Category Archives: Labour

Twitter Threatens to Sue! Del Harvey and Vijaya Gadde Double Down

Posted on by
Reply

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg once famously described Twitter as being like a clown car that crashed in a gold-mine. Their latest antics, involving their lawyers at Bristows, include writing me one of the worst ‘libel’ letters I have ever seen. The specific lawyers on the case are Alex Keenlyside and Robert Graham. I reproduce the relevant parts below. Then I school them on procedure and more importantly the substantive facts of their case.

Bristows Libel 2020-05-03

Bristows’ letter to my mind is deficient in law. I understand that Robert Graham and Alex Keenlyside are responsible. Image adjusted to show logo above the relevant paragraph.

I received a letter just past 8pm on Friday night. It is a trashy tactic solicitors use that works with many people. However, although I do not practice as a solicitor I have passed the exams (LL.M LPC Commendation) and have nearly 9 years experience as a McKenzie Friend. I have written the pleadings of multiple libel cases so late night letters are less impressive to me, especially given the obvious, negligent and improper failure in this one to comply with the relevant UK law, the Civil Procedure Rules.

Much of the letter is a request for information. Twitter asks for court documents relating to the recent court case in which Esther Baker was found liable for racist harassment because of various proposed legal claims against it, in multiple jurisdictions. The last paragraph however is a demand I remove an article, which is said to be defamatory. Twitter are concerned with my article of 14 April 2020, headlined, “Twitter’s Del Harvey / Alison Shea and Vijay Gadde Openly Back Child Rape Stalker and Anti-Semite Racist”. So far they have not sought to challenge my article, “Labour’s Secret Deal with Twitter and Facebook to Surveil its own members”.

The article complained of referred to Twitter’s decision not to remove proven racist stalker Esther Baker’s account nor the tweets held by a judge to be racist stalking. The same article complained of Twitter’s failure to remove anti-Semitic material posted by a man named Alan Goodwin. As previously covered on MHN, Esther Baker has been successfully sued by former MP John Hemming and a child abuse victim who MHN is anonymising as a courtesy. Twitter, of course, has rules against racism and ‘targeted harassment’ so one would think in light of the lengthy judgement to the effect that Baker engaged in racist targeted harassment over a period of years the issue would be a no-brainer. Nope. “Clown Car”!

Continue reading →

Share Button

Lewisham Deptford Labour Youth Officer Verity Nevitt and Sister are being Sued for Libel, Harassment and Misuse of Private Information. Tweets Admit Drug Abuse and Paid Sugarbaby Sleaze

Posted on by
7

As a proven victim of sex crime (proven in a court, not a Tumblr post) I obviously sympathise with people who feel that attempts have been made to gag them. Equally however, there is little more vile than a false allegator or someone who wastes law enforcement time. Aside from causing huge distress to the falsely accused (who have rights too, of course) it draws resources from real victims. If a person in one place wastes the time of specially trained officers, somewhere a woman or a child may be raped with no redress. Such people deserve the harshest condemnation. The foreseeable consequence of squandering police resources is the image of a vile rapist or paedophile thrusting into a screaming victim. It is that simple. Verity Nevitt, Youth Officer of Lewisham Deptford Labour, is being sued, accused with her sister of making false allegations.

Verity Nevitt Seeking Arrangement2019-10-21

Verity admits to being a former member of Seeking Arrangement, a site known for prostitution. She also muses about joining the website, ‘OnlyFans.com’. Verity has denied offering sexual services in an email, but has not stated what services she did provide or what services she contemplated providing on OnlyFans. Click for full size.

The Youth Officer for Lewisham Deptford Labour Party, Verity Nevitt, is currently subject to a High Court restraining Order along with her sister Lucy. A summary of the case is that Lucy and Verity are being sued for alleged harassment / stalking of a male Lucy and Verity accuse of rape and sexual assault. They are also sued for libel and misuse of private information. It is important to note that the case has not yet been tried – so the allegations are not yet decided. However, at least one judge thought there were grounds to grant an interim Order.

The Order restrains Lucy and Verity (or anyone else) from naming the man they have accused or providing information likely to identify him. Because of the Order protecting him, I can say no more about his identity. The Order is interim, and may be discharged – an application has been made and Mrs Justice Steyn is currently considering the case following a hearing on Thursday 30th April 2020. I will be interested to read the judgement. Steyn J did a very detailed and thorough job in Baker v Hemming.

Lucy and Verity spent the night with the man after an evening where it is said that they had consumed alcohol and drugs. The dispute is that they say that he raped Lucy and sexually assaulted Verity. He has produced texts and other communications he says prove this is not the case and in which they he asserts they admitted nothing happened. Having seen the texts and posts, police have dropped the rape and sexual assault investigation.

Verity and Lucy have expressly waived their anonymity as alleged victims of sex crime and demanded they be named. They have named and pictured themselves online as the ‘victims’ in the case. After a hearing today, Mrs Justice Steyn made an interim Order that they could be named in relation to the proceedings provided that no details are published likely to identify their alleged victim. This is brave given their copious social media posts admitting to drug use and discussing mental illness. In Verity’s case, she has admitted to institutionalisation and self-harm. She has also admitted to membership of the website SeekingArrangement.com and mused about creating an account on the website OnlyFans.com (archive).

Seeking Arrangement (now known as ‘Seeking’) is well known as one where young women can arrange to meet an older man … for a very large fee. It is generally considered synonymous with prostitution, although not all of the companions offer sexual services – some insisting the sex is merely coincidental and others offering only platonic escorting. Many would say even the latter is sex work. Regardless of what services they offer, women who participate are called, “Sugar Babies”, by the site. Verity denies sex work, but has not clarified further as to what services she claims she did provide (or contemplated providing in the case of OnlyFans). In an email, Verity asked me to research the site, so I did. Vanity Fair published quite a detailed piece on Seeking Arrangement, in which it detailed the experiences of women who could charge as much as $700 per hour for sex (archive).

Continue reading →

Share Button

Labour’s Secret Deal with Twitter and Facebook to Surveil its own members

Posted on by
3
Vijaya Gadde at a Fortune Event

Vijaya Gadde, Legal, Policy, Trust and Safety Lead at Twitter, at a Fortune Brainstorm Tech event. Would she be such a popular speaker if Twitter’s approach to real time monitoring of political speech was widely known? Picture by Photograph by Kevin Moloney/Fortune Brainstorm TECH. (NC License here).

A leaked internal Labour Party report has hit the headlines (archive) because of lurid statements allegedly made by staff. What has been missed however, receiving barely any coverage, is an apparent admission that, using a secret deal with Facebook and Twitter, the Labour Party has been running automated surveillance on its own members. If true, this is manifestly unlawful – each member affected would almost certainly have a valid claim in damages under Data Protection legislation.

[UPDATE 21 April 2020, 18:10 BST – Have received a response from Twitter, below]

In the furore about the leaked Labour report, many commentators have focused on the supposedly racist, sexist, and / or ableist remarks. There is also the apparent dishonest treacherous plotting. It is important to remember of course that this report was produced by a bitterly infighting party and its contents are disputed. Former staff who were criticised claim that accusations about their conduct were never put to them.

MHN has a copy of the report and leaving all that aside however, this passage leaps out –

Labour Twitter Trot Hunt Software Admission

Labour had automated software that reconciled its privileged access to Twitter and Facebook data with their membership database to identify and monitor member accounts.

It is worth turning to the Data Protection Principles set out in the Data Protection Act 1998, which was in force at the time (replaced by the EU General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018 in May 2018). The principles were set out in section 4 (archive) and Schedule 1 (archive).

Of especial relevance, these principles included processing data, “fairly”, holding data that was “not excessive”. Fairness usually means notifying members of the way their data will be used. A quick glance at Labour’s current terms on its, ‘Join’ page does say that email addresses will be used to contact members. It says nothing about consenting to Orwellian real time monitoring for wrongthink.

Continue reading →

Share Button

Twitter’s Del Harvey / Alison Shea and Vijaya Gadde Openly Back Child Rape Stalker and Anti-Semite Racist

Posted on by
6

Defended banner for articles defended in court

[UPDATE – 17 August 2022. Esther Baker sued over this article in High Court Case QB-2020-001013. She lost. The court granted both summary judgement and strike-out finding the claim had no realistic prospect of success. No other person mentioned sued and the time limit has elapsed. Judgement here. My follow-up article here. This article has been added to the “DEFENDED!” category and readers may rely on it.]

Vijaya Gadde at a Fortune Event

Vijaya Gadde, Legal, Policy, Trust and Safety Lead at Twitter, at a Fortune Brainstorm Tech event. Would she be such a popular speaker if she was properly no-platformed due to her allowing vile stalking and racism against a child rape victim and anti-Semitism by the perpetrator’s friends? Picture by Photograph by Kevin Moloney/Fortune Brainstorm TECH. (NC License here).

Imagine you were raped as a child by a paedophile Priest. Then imagine that years later, as the trial of the priest took place you were subject to a campaign of racist stalking by a, “particularly malevolent”, vile and mentally ill harasser. The stalking puts your health and life at risk. Eventually, the Priest is convicted and the stalker is bankrupted and made subject to a lifelong restraining Order. Both verdicts are upheld on appeal. Now imagine, that an international social media company Twitter helps and empowers your stalker, who has been associated with prominent Labour MPs like Jess Phillips, and refuses to remove their stalking material, apparently contrary to its own rules.

[UPDATE From Twitter Below – 14 April 2020]

This of course is a real story. Esther Baker was recently bankrupted and made subject to a lifelong restraining Order for the racist stalking of a child abuse victim. Baker is of course publicly known because she was one of the VIP paedophile accusers associated with Exaro News, like Carl Beech. She received support from Labour MPs and was even invited to the House of Commons by Jess Phillips MP. Ironically Phillips is now the Shadow Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding.

The judge really did call Baker, “particularly malevolent”. The restraining Order is one of two such Orders she has received because of course she has also been restrained from repeating her, “untrue” allegations about former MP John Hemming. Of course County Court judges see lots of stalkers, family cases and domestics so a finding that stalking is particularly malevolent is saying a lot. Baker was so depraved she even tried to contact the paedophile priest – to try to undermine his conviction! It borders on the immortal line, “So, we got a once in a lifetime, top of the line looney tuney”, from the movie Basic Instinct. Except of course that Baker, who admits to hearing voices, is no Sharon Stone.

Esther Baker is a Malevolent Racist

The express findings of the County Court judge agreeing Baker behaved in a “vindictive, “obsessive” and “malevolent” way. MHN has erased the barrister’s name to protect the anonymity of the victim of Baker’s years of racist stalking. If only Vijaya Gadde, Del Harvey (Alison Shea), Karen White and Sinéad McSweeney over at Twitter would protect them too!

Whilst Baker has occasionally, grudgingly, removed some tweets she has not removed most of the stalking tweets including some that may put her in breach of the various court Orders against her. So, needless to say, Twitter were contacted by some of her victims. John Hemming had also been in contact with Twitter and can produce email receipts from their report form going as far back as 2017. As a result of a number of controversies, Twitter has enacted a number of supposed rules. Targeted harassment is supposedly prohibited (archive). Racist harassment is supposedly prohibited (archive). In the context of hate of protected groups, the Twitter rules state that, “We prohibit targeting individuals with repeated slurs […]”.

Continue reading →

Share Button

Staffordshire Police, Esther Baker and DCS Javid Oomer – His Career and Reputation on the Line?

Posted on by
3

Defended banner for articles defended in court

[UPDATE – 17 August 2022. Esther Baker sued over this article in High Court Case QB-2020-001013. She lost. The court granted both summary judgement and strike-out finding the claim had no realistic prospect of success. No other person mentioned sued and the time limit has elapsed. Judgement here. My follow-up article here. This article has been added to the “DEFENDED!” category and readers may rely on it.]

DCSJavidOomer

Detective Chief Superintendent Javid Oomer – Career at Risk?

Staffordshire Police believe Esther Baker is a criminal. Recently, I reported some of her Twitter posts as harassment directed at myself and (indirectly) former MP John Hemming. Upon review, a crime number was assigned which can only happen if an officer considers on balance of probabilities that an offence was committed (police email below). I am far from the only complainant, with far more serious allegations outstanding. How is it that Baker has not yet been interviewed over the many allegations against her?

Last week the BBC reported (archive) that Staffordshire police are conducting an ongoing investigation into Baker over the far more serious allegations of Perverting the Course of Justice and Harassment of John Hemming. The investigation is currently with Detective Chief SuperIntendent Javid Oomer and frankly, a large number of powerful people are unhappy about the police, the speed of the investigation and Oomer’s attitude. To put this in context, Mr Hemming first reported Baker in 2015!

EstherBakerCrimeNumber

Staffordshire Police considered my allegations against Esther Baker and allocated a crime number before referring the matter elsewhere.

Continue reading →

Share Button

Jess Phillips MP, Her Outside Earnings … and How to Take Them Away

Posted on by
2

Defended banner for articles defended in court

[UPDATE – 17 August 2022. Esther Baker sued over this article in High Court Case QB-2020-001013. She lost. The court granted both summary judgement and strike-out finding the claim had no realistic prospect of success. No other person mentioned sued and the time limit has elapsed. Judgement here. My follow-up article here. This article has been added to the “DEFENDED!” category and readers may rely on it.]

Official_portrait_of_Jess_Philips

Jess Philips MP (official portrait, CC-BY-SA 3.0 license).

My last article was an exposé of the repugnant female MP Jess Phillips and her irresponsible, exploitative behaviour towards a mentally ill, alleged child abuse victim Esther Baker. As my article explained, there is now ample evidence Baker (who claims to hear voices) has accused the wrong men of rape. Conveniently for Phillips, one of them was her electoral opponent. The court process Esther Baker has initiated, egged on by others, has left Baker with a costs bill likely to be in the region of £12,000. Law enforcement and the public purse have wasted even larger sums. This article gives details and then provides a contacts spreadsheets for any reader who would like to help organise a boycott.

Unlike Baker, Phillips has no money problems. In fact her most recent register of interests (archive) shows a plethora of writing and speaking engagements. It is easy to see why the Corbynites dislike her so – she is hardly a horny-handed son of toil. In the last year Phillips has had numerous writing, speaking and television engagements (including her book) bringing her in around £45,000. She finds time to be Deputy Editor of House Magazine at £2,000 a quarter. All this whilst drawing a full time salary as a Member of Parliament employed by the good people of Birmingham Yardley.

Phillips has an extraordinary number of enemies –

Share Button

Jess Phillips MP, Mark Watts and Who Raped Esther Baker?

Posted on by
6

Defended banner for articles defended in court

[UPDATE – 17 August 2022. Esther Baker sued over this article in High Court Case QB-2020-001013. She lost. The court granted both summary judgement and strike-out finding the claim had no realistic prospect of success. No other person mentioned sued and the time limit has elapsed. Judgement here. My follow-up article here. This article has been added to the “DEFENDED!” category and readers may rely on it.]

Official_portrait_of_Jess_Philips

Jess Philips MP (official portrait, CC-BY-SA 3.0 license).

Who raped Esther Baker? Baker is suing John Hemming for libel, claiming he raped her. He is counter-suing. On 15 April 2019 I sat in the High Court with John Hemming, Barbara Hewson and Richard-Owen Thomas and looked on as Baker, accompanied only by former Exaro Editor Mark Watts, was handed a costs order likely to run to about £12,000. Baker was also ordered to have a psychiatric assessment to be filed at court. During the hearing it was revealed that Baker asserts that she is seriously mentally ill. Politicians and ‘journalists’ such as Labour MP Jess Phillips and former Exaro editor Mark Watts have encouraged Baker’s allegations yet Jess Phillips is not Baker’s MP and never has been. Were Phillips and Watts right to encourage a vulnerable mentally ill woman in making unproven allegations public? Were they right to expose her to the possibility of mental injury from public criticism and controversy? Were they right to expose her to legal risks? Have Watts and Phillips helped Esther Baker … or benefited from her distress?

As my previous article recounted, Esther Baker is suing John Hemming for libel – without legal representation. He is counter-suing. The claim is not yet decided but outcomes so far are have not been good for her. Barrister Barbara Hewson’s excellent article is here for an independent perspective.

Amongst other things, John Hemming alleges Esther Baker’s lawsuit is out of time. Despite regularly insisting on Twitter that the ‘truth’ will be revealed she has point blank refused to particularise the alleged ‘rape’. This led to the judge telling her that Hemming did not know the claim he had to meet – Baker’s pleadings were inadequate. She claims in reply that her lawsuit is not out of time because she was mentally ill and lacked mental capacity to litigate for part of the limitation period.

My earlier article did not cover Esther Baker’s mental health problems, as I wanted to treat the issue sensitively and appropriately in this piece. On Twitter Baker has admitted to being, ‘psychotic’ (archive) and referred to hearing voices. In the publicly available pleadings in her case it is alleged that she suffers from auditory and ‘command’ hallucinations. In simple terms, she hears voices in her head that tell her to do things. Sometimes she obeys.

For a woman in Baker’s position to bring a lawsuit as litigant in person is challenging. Whilst the case is not yet decided, there is now significant evidence on the other side. As the Mail reported (archive) Baker has admitted that she told police her rapist had a curved penis and a birthmark on their back. Hemming has never had either (and there is a photograph of his back exhibited in evidence) but does have a distinguishing characteristic that Baker did not mention in her pleadings. So if Baker was raped at all, there are good reasons a fair minded observer might conclude that it was not Hemming. Now a court will decide.

CreepyJessPhillipsSweetDreams

Jess Phillips eerily wishes Baker ‘sweet’ dreams, a few months after she accused Hemming.

Continue reading →

Share Button

James Vaughan, Nick Long, Joanna Harding and Councillor Fiona Thomson: Welwyn-Hatfield’s Appalling Taxi Team

Posted on by
6
FionaThomson

Conservative Councillor Fiona Thomson has upset taxi drivers and commuters. She presides over the council’s appalling Hackney Carriage (taxi) team.

As a loyal Conservative, I would find it hard to vote for anything else. I can think of few things worse for Welwyn-Hatfield than a Labour-run council. When I was a Labour councillor (before I became a Conservative), the council was just recovering from a Labour administration that took the council £3 million over budget and which Conservative John Dean’s leadership of the council had to rectify. Even so, in my recent interactions with Welwyn-Hatfield’s taxi team they have fallen well short of what I would expect at every level, failing to deal adequately with serious allegations of systemic racism and maladministration.

As we approach the elections, Conservatives hope to rely on the support of small business, such as taxi drivers. In Welwyn-Hatfield unfortunately they are demonstrating outside the council offices (archive). Why? The (Conservative) County council has come up with an ill-conceived plan to move the taxi rank away from the station where it currently rests. The Borough council has been asked to oppose the plans and it is far from clear on where it stands. Conservative Executive Member Fiona Thomson said it would be “inappropriate to comment”. Because alienating a core vote is exactly what we want before local elections.

According to an article in the Welwyn-Hatfield Times, Labour PPC for Welwyn-Hatfield Rosie Newbigging “warned of risks to elderly, frail and disabled people who would have to cross a busy road to get a taxi”. I think Ms Newbigging is ignoring other important groups. What about well-nourished Conservative law bloggers? When I stagger out of the train station full of foie gras and scotch why should I have to walk further? Commuters are an important vote too!

But the controversy is only the tip of the iceberg. I was recently asked to provide pro-bono support to a taxi driver who was being accused of license misconduct. In fairness, he admits to overcharging, albeit he says that it was in error. It is likely this is true as he gave receipts. I did agree to an initial look at the papers. Suspiciously, the council had not sent the driver a transcript of an interview they had with him under caution (under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, usually known as PACE). When I became involved it was only 6 days before the hearing. When the driver emailed the council and consented to a copy being sent to me, council officer Cheryl Bridges claimed she could not give it to me because of “data protection” even whilst admitting to having the consent in front of her.

When I finally received the interview transcript (after further representations) it read like something from Blackadder. The driver had admitted he had charged extra because he had to drive a long way to collect the customer. In reply, Hackney Carriage Officer James Vaughan said this, “So the more vulnerable the customer is the more you can charge them, is that how it works?”. He literally invented an allegation of predation on the spot and out of whole cloth.

The irony is of course that the taxi driver is a vulnerable Muslim migrant with English good enough to run a taxi but not well equipped to protect himself from a jumped up, wannabe-traffic cop like Vaughan. The person who had complained about the driver had produced a witness statement referring to two incidents, one to which there was an independent female witness. The officers had not contacted her. I did. Her evidence points to the driver being a kindly man (if not well educated) dealing with a rude and frightening customer.

Continue reading →

Share Button

Female Ethnic MP Fiona Onasanya Arrested and Charged with Perverting the Course of Justice

Posted on by
Reply
Fiona Onasanya

Fiona Onasanya MP has been charged with Perverting the Course of Justice. Official portrait CC-BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The Labour Member of Parliament for Peterborough Fiona Onasanya has been arrested and charged with Perverting the Course of Justice. The MP, of Nigerian descent, appeared at Westminster Magistrate’s court on 12 July 2018. The offence is alleged to have been committed after she was caught speeding only four weeks after her election. It is alleged that the MP conspired with her little brother Festus to avoid penalty points.

Fiona Onasanya is not to be confused with Mandy Richards, the female ethnic Labour candidate recently exposed as being the subject of 14 restraining orders. The trial is ongoing and being charged and arrested does not mean Onasanya will be found guilty. However if she is, she may fall under the Recall Act 2015, making her vulnerable to a recall vote by her constituents.

Share Button

UK Labour Selects Female Ethnic Candidate With 14 Restraining Orders for Parliament

Posted on by
Reply
Mandy Richards at a door with a file of documents

Ominous: Mandy Richards, Labour Parliamentary Candidate for Worcester, approaches a door with a file of documents. House number erased to protect the resident.

The UK Labour Party has selected a female ethnic minority candidate, Mandy Richards, to stand for Parliament in Worcester. According to the Mail (archive), the Sun (archive) and the Times (archive), Ms Richards is presently the subject of no less than 14 separate Civil Restraining Orders (CRO). A CRO is used by a judge when a party to a lawsuit abuses the courts by bringing totally meritless claims or applications. To get a CRO, a claimant must make take two separate applications that a judge formally records as totally without merit.

14. Fourteen. Four-teen. That is a special and magical number. It is also the number of times a judge has restrained Mandy Richards, Labour’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Worcester from using the courts without permission to protect the public and individuals from her.

The courts do not make such orders lightly – it takes two completely meritless – utterly worthless – applications in the same proceedings (lawsuit) to get one. So, just who has Mandy Richards been suing? Apparently –

Continue reading →

Share Button