25 June (Part 2) - Outside the tent peeing in (†)
The principal BELL whistleblower
proved to be a nut in one sense, a film
nut, or as he might prefer it, a film buff; and it was that that got him the
sack. Perusal of the documents from Bexley council reveals nothing about the
death of Mrs. Baker and the subsequent cover-up.
All you get in writing is vague references to “circumstances earlier in 2012”.
It is notable that John, for that is his name, had worked for Bexley council for
seven years before Mrs. Baker died in April 2012 and within a month of that he
was being threatened with the dismissal that ultimately came on 27th July 2012.
A dismissal decision taken by Deputy Director Tom Brown and upheld at appeal by
councillors Aileen Beckwith, John Davey, Alan Deadman and Michael Tarrant.
The straw that brought John down was that to relieve himself of some of the stress
imposed by an oppressive management, he amused himself by doodling a revised
film script. It read…
SPARTACUS
The story of a romany slave worker on BELL who has been brutalised, abused and
disenfranchised who retaliates against the evil ICT empire builder Gluteus
Maximus Orificious Warrinker and his Metacompliance legions. The hero ends up
being crucified by emperor McLaughter. Its a battle between the
self-righteous
against the righteous, the self-important against the
important and the judgemental against the good. Be prepared for a lavish bloodbath.
John found that so therapeutic that he wrote another one…
GET CARTER
After hearing of a plot against him, he is sent to Coventry where he takes on
a bunch of criminals known as the Metacompliance gang, once there he receives an
obscene phone call while a sex starved woman sits rocking in her operator’s
chair. He embarks on a mission to get revenge on all those who crossed him with
calamitous results for all concerned.
After showing it to a trusted colleague John locked it away in his drawer some
while before Mrs. Baker died.
Gluteus Maximus Orificious Warrinker is a reference to an IT manager who John
alleges called him a f**king twat and a ‘wuss’ when John reported a bug in a piece
of council prepared computer code - the Metacompliance. John responded by
calling him an arsehole.
The sex starved woman is a reference to one of the bosses who had a tendency to
boast to her friends of her sexual exploits. John’s boss, Alison McLaughlin, is
on record as saying John’s “prose was deeply offensive to his colleagues”.
While John had a day off his boss raided his locked drawer looking for the
incriminating BELL server log which was reputed to be there. It was, but while snaffling it away she
found and took the mock film scripts too. She convinced senior management with
the aid of an employee reputed to be a member of her own extended family, that John
had distributed copies of his film scripts around the office and for this he was
dismissed. The earlier ‘arsehole’ comment didn’t help either. Naturally
Gluteus Maximus Orificious Warrinker denied his provocation.
Files obtained from Bexley council reveal that another of John’s bosses was Linda Cross, immediately subordinate to
Alison McLaughlin, and to both of whom John alleges he many times gave warnings of the
inadequate overnight staffing levels. The papers record that the alleged false witness to the
distribution story was Maria Giles.
It is not yet clear to me whether Alison McLaughlin’s submission to Tom Brown
was sufficiently fulsome as to allow a fair hearing or whether Mr. Brown was
‘in’ on the need to get rid of an employee who knew too much. I shall read
the papers again to see what else can be drawn from them and no doubt report back again.
Before I depart for the day I should perhaps mention what may prove to be the
most important document in this sorry affair. The server log. A copy has
surfaced and it clearly shows what happened and why the managers who
allowed staffing levels to fall below two were so emphatically misguided. The equipment did not
malfunction, it did exactly what it was told to do, and what it was told to do
proved to be a major contribution to a lady’s death.
The first alarm call came through at 01:05:55. It was not answered until 05:57:52. Bexley
council does not want you to know that. I am inclined to ask John if I may ship all the papers
across to the News Shopper. This disgraceful affair deserves wider exposure than I can give it.
† With reference to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s famous
quotation about J. Edgar Hoover.