Monday, December 27, 2010

"The O'Bar Incident" A vile corruption


The Introduction:

We now move on to what can only be described as a Government Conspiracy. A conspiracy to imprison myself for a crime I had not committed, why you may ask? would a Government collude and conspire to lock up a rather insignificant chap such as myself? The answer lies in protection, the protection of five corrupt Jersey Policemen, the same five Policemen who are described in my previous posting, "The Buchannon Affair".

Andrew Smith.
Tracy Le Neveu.
Paul Whale.
Alexander MacDowall.
Keeley Wood.


The unlawful actions, and subsequent perjury by these officers, is (in reality) the reason I was imprisoned. The many people who have been drawn into this saga since it's inception, is nothing short of fantastical. These people range across the whole spectrum of Jersey Governance, the Judiciary, Appeal Judges, Advocates, law enforcement in Jersey, law enforcement in England, members and departments of the UK Government, doctors, forensic scientists, the Judicial Greffe of both the Police & Royal courts, prison officials, and even witnesses? Notwithstanding the most important in all of this, the company called Laidler/Haswell who transcribed my trial tapes.

The saga starts at the O'Bar in Gloucester Street/Patriotic Street, at the end of 1995. A gutless coward by the name of Graham Cousins (son of Diane Cousins), who for no apparent reason, tried to pick a fight with me, and then went on to glass a friend of mine in the face causing him serious injury. Cousins then received his mandatory retribution for the vile attack on Glen Phillips by way of an assault upon himself by a number of persons.

I was blamed for repeatedly kicking Graham Cousins in the face, even though the Police knew it was not me, and I had to be convicted for this crime. Why, you ask?
Well, I had filed charges against the five officers named above, and was awaiting the outcome of the investigation into my complaints against them. The Jersey Authorities were stalling on releasing the report into my complaints, and now, were suddenly presented with a chance to blackmail me, or stitch me up and incarcerate me to deter me from my pursuance of justice over these complaints. The consequences of this little ruse are as follows.


The Jersey Police refused to take my shoes at the scene, which I had asked them to do! They also refused to take my shoes when I got a taxi, from the scene, straight to the police station!

They refused to arrest me (at the scene) despite me being named as one of the assailants! One officer even telling me to "fuck off, or I would be arrested" which was what I wanted, so I could prove my innocence.

Detective Constable David Harrison re-wrote the last page of the main prosecution witness statement by a certain David Snowdon, who D.C David Harrison later conspired with, to pervert the course of justice.

Detective Constable David Harrison later destroyed one of my statements, and then claimed that "I had not even made the statement"?

Richard Renouf (middle)

At the preliminary magistrates court hearing I was saddled with perhaps, the most incompetent either/and/or corrupt lawyer that Jersey had to offer, one Richard Renouf then of (Renouf, Lempriere & Whittaker).

When in court, we had the judge, Mr T. Sowden Q.C, questioning one of the main witnesses in a language (french) that we did not understand? and no objection from any of our lawyers?

Some "nine months later", Advocate Renouf finally submitted to me, copies of all the case statements and evidence. Why was I made to wait 9 months? and only furnished with them just before my trial?

At trial, Advocate Renouf knew I had a tape recording of a witness (Sylvia Grimmes) who had alleged a conspiracy to frame me, Advocate Renouf refused to even listen to the tape, yet then, advised me to withdraw the tape? He landed me in more trouble after refusing to contact me during an adjournment in connection with the tape, and after which I was arrested and later accused of intimidating a witness by the Attorney General, Michael Birt Q.C! Indeed, Advocate Renouf should have advised me not to speak with Sylvia Grimmes, or he should have spoke to her himself.

This tape recording was subsequently tampered with by that re-writer of statements, D.C David Harrison, who later, denied having transcribed the tape after informing me in front of Advocate Renouf, that he "HAD" transcribed it?

A (new) witness at trial, Marsha Warden, had made a very detailed statement to police, just one day earlier. In that statement, she had said that she had not seen me take part in the attack against Graham Cousins. When giving evidence the very next day, and under oath, she responded to every question put to her, that she could not remember? Bearing in mind her very detailed statement of the previous day, why could she not remember? Were the Jersey Police protecting her, as they did Sylvia Grimmes?

After (not surprisingly) being found guilty, I was up for sentence where the prosecutor (Julian Clyde-Smith) gave me a better reference than my own advocate, Advocate Renouf, and indeed, praised me for my honesty at trial.



Advocate Angela P Roscouet

After receiving a two year sentence for being stitched up, I wrote the covering letter and eleven page document and began to get some support from certain members of the Jersey Government. I was also allocated a new Lawyer, Advocate Angela P Roscouet then of (Le Gallais & Luce). This new allocation of Advocate proved to be the worst possible scenario ever as Advocate Roscouet took the largest dump on me, and possibly, on a legal aid client in Jersey history!!!

When after discovering, that D.C David Harrison had doctored the tape recording of Sylvia Grimmes, and that he had re-written the last page of the main prosecution witness statement of David Snowdon, Advocate Roscouet threatened to leave me with NO legal representation at my appeal hearing if I insisted on making police corruption an issue!!! After hearing of this, my fellow prisoners nicknamed me "Briefless in Brelade"!!!

On the morning of my appeal, and five minutes before entering the court chamber , I was presented with a letter to sign by Advocate Roscouet. This was to confirm that Advocate Roscouet would only act on my behalf if I signed the paper stating that "no mention of Police corruption would be made at the appeal" ??? What choice did I have but to sign? But I did so in front of two witnesses!

During my appeal in front of the three Q.C's from England, J. Nutting, J. Sumption and J. Collins, I was drawn to certain sections of the transcripts from which they were reading. Mr Nutting was reading things out to the court, that were NOT even in the transcripts that I possessed!!! It was on return to prison after my failed appeal that I started to look into these matters.

After some long days and nights (in my cozy little prison cell) working on my transcripts, I discovered that they had in fact, been doctored!!! I informed Advocates David Le Quesne & David Le Cornu of this discovery as they were looking into my case on behalf of the Jersey Law Society.

I eventually decided to request a trip to listen to the trial tapes (which was ok'd) at the Judicial Greffe. The Judicial Greffe at the time was one, Ian Le Marquand. I was asked to supply a list of the extracts that I wished to listen too. However, having furnished Ian Le Marquand with the list, I was then flatly refused permission for the visit to go ahead. I wonder why???

My consolation prize was for Ian Le Marquand to send me some copy tapes of my trial, which I had to accept. On listening to the tapes, I discovered that a number of sections of the oral evidence were missing from the copy tapes. This prompted me to contact a Mr K. Budding of Laidler/Haswell Ltd, the company who transcribed the original trial tapes.

Mr K. Budding checked and confirmed to me by fax, and telephone, that the transcripts were a very accurate and precise copy of the tapes with which he was supplied.
He also confirmed that he was NOT SUPPLIED WITH THE ORIGINAL TRIAL TAPES, bagged, tagged and sealed!!! BUT SECOND HAND C90 CASSETTES???
Mr Budding further instructed me that Jersey had not sent ANY ORIGINAL TAPES for the preceding 18 months!!! Strangely, this was right around the same time as the sentencing policy on drug dealers had doubled! You may draw your own conclusions on why no original tapes were sent again, but I would submit that it really doesn't take much working out, does it?

After all of my discoveries, I wrote a lengthy list of complaints against the police, judicial greffe, advocates, and others. These were taken up by an honourable Lady named Barbara Myles, the Lieutenant Bailiff, and head of the Prison Board of Visitors who was already familiar with my case. Mrs Myles set about the initiation of an investigation that was to be taken out of the hands of Jersey's corrupt Police Force.

It was decided by those unknown to me, that CI Dennis & Insp Rogers of the Avon & Somerset Constabulary would be looking into my complaints of corruption. By this time I had amassed all the evidence required to prove my innocence, and duly passed this to the two investigating officers. Many months later, as I was nearing my release date, the investigation file was submitted to the Attorney General of Jersey, Mr Michael Birt QC.

Mr Birt flatly refused me a copy of the report, and any information as to the findings of the investigation? This went on for a considerable period, and as I had been released from prison, I think it was hoped that I would forgive and forget about matters. A view that was reiterated by Advocates Le Quesne & Le Cornu who I felt were trying to influence me into letting the matter drop.

Since then, I have been informed by the Attorney General Michael Birt, that NO evidence of any wrongdoing was ever found!!! Again I requested a copy of the investigation report, and was refused. I then applied for legal aid to gain access to the report. I was allocated Advocate Peter Harris, who for a whole year, dragged his feet on the issue. The only positive from Advocate Peter Harris was the fact that we managed to obtain a letter from the Attorney General, Michael Birt QC stating that all the evidence would be saved, and that the investigation report would not be disclosed on the grounds that "IT WAS NOT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST" !!! And we all know what that means, don't we?

SUMMARY:

Indeed, it took some time for me too work out what exactly was going on, and why? Of course, unless you have been through the Jersey system, and possess the intellect to reason out each corrupt manoeuvre made by the Jersey Authorities, you have very little chance of ever finding the answers.

This story encompasses corruption and cover-up at the highest level in Jersey. It is a damning indictment of how a parochial community band together in the face of threats of exposure to a world wide audience.

The evidence is to follow, and in great detail.