N. Yorkshire Tories – Riders On the Storm

N. Yorkshire Tories – Riders On the Storm

• an ‘In My View’ report by NIGEL WARD, addressing the toxic issues that North Yorkshire Police & Crime Commissioner Julia MULLIGAN (elected at a cost of over £1M) is still proving incapable of tackling – financial jiggery-pokery at the now abolished North Yorkshire Police Authority; half a century of Savile/Jaconelli cover-up by the North Yorkshire Police; and the apparent immunity from investigation/prosecution of high-profile offenders within the (Tory) North Yorkshire ‘establishment’.

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IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

Following the broadcast, on Monday 10th February 2014, of the BBC documentary “Inside Out” (over 600,000 ‘live’ viewers, plus thousands more via the BBC i-Player and YouTube), Real Whitby has come to the attention of a far broader spectrum of readers and viewers. An unprecedented twelfth appearance in Private Eye has consolidated the massive increase in public awareness, and this has been further augmented by the features on UK Column LiveandSovereign Independent UK.

As anticipated, this has led to an overwhelming influx of input from members of the public who, heartened and empowered by the BBC’s vindication of the Real Whitby anti-corruption campaign, have come forward with credible personal testimony supporting the contention that corruption and cover-up is rife in North Yorkshire.

In particular, the volume of new evidence supporting Corruption Buster Tim HICKS’ allegations regarding Jimmy SAVILE associate and fellow paedophile Peter JACONELLI (former Mayor of Scarborough) confirms, beyond a shadow of doubt, not only that ex-Mayor of Scarborough Peter JACONELLI was a prolific and predatory paedophile who operated in and around Scarborough for half a century, but also that the authorities were fully aware of his activities – yet took no steps to put a stop to them. In short, SBC Councillor Geoff EVANS was right all along – “Ex-mayor was a sex pest”, as reported in the Scarborough News on 22nd February 2014.

In my view, it can only be a matter of time before a class action (similar to the class action against the BBC over the SAVILE crimes) is brought against Scarborough Borough Council and the North Yorkshire Police, who appear to have operated in utter dereliction of their duty of care to children – victims – for the past fifty year. Certainly, it is impossible for either authority to assert with conviction that allegations against Peter JACONELLI have ever been pursued diligently and ‘without fear or favour’.

Regular Real Whitby readers will know that I have been courteously and patiently asking North Yorkshire Police & Crime Commissioner Julia MULLIGAN (Con.) for well over a year now – since 14th December 2012, in fact, just three weeks after her election – to address these and other flagrant examples of  the two-tier approach to justice as practised in North Yorkshire.

NY-PCC Julia MULLIGAN (Con.) has ignored every one of my eleven emails, including my Open Letter of Appeal of 1st December 2013, which followed my meeting with her in Scarborough on 23rd October 2013, when she three times assured me that she would set a date to meet with me with a view to progressing a number of these very serious issues. (Click here to hear her say that for yourself).

NY-PCC Julia MULLIGAN (Con.) has even ignored my Open Letter. She has offered no date to meet with me. She has offered no indication whatsoever that my concerns are to be addressed at all.

But behind the scenes (i.e. behind closed doors), wheels are in motion.

Unfortunately, they are rolling in the wrong direction. Into the shadows.

According to a Scarborough News straw-poll, only two Scarborough residents questioned were able to recognise Julia MULLIGAN’s picture – (“Is that her from Eggheads”).

So, as the public ignores Julia MULLIGAN (and Julia MULLIGAN ignores the public), let us now examine three of the toxic issues that Julia MULLIGAN continues to ignore.

1. Jane KENYON and Carl LES: the Senior Officer Payments

Before proceeding, readers may wish to review Tim HICKS’ article on this topic, in which he describes how he was unlawfully prevented from performing a Public Rights Inspection (Tim is a Chartered Accountant) to examine in excess of half a million pounds of taxpayers money that was handed out to seven senior Officers – beyond the terms of their respective salaries – by the NYP Management Board (NYPA-MB), Chaired by Councillor Jane KENYON (Con.); Vice Chair Councillor Carl LES (Con.), by way of background to the update I will be presenting here.

In essence, former NYP Chief Constable Graham MAXWELL and his then Deputy Adam BRIGGS had been requested by NY-PCC Julia MULLIGAN (Con.) and present Chief Constable Dave JONES to repay c.£100,000 of the payments that appear to have been unlawfully authorised by the NYPA Management Board (i.e. KENYON, LES and company).

MAXWELL and BRIGGS firmly declined.

Subsequently, Julia MULLIGAN (Con.) told the Yorkshire Post:

• “As elected individuals, Police and Crime Commissioners have a duty to be accountable to the public. It is therefore regrettable that openness and transparency is being seen as political posturing, when in fact for the first time, the public now have the full facts available to them.”

“Full facts”? Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

On 27th November 2013, Tim THORNE lodged a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Office of the NY-PCC, seeking “the full facts” – including the legal advice provided to the NYPA Management Board ahead of its decision to authorise those extra-contractual payments.

Despite the fact that FOIA requests are required by law to be fulfilled within 20 working days (i.e. in this case, by 27th December 2013), the Office of the NY-PCC finally told Tim THORNE, on 18th February 2014, that the information was to be withheld on the grounds of it falling within the definition of ‘Legal Professional Privilege’.

But in this (linked) document (from June 2009 – six months before the payments were authorised) marked ‘RESTRICTED’ and ‘NOT FOR PUBLICATION’, we see (on Page 159) that the Chief Officer issues pertinent to the NYPA Management Board compromised only an oral report by Chief Executive Jeremy HOLDERNESS, “alerting the Board to a number of issues”.

Julia MULLIGAN has confirmed (in “Appendix 1″ of the Decision Notice) that the members of the NYPA-MB never had sight of the legal advice.

As far as can now be ascertained, the legal advice that was never provided in writing to the NYPA-MB is now not only being withheld from the public; the indications are that (at least as reported to them orally by Jeremy HOLDERNESS) it may actually have forewarned the Board against making payments that could be construed to be illegal – yet, in December 2009,  the NYPA-MB went ahead and authorised the payments anyway, without having examined the legal advice. Only Jeremy HOLDERNESS and (astonishingly) then Chief Constable Graeme MAXWELL had sight of the legal advice.

Of course, Councillor Jane KENYON‘s record of financial ineptitude stretches back to her disastrous term as Chief Financial Officer of bankrupt Californian venture Belvedere Computers Inc., in the early ‘eighties, through to the liquidation of Dales Timber Ltd., in the ‘noughties.

And County Councillor Carl LES – as was recently confirmed by the BBC – is incapable even of filling in his Mileage Expenses claim forms accurately, as the BBC “Inside Out” documentary has confirmed.

Small wonder, then, that the NYPA-MB was able to dole out over half a million pounds to senior Officers in such a an unaccountable (and apparently irretrievable way.

Or was it that Jeremy HOLDERNESS’s oral report actually misrepresented the legal advice? We may never know, because in June 2013, Jeremy HOLDERNESS unexpectedly (!) took early retirement from his £80K per annum position at the Office of the NY-PCC, conveniently drifting beyond the accountability horizon – like so many before him.

But there is much more to this story and I hope my colleague Tim THORNE will be reporting on it in greater detail presently.

2. Lisa DIXON: the JACONELLI cover-up

Of the many witnesses to provide first-hand-experience testimony of the sexual assaults committed by former Mayor of Scarborough Peter JACONELLI (Con.), none has been treated more shabbily than former-Scarborian Trevor HARRINGTON, who finally – one year after first lodging his complaint with SBC Leader Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) – has just recently been approached (by telephone) by PC Jon GRAINGE of the North Yorkshire Police regarding his allegations against Peter JACONELLI (Con.).

No disrespect to PC Jon GRAINGE, but it says a great deal about the importance NYP are attaching to their belated Peter JACONELLI investigation when they assign it to a Safer Neighbourhoods beat bobby, best know for his pursuit of a stolen push-bike in Thirsk.

It is noteworthy that NYP’s DC Alison MORRIS did make an earlier attempt to contact Trevor HARRINGTON (on 26th November 2013) – albeit at the wrong email address (her email was subsequently forwarded to Real Whitby), as provided to NYP by SBC’s Head of Legal & Democratic Services Lisa DIXON.

On whose instructions?

It would appear that we already know the answer to that question, because back on 22nd February 2013, Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) emailed a further witness to Peter JACONELLI’s paedophile activity, who had also alleged a Police/Council cover-up (this email, too, was subsequently forwarded to Real Whitby):

“Thank you for your e-mail re the above person [JACONELLI].

I have forwarded your e-mail to our Director of Legal Services for her information and attention.

Again, thank you for the information.

Most sincerely, tom fox”

And what happened next? You guessed it. Absolutely nothing. Nothing further was forthcoming, either from Lisa DIXON or from Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) himself.

Now tell me that there is no conspiracy to cover-up the Peter JACONELLI scandal.

And remember that the formerly camera-hogging Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) passed up the BBC “Inside Out” invitation to appear on screen to refute the allegations.

DC Alison MORRIS, by the way, has a significant paedophile conviction to her credit, but what could she be expected to achieve when Lisa DIXON had provided her with the wrong email address – a dead-end?

Incidentally, Judge Stephen ASHURST’s remarks when sentencing DC Alison MORRIS’s star conviction Robert Lorenzo KING in that paedophile case are eminently worthy of repetition:

• “I would also like to praise the victims for coming forward and having the courage to give evidence against this evil man. This case is a clear example, that despite the offences having taken place many years ago, we have been able to secure a conviction.”

Finally, someone has considered the victims. This is vital. The NSPCC investigation into the Jimmy SAVILE abuses concluded, too, that “victims were laughed at” or “ignored”. Conversely, Julia MULLIGAN, having secured her election on the promise of giving “a voice to victims”, will not even answer my emails.

And, significantly, Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) has not praised the victims of Peter JACONELLI (Con.) who have had the courage to come forward. One suspects that he may secretly have cursed them – for lifting the lid on a guilty secret.

Meanwhile, Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) is still dodging my question, first posed over a year ago on 18^th February 2013, in the public interest:

• “What is the intention of the Leader in respect of the many serious allegations, every bit as horrific as those against Jimmy SAVILE, against former Councillor and Mayor Peter JACONELLI, in respect of his status as Alderman of the Borough. Is there a process in train for the Council to adopt the same approach as in the SAVILE case?” 

The inference must be that Councillor Tom FOX (Con.) privately wishes that former Councillor Geoff EVANS (LibDem), Trevor HARRINGTON (and the many more who prefer not to have there names bandied about to be “laughed at” and “ignored”) had kept their mouths shut.

(In other news, Lisa DIXON has not been appointed to the position of Head of Legal & Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer at North Yorkshire County Council (as many of her colleagues have been hoping and praying). That position will be vacated by the present incumbent Carole DUNN on 31st March 2014. The new appointee, from 7th April 2014, is to be Barry KHAN, formerly Monitoring Officer and Solicitor of Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council (featured around the web as “Stockport’s very own Scarlet Pimpernel”), whose credentials would appear to encourage the view that nothing much is about to improve at County Hall).

Meanwhile, Scarborough Borough Council will meet in full session on Friday 28th February 2014 – but the name Peter JACONELLI (Con.) does not appear on the Agenda – and this despite the conclusions broadcast on the BBC “Inside Out” documentary two weeks ago.

Now tell me that there is no conspiracy to cover-up the Peter JACONELLI scandal.

3. Tom FOX: a Separate Allegation

On 23rd December 2013, I emailed SBC’s Lisa DIXON alerting her to a very serious allegation against SBC Leader Councillor Tom FOX (Con.), posted in the comments section of a Real Whitby article on 29th November 2013 under the name ‘malcolm’. In no sense did my email constitute a ‘Complaint’, rather, I was simply alerting her to the fact that a detailed allegation had been made against the Council Leader – in the public domain. And I quoted the comment in its entirety, pointing out to her that the comment alleged that:

1) That the subject (the author – ‘malcolm’) was arrested without charge in Scarborough on an unspecified date in 1987.

2) The subject was held for eight hours in a custody cell.

3) During this period, the subject was assaulted, causing actual bodily harm, in the custody cell by two (named) Police Officers, in the presence of an (unnamed) witness.

4) The subject’s mouth was seriously injured by one of the (named) Police Offers, using a key as a weapon.

5) The witness fled the scene and reported the matter to the subject’s solicitor – Thorpe & Co, Scarborough.

6) The desk (duty) Sergeant arranged for a (named) Police Officer to accompany the subject to Hospital for treatment.

7) Following suturing of the mouth wound, the subject was returned to the custody cell.

8) The subject made a complaint regarding the assault to the desk (duty) Sergeant.

9) Shortly thereafter, the subject was visited in the custody cell by a ranking Police Officer, who essentially bullied the subject into retracting his complaint.

10) The subject was released without charge.

11) The subject was the victim of a serious industrial accident in 1985, leaving him with a disabled right arm.

Clearly, ‘malcolm’ should not be difficult to identify. (It took me two phone calls to find him). The ranking Officer named in the allegation was none other than (then) Chief Inspector, (now) SBC Leader, Councillor Tom FOX (Con).

But Lisa DIXON did not respond to my email.

So I emailed her again on 6th February 2014, pressing her for a response to my earlier email.

This time, I did receive a response, marked ‘Confidential’ (a futile attempt to ‘gag’ me), in which Lisa DIXON informed me:

• “Your complaint has been referred to the Police’s Professional Standards Department.”

I responded immediately, pointing out that I had made no complaint; I had merely alerted her to the allegation made by ‘malcolm’, in the public domain, and asked her for a statement on behalf of the Council, for publication.

The Professional Standards Department of the North Yorkshire Police has not contacted Real Whitby. No effort would appear to have been made to identify ‘malcolm’, and my best information is that ‘malcolm’ has not been approached by the North Yorkshire Police.

My request to the North Yorkshire Police for confirmation that the foregoing allegations are now, after twenty-seven years, at last to be the subject of a diligent and even-handed investigation has elicited only the expected response – so no investigation will be undertaken until and unless the victim himself makes a formal complaint.

Apparently, the fact that the victim fears and mistrusts the North Yorkshire Police (ostensibly with some justification) cannot be taken into account. For the moment it seems that even SBC’s Director of Legal & Democratic Services Lisa DIXON cannot report serious allegations of Police brutality and perverting the course of justice. One wonders whether or not NY-PCC Julia MULLIGAN (Con.), the victims’ champion, may be able to succeed where others have failed?

So now tell me that there is no conspiracy to cover-up the Peter JACONELLI scandal – or to protect former Chief Inspector Tom FOX (Con.), who is reportedly telling close confidants that he will be leaving the Council soon – and “leaving a millionaire”.

In closing, I would like to make the following absolutely clear:

My criticism of some of the higher-ranking Officers of the North Yorkshire Police must never be understood to apply to the entire institution. There are (and have been) many exemplary Officers in North Yorkshire who are a credit to the finest traditions of British Policing; some of them have been very helpful to us in the course of our investigations – for which, my sincere thanks.

The same must be said of Scarborough Borough Council. Some of the Councillors and Officers, past and present, are as appalled as we are over the disgraceful conduct of what amounts, in reality, to only a relatively small percentage of public servants (they know who they are) who are giving the whole Council such a bad name. Again, the ‘good guys’ at the Council have been very helpful and my gratitude to them is without bounds. They are brave and principled people who deserve our respect and support.

I will not be identifying those who have quite literally taken their jobs (and pensions) in their hands to expose corruption; readers familiar with the Edinburgh case will appreciate why.

And, finally, I am not suggesting that every Conservative in the County of North Yorkshire is corrupt. Far from it. Some are possessed of unimpeachable integrity. They must be appalled at the mounting ignominy brought upon their Party by the gathering storm of condemnation that must inevitably engulf these names that arise again and again in the course of the Real Whitby investigations. All that remains is for those decent and honourable members to restore the common people, and above all the victims, to their rightful position at the head of the Party’s agenda – and stop covering, even passively, for the corrupt self-servers of the crony-crew. For them, the end must be nigh. This storm they will not ride out.

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APPENDIX:

Julia MULLIGAN’s Oath of Office (now widely-known as ‘The Hypocritic Oath’)

I, Julia MULLIGAN, do solemnly and sincerely promise that I will serve all the people of North Yorkshire in the office of Police and Crime Commissioner without fear or favour.

I will act with integrity and diligence in my role and, to the best of my ability, will execute the duties of my office to ensure that the police are able to cut crime and protect the public.

I will give a voice to the public, especially victims of crime and work with other services to ensure the safety of the community and effective criminal justice.

I will take all steps within my power to ensure transparency of my decisions, so that I may be properly held to account by the public.

I will not seek to influence or prevent any lawful and reasonable investigation or arrest, nor encourage any police action save that which is lawful and justified within the bounds of this office.”

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