-access to our site. Here is paragraph 12 of Declan's recent updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

HEAVEY v. THE UNITED KINGDOM

COMMUNICATION SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER
THE FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations on the subject of harassment, surveillance and interception of communications by the UK's Security Service (MI5) and/or Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) over a period dating back to September 2003

12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in the "4 D's": deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive. It has been branded by the press as the spy agency's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until 2014, JTRIG has developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on GCHQ established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. Simon Davies, president of the London-based Privacy International, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"

Related blog post 1 (25 March 2016): "Threat to life: Updated complaint to the United Nations"

TRENDING TODAY



1. Humans will be extinct in 100 years says eminent scientist

2. Catholic Archbishop says domestic violence is caused by women ‘not obeying men’

3. The Top 5 Scariest Things Catholic Bishops Have Said About Women

4. Eight Reasons Why Christianity Is False

5. American Woman Jailed In Notoriously Brutal Prison, All Because Her Baby Was Stillborn

6. When the American debate about abortion was sane – and why that changed

7. Irish American Cardinal Raymond Burke blames women for church’s problems

8. 11 reasons Why Christianity and its God should be thrown into the dustbin of history




'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' - Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

About Church and State

Letter from our Chairman

An overview of the e-books we have published so far is available at Church and State Press here. All proceeds from these four e-books go to Network for Church Monitoring with the authors' permission.



Purchase straight from Amazon's Kindle Store:

From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013 for $4.67

The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy for $6.64

American Democracy and the Vatican: Population Growth and National Security for $4.99

The Pope and the New Apocalypse: The Holy War Against Family Planning for $2.99

Excerpt from our small claims court case against St Mungo's under the Data Protection Act 1998: Some history with this charity that runs the Mayor of London's Clearing House service

This process would make George Orwell squirm.

Keep going.

- A friend in Washington DC

Is an agreement with the Mayor of London's Clearing House service, operated for the Mayor by St Mungo's, worth the paper it is written on? Last February, after a number of court actions (see below), it was finally agreed with St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair and Clearing House Manager Kate Moon that going forward support to sustain our supported housing tenancy would be non-coercive so our tenancy agreement could be renewed by our housing association landlord next month. However, the Clearing House has failed to update its records with this information in breach of principle 4 of the Data Protection Act 1998 which states that "personal data shall be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date"; thereby threatening the renewal of our tenancy. Declan brought his Letter Before Claim to the attention of Mayor of London Boris Johnson last week but we remain convinced that he will be filing this case in the Central London County Court before the end of next week.

Paragraph 16 of Declan's Skeleton Argument for the County Court at Central London (Data Protection) re the attempted sabotage of the renewal of our supported housing tenancy by the Mayor of London's Clearing House service, operated for the Mayor by St Mungo's

16. The Claimant and his wife believe that the recent decision of St Mungo's to want to discuss "timescales" for the opening of their support case on the Clearing House system is no more than an attempt to sabotage the renewal of their two-year supported housing tenancy in May 2016. To pick out two particular historical examples fuelling this belief that involve a High Court action and the threat of an immediate small claims court action:

(i) During the second period the Claimant and his wife spent on the street between April 2013 and May 2014, St Mungo’s (then called Broadway) denied them support to access the private rented sector despite the fact that they had the funds to do so. On 29 August 2013, the Claimant filed a claim in the High Court for judicial review against Commissioner of Police for the City of London Adrian Leppard and Home Secretary Theresa May, arguing that it was unreasonable for the Police Force to refuse to ask the charity to help them break an alleged accommodation blockade whilst at the same time threatening them with hosings by street cleaners. Deputy High Court Judge Bidder ruled: "The refusal of the First Defendant to ask the charity 'Broadway' to engage or help the Claimant and his wife with their welfare or accommodation is not arguably unreasonable. It is not its job to intervene in any disagreement between a charity and those seeking that charity's help."

(ii) On 8 May 2015 District Judge Brooks sitting at the County Court at Central London declared that the Single Homeless Project had "acted unlawfully in holding or uploading information about the Claimant relating to his debts, his employment status and an alleged mental health condition", and ordered the charity to pay damages to him for distress of £750. However, three months later, following a subject access request, the Claimant discovered that St Mungo's had failed to comply with the court order which also requested that it remove from its website any information about him and his wife "in relation to debts that they have, their employment status and to specifically remove the word 'grandiose'." It took St Mungo’s a further six months, and the threat on 11 February 2016 of an immediate small claims court action, to finally remove all inaccurate financial and other information held against the Claimant and his wife on the Clearing House system.

HEAVEY v. THE UNITED KINGDOM

COMMUNICATION SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER
THE FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

We have brought the following four actions to court orders just to keep a roof over our heads for the past two years:

Court action 1: High Court v Greater London Authority (1 September 2014), para 37(iii), p 13.

Court action 2: County Court v Single Homeless Project (12 September 2014), para 37(iii), p 13.

Court action 3: High Court v Greater London Authority (18 June 2015), para 36, p 12.

Court action 4: County Court v Greater London Authority (10 September 2015), para 36, p 12.

Related blog post 25 March 2016: "Threat to life: Updated complaint to the United Nations"

***

We were evicted from our previous flat on 14 March 2013 because according to our then live-in landlady's ex-husband, Dr Nigel McKenzie, a consultant psychiatrist in Highgate Mental Health Centre, our flat was needed for somebody with a mental illness. As Declan states in paragraph 8 of his complaint to the UN above, former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler also lived with human rights activist Belinda McKenzie in the same political 'safe house' for a couple of years until 2007. According to BBC Panorama, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair"; he was jailed for seven weeks in 2002 for breaking the Official Secrets Act. It is indeed unfortunate that Shayler declared himself the Messiah in 2007, became a squatter, and was subsequently ridiculed in the press for changing his name to Delores Kane. A New Statesman article published in September 2006 featuring Shayler and Belinda gives no indication that Shayler believed he was the Messiah at that time; whilst a Daily Mail interview with him the following year reveals he believed himself to be Jesus by June 2007. He has never regained his normal self.

"The MI5 Messiah: Why David Shayler believes he's the son of God" (15 August 2007) https://t.co/nTqlqxonnS
"Call me Delores, says MI5 whistleblower David Shayler" (16 July 2009) https://t.co/tu7yvdh2ko pic.twitter.com/Jl7HsIvUyu

— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) August 20, 2021

"Cross-dressing MI5 whistleblower David Shayler is evicted from farmhouse" (20 August 2009) https://t.co/HuegWpZrbB pic.twitter.com/FlAMSfVYBb

— Church and State (@ChurchAndStateN) August 20, 2021

The Esquire article below* is mentioned in a Guardian article dated 27 March 2012. It is an eye-opener, highlighting the monitoring and surveillance that Shayler had to live with back in 2000, and the contradictory briefings and slanders that were coming out of the British establishment and the media. The author, Dr Eamonn O'Neill, is a lecturer in journalism at Strathclyde University.

*On 2 May 2013, Issuu removed this pdf from my Issuu account following a copyright complaint by Hearst Communications. I had uploaded the article to my Issuu account in December 2012. In March 2013, when last I checked, the article had been viewed more than 15,000 times. It can be read here.

BBC PANORAMA: The David Shayler Affair (August 1998)

Former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair", according to BBC Panorama. He was jailed for seven weeks in 2002 for breaking the Official Secrets Act.

Declan's Small Claims Court action: the Mayor of London's Clearing House's wrongful closure of our support case constitutes a threat to life

Network for Church Monitoring does not come for free. We have twice been forced to live on the streets - from 4 November 2006 to 13 July 2009, and again from 14 April 2013 to 15 May 2014; almost 4 years in total. Given our recent dealings with the Mayor of London's Clearing House service, which is operated for the Mayor by St Mungo's, we are now convinced that there is an agenda to sabotage the renewal next month of our supported housing tenancy. To try to avert a third High Court action against the Greater London Authority (see my previous blog post), Declan has put himself in a position to file a claim in the county court against St Mungo's from 20 April onwards for the wrongful closure of our support case. This is his letter before action which was emailed and posted to St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair yesterday:

Paragraph 40 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations re the threat to life posed by the suspected sabotage of our tenancy by the Mayor of London's Greater London Authority (GLA) Clearing House service, run for the Mayor by St Mungo's

40. The Applicant may have no option but to challenge in the High Court (Judicial Review) the decision of GLA Clearing House to breach its February 2016 agreement with him to provide voluntary support. As the matter stands, and as the Applicant has repeatedly pointed out in court papers, there is a threat to life and wellbeing in this case taking the following range of factors into account:

(i) In May 2014 the Applicant and his wife took the significant decision to spend on furnishings the deposit they had for a private sector flat after having been informed that as GLA Housing First clients they had the possibility to extend their tenancy agreement beyond the expiry of the initial term. Family Mosaic provided the flat without any furnishings of any kind save cooker, fridge and carpets. In order to render the flat habitable, the Applicant even had to install shelves that had been removed from the kitchen and replace curtain rails, curtains and net curtains that had been removed from bedroom and living room windows.

(ii) The Applicant is in his mid-fifties and during his and his wife's first period of homelessness was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. In April 2014, during their second period of homelessness, the Applicant was diagnosed with asthma and a chest infection (see para 31 above). Asthma is a chronic or lifelong disease that can be serious, even life threatening; pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses are much more dangerous for asthmatics than other people.

(iii) Back on the street the Applicant and his wife will be restricted to sleeping on night buses despite the Applicant's asthma and susceptibility to pneumonia, as they had been prior to coming off the street as a result of an excessive use of force by police officers to move them out of where they had been sleeping that included the Applicant's wife being threatened with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer (see para 32 above). Since the escalation of the migration crisis this past summer, the police have more powers to move rough sleepers on without having to resort to unlawful means to do so.

HEAVEY v. THE UNITED KINGDOM

COMMUNICATION SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER
THE FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

1st period sleeping rough, paras 20-22, pp 7-8.

2nd period sleeping rough (St Mungo's): paras 28-33, pp 9-11.

Some recent history with St Mungo's (11 February 2016): "Complaint to the Mayor of London: Declan is engaged in a battle royal with the Mayor's Clearing House service (run by St Mungo's) over data held against us in defiance of a court order issued last May" (UN complaint, para 37(v), p 13)

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' - Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

About Church and State

Letter from our Chairman

An overview of the e-books we have published so far is available at Church and State Press here. All proceeds from these four e-books go to Network for Church Monitoring with the authors' permission.



Purchase straight from Amazon's Kindle Store:

From the Dissident Left: A Collection of Essays 2004-2013 for $4.67

The Life and Death of NSSM 200: How the Destruction of Political Will Doomed a U.S. Population Policy for $6.64

American Democracy and the Vatican: Population Growth and National Security for $4.99

The Pope and the New Apocalypse: The Holy War Against Family Planning for $2.99

Just to keep a roof over our heads: After two County Court actions, we are now looking at a third High Court action against the Mayor of London's Greater London Authority in two years

Your efforts have been successful to date and Sally and I have no doubt some sensible higher authority will ultimately see the disgraceful treatment you have been accorded.
- Two friends in Washington DC

What will it take to get a draft version of the agreement for support we will be asked to sign this month before our supported housing tenancy is up for renewal next month? For two years we have been fighting the Greater London Authority (GLA) in the courts on the issue of coercive support that breaches the terms of our tenancy agreement. Following the jurisdictional hearing of Declan's latest County Court action against the GLA, it was finally agreed in writing last February that going forward our support would be voluntary; however, the Mayor of London's Clearing House service, operated for the Mayor by St Mungo's, informed us on 9 March that a meeting will take place in the next week or so to discuss an agreement for support - as if such a meeting had not already taken place and an agreement struck. We, therefore, may be left with no option but to challenge the GLA in the High Court for the third time in two years for the decision of GLA Clearing House to breach its February 2016 agreement with us. With this in mind last Friday Declan emailed his updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to no effect if the title of my blog post last night is anything to go by: "Our access to our Church and State website is blocked for the third time in three weeks, and the second time in two days".

Paragraph 39 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations re the suspected sabotage of our tenancy by the Mayor of London's Clearing House service, operated for the Mayor by St Mungo's

39. At the hearing on 3 February 2016, District Judge Silverman rebuked counsel acting for the GLA for saying that the Applicant had refused support, clarifying that there is a distinction to be made between refusing support and not accepting coercive support. He spoke in summation of the "home" the Applicant and his wife have made for themselves with their own money, how impressed he was with the Applicant's behaviour in court, and the commitment he received from the said counsel to arrange round table talks. The Applicant met with St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair on 25 February 2016, with the manager of the GLA Clearing House in attendance. It was agreed subsequently in writing that support would be voluntary (see annex 20 and 21, pp 60-65). However, by email of 9 March 2016 the manager of GLA Clearing House informed the Applicant that a further meeting would be arranged in April 2016 to discuss an agreement for support. The Applicant and his wife suspect that this is a manoeuvre to sabotage the renewal of their 2-year supported housing tenancy in May 2016, the week after Family Mosaic had emailed the Applicant a draft version of their renewed tenancy agreement for signing. In addition, St Mungo's has ignored a request from the Applicant for a draft version of the agreement for support that he and his wife will be asked to sign the month before their tenancy is up for renewal.

HEAVEY v. THE UNITED KINGDOM

COMMUNICATION SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER
THE FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS

Court action 1: High Court v Greater London Authority (1 September 2014), para 37(iii), p 13.

Court action 2: County Court v Single Homeless Project (12 September 2014), para 37(iii), p 13.

Court action 3: High Court v Greater London Authority (18 June 2015), para 36, p 12.

Court action 4: County Court v Greater London Authority (10 September 2015), para 36, p 12.

Related blog post 1 (25 March 2016): "Threat to life: Updated complaint to the United Nations"

It's not like we do not have a long history when it comes to St Mungo's. They left us living on the streets for over a year despite the fact that we could pay a deposit on a flat and one month's rent up front (UN complaint, para 28, p 9). On 29 August 2013, Declan filed a claim in the High Court for judicial review against Commissioner of Police for the City of London Adrian Leppard and Home Secretary Theresa May following the decision of the former not to ask the charity (then called Broadway) to engage with us in relation to our welfare and access to its service for supporting clients to find accommodation in the private rented sector. Declan argued in his claim form that it was unreasonable for the City of London Police to refuse to ask the charity to help us find accommodation whilst at the same time threatening us with hosings by street cleaners (UN complaint, para 29, p 10).



Deputy High Court Judge Bidder ruled: "The refusal of the First Defendant to ask the charity 'Broadway' to engage or help the Claimant and his wife with their welfare or accommodation is not arguably unreasonable. It is not its job to intervene in any disagreement between a charity and those seeking that charity's help."



More recent history with St Mungo's (11 February 2016): "Complaint to the Mayor of London: Declan is engaged in a battle royal with the Mayor's Clearing House service (run by St Mungo's) over data held against us in defiance of a court order issued last May" (UN complaint, para 37(v), p 13).