Church and State blog: Threat to life: Declan entered into the court file his opening statement for Friday's hearing, now adjourned. We are also being threatened with insurmountable debt just to get the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's to vouch over the phone that we are clients of theirs

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Threat to life: Declan entered into the court file his opening statement for Friday's hearing, now adjourned. We are also being threatened with insurmountable debt just to get the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's to vouch over the phone that we are clients of theirs

I have looked at the long correspondence regarding your tenancy and clearly you have made a powerful case for the unconscionable behavior of the agency in control of your tenancy.

Donald A. Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington, D.C.

Our Church and State website has no less than 59 Nobel Laureates on it despite the never-ending assault on our email; see paragraph 2 of this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population". Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

11 December: St Mungo's: Declan has filed in court his reply to an outrageous witness statement from this Mayor of London-commissioned charity. We are threatened with insurmountable debt just to get them to vouch over the phone that we are clients of theirs [1]

Paragraph 1 of Declan's reply to the St Mungo's witness statement reads as follows:

1. The Defendant's witness statement dated 27 November 2019, written by its Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) Service Manager Ilyas Hussein, contains a series of false claims and omits and misrepresents key facts pertaining to its tenancy sustainment support. This in itself would indicate that the Claimant has a pleadable case against the Defendant which has some real prospect of success, and that the Defendant's request for costs is abusive and unjustified.

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[1] Paragraphs 11 and 12 relate to Active Newham (of Newham Council) and Newham Ability Camp, respectively.

Declan and I are housed in a flat that is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. Alongside our tenancy is access to the Mayor's Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) at St Mungo's. It has been acknowledged by the Greater London Authority in court papers that we can live independently – we do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Our needs are solely related to the harassment, discrimination, intimidation and victimisation we routinely face. This is typified by the behaviour of St Mungo's during proceedings currently before the court. This afternoon Declan asked the court to include in the court file his opening statement for Friday's hearing. The Court subsequently informed him that the hearing has been adjourned. Our tenancy now will almost certainly become periodic immediately after the fixed date in our contract has expired on 17 May. Either our tenancy will not be renewed or it cannot be renewed because we will not facilitate through any new term St Mungo's bullying and heavy-handed tactics that have included misrepresentation and outright lies. We, therefore, face a destabilised tenancy and eviction back to the streets through no fault of our own (a threat to life). St Mungo's, of course, knows this and court proceedings do not seem to faze them or serve to abate their unconscionable behaviour.

Opening Statement

As stated in paragraph 1 of my reply to the witness statement of Ilyas Hussein, St Mungo's application to strike out my claim is predicated on a series of false claims and omits and misrepresents key facts pertaining to its tenancy sustainment support. This in itself would indicate that I have a pleadable case which has some real prospect of success and that St Mungo's request for costs is abusive and unjustified.

I have been treated unlawfully in two respects. First, it is unconscionable that I should face the prospect of eviction back to the streets (a death threat) rather than St Mungo's Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) take a phone call to confirm that I am a client of theirs. The ongoing maintenance of this position, whether by a case stated or otherwise, is harsh, unjust and unreasonable; it therefore constitutes a breach of a duty of care owed by St Mungo's to me. The same goes for my wife.

Secondly, I seek the leave of the court to submit a supplemental witness statement for the additional purpose of requesting that the court strike out documentation that is in serial breach of the Data Protection Act. I only received this documentation three days after my filing in court and service of my reply to the witness statement of Mr Hussein. In total the offending documentation contains no less than 22 breaches of the Data Protection Act, taking into account inaccurate, misleading and false information. It is even repeatedly claimed in this documentation that I am not currently working. St Mungo's knows full well that I have a part-time job as an employee of Network for Church Monitoring.

I have never consented to these support plans and related documentation, and it would also be my intention to appeal to the good graces of the court to permanently strike this sort of documentation from the record. My tenancy cannot be stabilised so long as such documentation can again be used by TST Service to either try to coerce my wife and me to move on against our best interests or have us evicted through misrepresentation and outright lies. It was agreed with me in 2016 that there would be no support plan. St Mungo's also assured the court in 2016 that they would ensure that the records that their staff keep are agreed by me.

St Mungo's to the same court in 2016

23. St Mungo's is keen to work with Mr Heavey to ensure that he remains securely housed and does not face homelessness again. We are willing to work with him to ensure that the records that our staff keep are agreed by him. We will continue to try to address any of his concerns.

Nonetheless, Ilyas Hussein has most recently written that he does not believe that "the support TST can provide will be of any assistance to you at this time". And this, notwithstanding current court proceedings.

Declan has been assured by the Court that his reply to Ilyas Hussein's witness statement was part of the file that was referred to DDJ Whiteley for directions as to how to proceed.

Batchelors Solicitors are acting for St Mungo's.

https://www.batchelors.co.uk/

St Mungos management were repeatedly warned by their staff via Unite that their actions weere unethical, damaged the work of front line staff and were likley to be unlawful. The same senior managers remain in place https://t.co/ZSXwq3Xd81 #homelessness #ukhousing @labhomeless_cam
— UniteHousingWorkers (@UniteHousing) November 5, 2019

In summation

What the issue in these court proceedings boils down to is whether the Court will decide that Declan and I should face the prospect of eviction back to the streets (a death threat) rather than St Mungo's take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs, and that such a position is not harsh, unjust and unreasonable. At St Mungo's Application Hearing to have his claim struck out (now adjourned), Declan will also seek the leave of the court to submit a supplemental witness statement to have struck out documentation in serial breach of the Data Protection Act, and that he only received three days after his filing in court and service of his reply to an outrageous witness statement upon which St Mungo's application relies.

Who can say that Declan does not have opposition?

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Headquarters in Gogarburn. The RBS owns National Westminster Bank (NatWest).

Declan currently has the Royal Bank of Scotland (along with NatWest Bank) before the Financial Ombudsman for the cancellation of a standing order on the Network for Church Monitoring business account without his knowledge or consent. And this after he received £100 compensation from the RBS in recognition of his time, travel costs and inconvenience in setting up this and another standing order last month.

24 March: Royal Bank of Scotland: Despite his earlier dealings with the RBS Executive Response Team, Declan has been waiting four weeks to learn from Natwest Bank who cancelled a standing order on the Network for Church Monitoring business account without his knowledge or consent (Financial Ombudsman Ref: PNX-3576860-D6B8).

"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 (1930-2020), (then) President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/honorary-associates/

Our list of 276 Honorary Associates includes 16 Nobel Prize laureates, 10 US National Medal of Science laureates and 12 knighted professors notwithstanding the excessive targeting of these three categories of emails in particular.

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

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[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

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Threat to life: Declan entered into the court file his opening statement for Friday's hearing, now adjourned. We are also being threatened with insurmountable debt just to get the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's to vouch over the phone that we are clients of theirs

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