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News and Comment October 2023

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1 October (Part 3) - Corruption everywhere

When regurgitating some of Bexley Council’s dubious history it is sometimes difficult to know where to stop. Certainly that was the case with yesterday’s blog which included a link to the email sent by Michael Barnbrook to the Commissioners appointed by the Government to run Tower Hamlets Council. The object was to inform the Commissioners that their favourite for the Chief Executive job was under investigation for Misconduct in Public Office.

It stirred the memory of at least one reader who sent me an interesting link to the short lived Battle of Tower Hamlets website. It has not been updated since 13th June 2016 and in case it disappears a chunk of it is cheekily reproduced below.

I knew the story of how Will Tuckley came to be Chief Executive in Tower Hamlets but had not previously seen the story reported by a TH based commentator.

Mick Barnbrook had reported Will Tuckley and others to the police for orchestrating a tissue of lies designed to protect Bexley Council from the consequences of a minor misjudgment at a public meeting. As usual it was the cover up that did the damage. Bexley had a new Borough Police Commander and Mick as a retired Inspector in Bexley immediately updated him on the long history of dishonest collusion between Council and Police. The warning may have paid off because the new Commander shunted Mick’s complaint to Greenwich police for investigation. They took it seriously.

News ShopperMick assembled evidence of widespread lying from three Labour Councillors and one Conservative along with every member of the public present at the mismanaged meeting. Bexley Council’s lies extended to sending false Press Releases to the News Shopper and preparing untruthful statements attributed to Council staff at least one of whom knew nothing about them. When police reports were found not to support the Councilְ’s case they asked them to make retrospective amendments to their CAD records. Mick managed to obtain both before and after copies.

Although Mick Barnbrook was the complainant and I was only a witness, Mick had by then moved house from Blackfen to Ramsgate and Greenwich police adopted me as their local contact. They sent a file to the CPS along with the written evidence from ten witnesses that several Bexley Council employees led by Will Tuckley had lied.

And there was no response.

A whole year later the investigating officer who was about to leave his job asked to see me in a secret location to explain what he had heard had happened.

If you read the report below you will know that prosecution of Tuckley would be extremely embarrassing to the Commissioners running Tower Hamlets so the prosecution had to be stopped. But how when the evidence of lying had come from Councillors from both ruling parties?

Fairly easily as it turned out. My Detective friend said that the CPS, unprecedented in his experience, took a very long time to prepare the way forward. It was to appoint an independent barrister to judge the case but strip his copy of the file of supporting evidence.

The unsuspecting independent barrister reported that the case was essentially Mick Barnbrook’s word against Tuckley’s and a successful prosecution was therefore unlikely.

Neither Mick nor I was ever able to get the CPS report out of Greenwich police in part because the investigating officer had moved overseas. Corruption had won. The establishment relies on ordinary people running out of time and energy to pursue injustice and bad people win. The result is all around us.
The Battle of Tower Hamlets

From ‘The Battle of Tower Hamlets’.

 

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