Category Archives: James Scarlett

Aaron Britton Formerly of Knives Band and Dylan Middleton in Apology and Retraction to Daniel Garland of Phoxjaw

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Daniel Garland has secured a settlement of his libel and harassment claim against Aaron Britton, formerly a member of the band, Knives. Aaron had accused Garland on social media of the rape of, ‘tens’ of women (i.e. at least twenty). However, when your author provided pro-bono support to bring a libel claim, Aaron chose to settle instead of defending the claim and agreed to a permanent contractual settlement which he announced on Twitter (archive) and Facebook. Such contractual arrangements have a similar effect to a lifelong restraining order and if they are broken the beneficiary can bring a claim for an injunction with a penal notice, and imprisonment if it is breached. As he has no money, he has agreed to make a donation to Rape Crisis. Aaron has also announced separately he has left the band, Knives, citing, “overwhelming” events in his personal life, and mental health problems. This tragic outcome underlines the dangers of musicians supporting dubious and false allegations on social media.

Aaron Britton, former of the band Knives, has apologised to Daniel Garland of Phoxjaw, retracted his allegations and paid a donation to rape crisis in lieu of damages.

Aaron Britton, former of the band Knives, has apologised to Daniel Garland of Phoxjaw, retracted his allegations and paid a donation to rape crisis in lieu of damages.

Aaron’s announcement should come as no surprise. The 2000 Trees Festival, which could afford very expensive, tier-1 lawyers, has already retracted, apologised and paid, “substantial” damages. However, the further retraction gives me the opportunity to make a few things clear. I am a law graduate. I have passed the LL.M LPC. I have not sought admission or to practice as a solicitor, even though I passed the exams but I have over ten years litigation experience as a charitable McKenzie Friend. I have helped in this case, for free, because I believe it is meritorious. Daniel has also been helped, pro-bono by David Hirst of 5RB Media Chambers. We do not help people bring libel claims for free if we think they are guilty of sex crimes.

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Daniel Garland of Phoxjaw – 2000 Trees Festival Apologise, Retract and Pay, “Substantial Damages”

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The author of MHN from time to time assists charitably as a pro-bono McKenzie Friend and lay advisor. My client Daniel Garland of Phoxjaw and his band were removed from the 2000 Trees Festival last year after allegations of rape, which he denies, were posted on Facebook. The Festival and Danny have now reached a satisfactory settlement. 2000 Trees have issued a statement in which they apologise, retract any suggestion whatsoever that he is guilty and confirm that they have paid a, “substantial sum” in damages. Danny was assisted by myself and also barrister David Hirst of 5RB Barristers (Media and Communications Specialists), who offered a second opinion on merits and quantum. Under these circumstances, my client has achieved all his objectives in the dispute with the festival. Anyone else repeating the allegations is at serious risk of losing everything they own.

2000 Trees have apologised, retracted and say they have paid Daniel Garland of Phoxjaw a, "substantial sum" in damages.

2000 Trees have apologised, retracted and say they have paid Daniel Garland of Phoxjaw a, “substantial sum” in damages, over sex crime allegations.

In the meantime, Aaron Britton of the band Knives and horrifyingly bad poet Georgina Middleton have failed to provide substantive responses to the letter of claim sent to them. Georgina claims she has changed her name by deed poll but refuses to provide proof. Aaron claims to not have a fixed address. The Witchfinder considers these decisions imprudent. Acting like children will not make the lawsuit go away.

Speaking of ‘acting like children’, your author and other volunteers have been spending time this evening identifying fools on Facebook who repeat the allegations without the slightest interest in the truth. There is compelling evidence in Daniel’s favour. The individual who accused Daniel said he followed her for two weeks, then one evening followed her to her tent, held her down and raped her.

But Daniel still has their social media messages, which show that what actually happened was that he ignored her for a week, she initiated contact and asked to meet in messages beginning, “Hey friend”, she chased to meet all night and hours after the alleged rape she messaged Daniel apologising for over-sharing. In short, the allegations directly contradict contemporary documents.

At the risk of stating the obvious, I would not willingly waste my time helping a rapist and neither would David Hirst of 5RB. The evidence is compelling.

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2000 Trees: First Letters of Claim Drop

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If a solicitor is dishonest they will generally be struck off, for life, even if the dishonesty has nothing to do with their legal practice (Bolton v The Law Society [1993] EWCA Civ 32). A less well known fact, and a pitfall for the unwary, is that the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Character and Suitability Test treats discrimination the same way. Avoiding discrimination is therefore a consideration that solicitor Brendan Herbert will need to have uppermost in mind as he and his fellow directors of the Real Festival Company Limited (RFCL), which runs 2000 Trees, grapple with the challenges faced by his colleague James Scarlett’s recent decision to cancel a male musician who asserts he is a victim of sex crime (which crime he has reported to police). This morning the first letter of claim arrived at the company’s registered office, including an allegation of sexual assault and harassment of which the artist was the victim. If the company fail to deal with it in an acceptable way, all avenues are likely to be pursued.

The 2000 Trees Festival has now received the first steps towards being sued, and Director James Scarlett has been made a personal defendant.

The 2000 Trees Festival has now received the first steps towards being sued, and director James Scarlett is proposed as a named a personal defendant.

This blog is not entitled, “impotent legal threats I have helped litigants to make”. It is, amongst other things, an account of a series of protracted court cases where I have helped vulnerable litigants pro-bono or represented myself – almost without exception ending ruinously for the other side. It is punctuated by links to judgements on BAILII and court orders.

Yesterday I published news of a successful application for permission for judicial review by former MP John Hemming, a litigant in person who I have assisted. Less than 1% of applications for judicial review get permission. It is only the most recent of many successes for Mr Hemming. Who can forget the humiliation of vile former Guardian, former Exaro journalist David Hencke, who consented to a lifelong restraining agreement in favour of Hemming, in the High Court? We are now in year 7 of fabulously expensive grimdark litigation, whose only winner has been Hemming.

Right now, I am assisting a young musician, a band member who asserts he was sexually assaulted by an obsessed female admirer at the 2000 Trees Festival in 2019. I feel somewhat uncomfortable about talking, at this stage, about proposed court proceedings with such candour. However, it is necessary in order to assist the musician in replying to the attacks made on him, which he legitimately fears risk inciting violence. To the extent there is a use of private information, it is in the public interest to counter material others have placed into the public domain so the public is not misled – being (at best) unproven criminal allegations against the band member. It is only fair to point out that the other side are in the same position.

Like many male victims of sexual assault, he did not at first recognise that was what happened, but has now reported the sexual assault to police. His account is that he accompanied the woman back to her tent and after an initially failed attempt at intercourse, she attempted to physically restrain him to prevent him from leaving. This appears to have a sexual purpose and therefore fall within the very wide definition at s78 Sexual Offences Act 2003. After he ghosted the woman, she made false allegations against him over a period of years and 2000 Trees failed to deal with it in an appropriate way. 2000 Trees look likely to face difficulty with the resulting claims because their published Welfare, Security and Safety Policy (archive) is a placeholder page.

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Naming the Abusers: Ollie Horner, Charlie Herridge and Rebecca Redwood of Snayx UK

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Ollie Horner and Charlie Herridge, as well as their PR Rebecca Redwood, have been condemned by real victims of sex crime after vile opportunistic band-wagon jumping on unproven and untrue sexual abuse allegations. Now they face accountability in the form of a campaign to have them excluded from the music industry and to name and shame those who work with them.

Shamefully, the band ZERO 9:36 is allowing vile abusers Snayx to tour with them.

Shamefully, the band ZERO 9:36 is allowing vile abusers Snayx to tour with them.

Your author is a proven victim of sex crime, in an actual court not a Tumblr post. In 2016 I was stalked by members of a vile terrorist forum who created revenge pornography of me, leading to my well known lawsuit against the vile paedophile Kiwidynastia – a member of the infamous child stalking forum Kiwifarms. There is still a bounty to this day for his real identity. Dynastia, known to encourage the collection of pictures and other information about minors as young as five, had fabricated sexual images of me and accused me of sharing his own vile predilictions, as well as those of his perverted friend Joshua Conner Moon.

People who commit such crimes deserve to be punished. 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. Even those who do not contact police but spread gossip discredit real victims and contributed to a growing toxicity in society around sex crime and sex abuse.

Such behaviour runs the gamut from making up vile sexual allegations, to simply encouraging such behaviour by jumping on bandwagons in ignorance of the truth. In my opinion and that of many others, such persons are abusers themselves, and it is in this context that I am naming as abusers Ollie Horner and Charlie Herridge of the inconsequential, ‘band’ Snayx and their PR Rebecca Redwood of Republic of Music.

On 2 November 2022 I ran a story about shocking abuse perpetrated by the organiser of the 2000 Trees festival, James Scarlett. In a statement written by James with the apparent assistance of Brendan Herbert, a partner at music law firm Laceys, Mr Scarlett did not deny the essentials of that story. A band scheduled to appear at the festival had been subject to sexual allegations. To police? Nope. On Facebook. James did not bother to hold an investigation, he just terminated the band’s appearance and opened a thread for discussion leading to wilder and ever more hysterical allegations.

Until I offered to consider providing pro-bono legal assistance to the accused band member. Within hours of my making contact, despicable James was in retreat. The post has been taken down. As far as I can tell, the allegations are wholly false. In contrast, the allegations in this article – and my last one – were put to the affected parties and have not been denied.

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2000 Trees and James Scarlett to be Sued, Bankrupted?

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Will this post ruin James Scarlet's Career?

This post by the 2000 Trees Festival could ruin James Scarlet’s career forever, and leave him personally bankrupt.

I have just been asked to look at a case of what may be appalling abuse and misconduct by a music festival operator, James Scarlett. James is the organiser of the 2000 Trees music festival, which is operated by the Real Festival Company Limited. It appears that online allegations were made about abuse by a band member. The band member denies the allegations, and as far as I can determine so far has never been convicted or even invited for questioning by police. The festival, having seen the allegations, dropped him with a statement that appears to contain the false imputation that there was a meaningful investigation with an adverse outcome finding the allegations upheld. The festival then invited further comment from random members of the public. In effect, inviting gossip and speculation on the official 2000 Trees Facebook, whilst apparently deleting exculpatory posts. MHN is considering extending pro-bono support to the band. If the firm running the festival, the Real Festival Company Limited, is bankrupted that could affect its ability to pay acts – and the reputations of those associated with the firm or James. Other acts may need to consider whether they will stay on the line-up for the at-risk festival.

For those of you who do not know me, perhaps coming from 2000 Trees fansite or wherever, I am a law blogger. I have passed a Master’s Degree in Law (Legal Practice) with the solicitor’s exams (LL.M LPC) but not sought to practice as a solicitor. I do help people in court as a McKenzie Friend at the highest level – only ever for charity. For example, I was praised in Parliament helped a vulnerable woman accused of lacking mental capacity obtain a court declaration she had capacity and therefore retain her autonomy and her children (link to Parliament).

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