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

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

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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Update on Sinister Internet Troll Georgina Middleton / Dylan Charlie

This is an update on the appalling internet troll Georgina Middleton / Dylan Charlie from my last article. I had been in touch with a PC at Cambridgeshire Police about Georgina based on an old address. Since then, however, the tracing agency I instructed has come back with a current address, in Coventry in the West Midlands. I have been in touch with West Midlands Police and now have a West Midlands Police incident number too. Middleton has been making false allegations of rape and paedophilia about multiple individuals online, including one she had actual knowledge was false, based on her emails. Although she has tried to claim Georgina is her deadname, in fact Middleton not only used the name, “Georgina” in her emails but on currently active social media such as her Twitter account @GeeWrites_ (archive). As of today, the account asserts the name, “Georgina”. Obviously, now we have an address for service both myself and another victim are in a position to serve letter(s) of claim or sealed process. Currently we are waiting on discussions the other victim is having with a solicitors firm about a possible Conditional Fee Arrangement (no-win, no-fee). For other victims, the West Midlands police reference is 3109-151122.

Dylan Charlie Crimed

Georgina Middleton / Dylan Charlie’s posts will very shortly lead to substantial civil action against her, and her online posts are under police investigation. Click for full size.

As I said in my previous article here, I consider there is a compelling public interest in naming Dylan / Georgina and giving information about my police reports. This person has been making allegations of the most serious nature online about people ill-equipped to identify her for some time. She has referred to allegations against me she knows to be false, based on her emails. She appears to have incited or encouraged others. Naming her is in the public interest and will assist her victims. Publishing the crime reference number allocated by Cambridgeshire Police and the number from West Midlands Police will make it easy for other victims to explain to police she has a history. There is also a public interest in my responding to false allegations about me communicated to the public, and making it clear how the authorities view them. Finally, there is a public interest in deterring anonymous trolling in the belief it is consequence free. There is a public interest in deterring the group of posters around Georgina making dangerous allegations.

There is also an ongoing concern the allegations may incite violence, which is not helped by members of a group calling themselves, “Knives” getting involved. Taken together, the events have caused fear, alarm and distress to victims and put them in fear of violence by vigilantes.

Cambridge Police have previously had to apologise to me about a similar case when I was in law school but have been very helpful this time. In the previous incident, I had named an internet troll and threatened them with litigation. It did not end well for the troll – or the police officer. The police have been helpful and seem keen not to repeat the same mistakes. Management action was taken against an officer previously – there is still a note in the previous crime report. Private individuals are allowed to represent themselves to contact potential defendants to civil crimes for the purposes of litigation, such as a letter of claim, and it is not harassment no matter how much the defendants say torts trigger them.

Fortunately, because I have previously taken High Court action, successfully representing myself, police now have a better idea of the seriousness of the situation. As a reminder, here is a restraining order I obtained against Dr Jacqui Dillon, and here is a restraining order I obtained against Esther Baker – who is still paying off my costs by High Court Enforcement Officers (High Court bailiffs). Baker has years – perhaps more than a decade – of debt and poverty in front of her.

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Orly Georgina? Exposing Georgina Middleton / Dylan Charlie – Very ex-Assisted Content Producer and Internet Troll

One of the most common features of internet trolls is their cowardice and anonymity. My face and real name is at the bottom of this blog, because I am a legitimate commentator. Others are not so honest. This article exposes Georgina C Middleton, a vile internet troll who uses the online pseudonym Dylan Charlie. Whilst she claims to have transitioned, and that ‘Georgina’ is her deadname, I might find that more convincing if the name ‘Georgina’ was not on all the emails she was spamming me, and she was not asserting ‘she’ pronouns on Twitter. Last night, after she posted material about me from a terrorist group, Cambridgeshire Police crimed the reported behaviour as Malicious Communications – meaning that their initial opinion is that there are grounds for investigation. Georgina is finding out online posts have real world consequences. I am likely to take civil action as are others she has defamed.

Georgina Middleton / Dylan Charlie has been repeating false allegations of rape online (not claiming to be the victim) including one false allegation of paedophilia she appears to know is false and came from a terrorist group. Her posts will very shortly lead to substantial civil action against her, and are under police investigation. To the extent that the police investigation is private information there is a public interest in revealing it as set out below. Click for full size.

So last week I ran my piece on false allegations, given currency by the band Snayx and others, against a musician who was to perform at the 2000 Trees Festival. I had agreed to help the accused person find a lawyer or assist them myself in litigation as McKenzie Friend. A day or so later I received a comment from a person with a Cambridgeshire based internet point of presence (92.17.181.69). The conversation was odd because the person appeared to be unstable or intellectually challenged, but I was polite and kind. At times they appeared to be trying to conceal their real IP. The emails were from a person named Georgina, but ended Dylan or D.C.M. They acknowledged – of importance, that I was a victim of crime.

Whilst identifying posters who had been making false rape allegations about the victim for the purposes of litigation, it became apparent that Georgina is one of the posters, under the name, “Dylan Charlie”. I was going to ignore them until it got to time for the victim to do their letter of claim. Unfortunately, Georgina, knowing me to be a victim of sex crime, decided to repeat material from a terrorist group. That has now been taken down, but police have still allocated a crime reference number. It does not matter she tried to frame it as a mention – it has been proven untrue in court and there is no excuse for gratuitously raising it.

Obviously, aside from the fact that she may now be sued by at least two people and go to prison, Dylan / Georgina’s malicious posts have not achieved very much. As a cautionary tale, it is worth mentioning just how much information was readily obtainable about this troll. Just to be clear, where family members are mentioned, I name them but do not give surnames or addresses nor link to social media profiles. This is a public interest article to highlight the risks of online trolling, but I am not going to dox nor put these people in the line of fire.

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