22 August (Part 4) - Olly Cromwell makes the front page of the News Shopper
The
Shopper seems to be fully recovered from the loss of its veteran reporter Linda
Piper and the new young team are right on top of its brief tackling difficult
subjects fearlessly and with a degree of panache. Just as well now that its
former weekly rival the Bexley Times has degenerated into a cross between The
Beano and an Argos catalogue.
The whole of today’s front page is devoted to the Olly Cromwell case with a small
panel devoted to Bexley council’s response. Arguably the case had nothing
to do with Bexley council. Nowhere did the council show its hand in any of the Court
papers. However it would be naive to think that councillor Melvin Seymour didn’t seek
the approval of the Controller before spinning a bit of a yarn to the police. Maybe
Teresa O’Neill gave him a tip or two on how to lie to the police and get away with it.
I find it entirely typical of Bexley council that they are “disappointed the
appeal was upheld”. Would they prefer a miscarriage of justice because a District Judge
was given a copy of Melvin Seymour’s lying statement? Seymour said that Olly was
“urging people to put dog faeces through my letter box” and somehow no one stood
up in the Magistrates’ Court to challenge that entirely dishonest statement. Of course
they would prefer a miscarriage of justice, Bexley is a thoroughly dishonest council happy
to harbour and protect criminals.
“We are pleased he decided to leave the restraining order in place.” The Judge
didn’t. Bexley council’s spokesman is lying again. The Appeal Court Judge removed all of the
restraining order apart from the bit forbidding Olly to approach his neighbour,
Melvin Seymour. The Judge was very specific about the need to protect the right to
freedom of speech, holding councils to account and attending their meetings etc.
Similarly the Tweet was not judged offensive. The Judge only said that the ‘C’ word
was offensive to some people. It’s a small lie but it is a lie nevertheless.
Councillors’ homes may not be “legitimate” targets for abuse, no one’s home is,
but like it or not, councillor’s addresses are publicly available and
potentially they might be a target for some people. The Appeal Judge made a
point of saying that Olly had not gone beyond that statement of the obvious. It
was councillor Seymour who told the Court that Olly was “urging” people to take
action. The Appeal Judge did not agree with him and said “feel free” was
entirely different to “urging”. Bexley council thinks the Judge is wrong. But
Bexley council has always considered itself to be above the law so why expect
anything else?
Click image for News Shopper’s on line report.