Church and State blog: Declan's claim against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's before Senior Circuit Judge Marc Dight CBE has been adjourned to a date to be fixed. St Mungo's TST is still unwilling to even take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs (WITH UPDATE 08/06/20)

Friday, April 03, 2020

Declan's claim against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's before Senior Circuit Judge Marc Dight CBE has been adjourned to a date to be fixed. St Mungo's TST is still unwilling to even take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs (WITH UPDATE 08/06/20)

You and Lola have assembled what to any reasonable observer should be grounds for immediate dismissal of any and all charges.
St Mungo's should consider itself fortunate to be accommodating such productive citizens who constantly work for community betterment which allegedly is the St Mungo's reason for being!

Donald A Collins
Founder and officer in several NGOs
FHI360, IPAS, ISAF and others

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 under "Church and State" on this blog's sidebar (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).

The Central London County Court is based at the Royal Courts of Justice.*

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.

* I had to upload this image of the Royal Courts of Justice to an alternative place on 18 May. It is another of my images in MediaFire that is now not appearing.

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. Yesterday Declan received the court's direction that the hearing of St Mungo's application to strike out Declan's claim has been adjourned to a date to be fixed, and that the Court will notify of the new date and remote hearing details in due course. Costs have been reserved. We are now facing a weekly periodic tenancy commencing on 17 May. Either our tenancy will not be renewed by Peabody or it cannot be renewed because we will not facilitate through any new or amended term(s) St Mungo's bullying and heavy-handed tactics that have included misrepresentation and outright lies. We, therefore, must reconcile ourselves to the real prospect of a destabilised tenancy and eviction back to the streets for the third time through no fault of our own (a threat to life). St Mungo's legal representative was unfazed to learn from Declan yesterday afternoon that this case is now before His Honour Judge Marc Dight CBE. The solicitor said that he had not yet received the court's direction, so Declan read it to him over the phone.

For the attention of Brendan Sarsfield, CEO, Peabody Trust

Nick McKnight
Partner
Batchelors Solicitors

Address removed for email

2 April 2020

Dear Mr McKnight,

Thank you for returning my phone call about the attached N24 form "General Form of Judgment or Order". This case is before His Honour Judge Dight CBE. The Court will notify of the new date and remote hearing details in due course.

I am shocked to learn from you that St Mungo's will be relying on the Witness Statement of IIyas Hussein to have my claim struck out (notwithstanding the reply I have given the court), and that your client's Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) is still unwilling to even take a phone call to confirm that I am a client of theirs. The same goes for my wife.

I also understand that St Mungo's is not willing to entertain the thought of deleting documentation held without my consent and that contains no less than 22 breaches of the Data Protection Act taking into account inaccurate, misleading and false information.[1] This documentation undermines and contradicts mutually agreed upon case notes that are loaded on the system, and is held in contravention of written assurances given to the same court in 2016.

As I understand it, your defence rests on the fact that I have managed to sustain my tenancy and therefore do not need the support a tenancy sustainment team can provide. This argument fails to take into consideration one of four primary goals of TST support to ensure that clients do not face homelessness again; namely, helping them "achieve financial independence" ("Clearing House at 25", page 10). It is unconscionable that St Mungo's TST is no longer willing to even vouch for the fact that I am a client of the Mayor of London's TST North programme. This is the only way I have to smooth over living for four years on the streets of London, having been twice made homeless through no fault of my own, and no explanation has been provided to the court or me for the withdrawal of this most basic support relating to the goal of my financial independence.

The Peabody Trust has not replied to my email below. I would, therefore, prefer if the hearing of your application to strike out my claim were held before my fixed-term tenancy expires on 17 May. However, the BT conference call you say you would be willing to arrange would put me at a distinct disadvantage being unrepresented. Indeed, I remain of the view as expressed earlier by you to the court: "Our view is that an adjournment would be appropriate, and that it is not a matter which could be conducted by telecon due to the Claimant being unrepresented." My only option may be to make a submission to the court by email, copied to you, proposing a further adjournment until such time as Covid-19 poses less of a threat to me as someone who is in the at-risk group.

I await to learn from Peabody whether it is their intention to renew my tenancy like for like on 17 May. As matters stand, it would appear from observation and evidence that there is an attempt afoot either to coerce my wife and me to move on against our best interests, or to have us evicted through misrepresentation and outright lies (a threat to life).

Yours sincerely,

Declan Heavey

[1] Declan only received this documentation three days after his filing in court and service of his reply to an outrageous witness statement upon which St Mungo's application to have his claim struck out relies. It is even repeatedly claimed in this documentation that Declan is not currently working. St Mungo's knows full well that both he and I have part-time jobs as employees of Network for Church Monitoring. Despite the fact that we have had no dealings with the Department for Work and Pensions during our current tenancy, the Department has twice had our Housing Benefit suspended, having notified Newham Council on both occasions that we had vacated, according to the Council. (The second of these two suspensions of housing benefit occurred two working days before the above-mentioned trial in 2016, and the benefit was reinstated the day after the trial.)

HHJ Marc Dight CBE is a Senior Circuit Judge at the County Court at Central London. Part of his role, as the Lead Diversity and Community Relations Judge is to encourage greater diversity within the judiciary. There are currently over a 100 diversity and community relations judges (DCRJs) from the courts and tribunals. Judge Dight is assisted in this leadership role by his deputy, Judge Tan Ikram, sworn in as Deputy Senior Senior District Judge (Chief Magistrate) in 2017. "Judges Dight and Ikram have set up a pioneering roundtable discussion between a range of DCRJs and some of the most senior imams in the UK," reported the Counsel magazine in February 2018. "Judges and clerics both benefited in having a greater mutual understanding of their respective roles and of the constraints and challenges. The open discussion that took place at the Old Bailey has paved the way for further engagement work with the Muslim community and indeed all faith groups." Earlier this afternoon Declan received this email from the Public Interest Law Centre:

Dear Declan,

I hope you are keeping well.

Following our phone conversation a couple of weeks ago, I further discussed your case with my colleagues. Unfortunately, we are unable to advise or represent you at this time. The Public Interest Law Centre is a small not-for-profit organisation with two solicitors and we do not have any capacity at this time and for the foreseeable future.

Kindest regards,

PILC

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 on 12 February. He has been waiting since 25 February for NatWest to confirm who subsequently cancelled the standing order and why his salary wasn't paid. His salary continues to be paid online by quick transfer from the business account to his personal account.

15 May: Royal Bank of Scotland: Despite his earlier dealings with the RBS Executive Response Team, Declan has been waiting almost three months 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 case ref. PNX-3576860-D6B8)

Updated in this blog post on 15 May 2020

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

Update 8 June 2020

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

What the issue in these court proceedings boils down to is whether the court will decide that Declan and I should live in a destabilised tenancy that inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life, simply because the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's Tenancy Sustainment Team in North London (TST North) will not even take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs. The court must surely find that this is not proportionate and lawful.

8 June: Peabody DAY 23: Declan has brought to the court's attention new evidence connecting the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's to the destabilisation of our tenancy that inhibits our ability to exercise our rights and poses a threat to his life

From My Picks

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

Declan taught PE in Glenstal Abbey, one of Ireland's top schools.

2 June: In the Matter of: Mr. and Mrs. Declan Heavey. Declan receives a character reference from America for the court and this blog that completely and utterly discredits the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's smear documentation against him in particular. We are in a flat that falls under the Mayor's Rough Sleepers Initiative

"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

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

Friday, April 03, 2020

Declan's claim against the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's before Senior Circuit Judge Marc Dight CBE has been adjourned to a date to be fixed. St Mungo's TST is still unwilling to even take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of theirs (WITH UPDATE 08/06/20)

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