Bonkers was not always primarily a daily blog. Whilst blogs
were published almost daily from 2011 the website was formatted more like a
newspaper with an occasionally updated Front Page and Editorial,
the blog itself was buried within the site.
This is an example of an Editorial page written long before Smart Phones were a
consideration. Many of them will be difficult to read on a mobile phone and links may no longer work
and references to site banners will be invalid.
It remains here for historical purposes only.
| BEXLEY COUNCIL. A TIMELINE OF THEIR CRIMINAL CAMPAIGN AGAINST BLOGGERS | BEXLEY
BOROUGH OVERVIEW • Senior High Court Judge Lewison ruled that Bexley council was “unconcionable” when he threw out a claim by the council in connection with a false demand it had made against a Bexley taxpayer for £1,250,000. He said that Bexley council “had effectively set a trap”.  • Bexley’s former
council leader, Ian Clement was selected by London Mayor Boris
Johnson to be his Deputy four years ago. He was given a twelve week suspended prison sentence
for misusing his GLA credit card to the tune of two hundred and twenty seven pounds and he was
brought to book following complaints by Michael Barnbrook of
the Bexley Council Monitoring Group. Further enquiries revealed that Clement had
abused a Purchasing Card and required to pay back £2,087 while
Bexley’s leader. Bexley council identified the abuse,
demanded answers from Clement, sent an internal email saying how it was to be
hidden from the auditor,
decided it was not a crime and
failed to report the matter to the police.
The person who made that decision was Bexley’s current leader, councillor Teresa Jude O’Neill.• Bexley council’s slogan is ‘Listening to you, working for you’ but when presented with a petition signed by 2,219 residents it ruled it out of order for quoting figures in the introductory comments to the petition. It said they were wrong and misleading. The introduction was an extract from Bexley council’s website. The decision was upheld by the Scrutiny Committee chaired by Bexley magistrate, councillor Donald Massey. All Conservatives voting to ignore the petition, both Labour members disagreeing. Subsequently two councillors and a cabinet member backed the petition’s message on their website but withdrew it when it became known to the council leader. • Bexley council sent the police to the home of a shop assistant who had put up a notice asking customers not to park on the yellow line outside his shop. He was having a detrimental effect on council revenue. • Bexley council objects to being questioned. It generally fails to answer FOIs within 20 days and excludes as many as possible by costing them at more than twice the government’s guidance level, thus excluding as many as it can on cost grounds. In a further attempt to prevent questions it allows only one hour per year for answering questions at council meetings and then attempts to fill the available time with questions from Conservative placemen or by extensive filibustering. Any member of the public asking a question must agree to have his name and address published on the council’s website effectively disenfranchising residents living at home with parents who refuse permission or spouses who are unable to agree with their partners.  • When Eric Pickles’ department wrote to all councils on 23rd February 2011 telling
them “citizen journalists” should be allowed to Tweet and film in council
meetings even the most hard line of secretive Conservative councils like Barnet
and Westminster caved in. Bexley however changed its Constitution to exclude all
forms of recording at meetings. All their Agendas repeat the prohibition and
when questioned they say it is to protect members of the public from appearing
on tape. They sheepishly offer the excuse that permission may be granted on
request but not a single request has been approved, not even for an audio only
recording at a meeting where the public is not allowed to speak.• The blogger known as Olly Cromwell was accused of advocating a march on Bexley’s Civic Offices with flaming torches and pitchforks. He said no such thing and made no reference to it on his website, the comment had been made in a metaphorical context on a website run by a Neighbourhood Watch stalwart. That individual was not censured but Olly Cromwell was reported to the police for posting it on this website - not his own. He had not done that either. The false accusation was made by council leader Teresa O’Neill and Chief Executive Will Tuckley and resulted in Olly Cromwell being referred to the CPS and subsequently issued with a Harassment Form 9993. • Bexley council complains that bloggers have stated that there is too cosy a relationship between the police and Bexley council. The false evidence about the flaming torches went from Bexley council to the police and came back from the CPS with a recommendation to prosecute in just three weeks. Bexley council’s obscene blog which was easy to investigate because of the trail left through Google went nowhere for six months and was pronounced dead in fewer than three. It was only resurrected because two MPs, Teresa Pearce for Erith & Thamesmead and James Brokenshire representing Old Bexley & Sidcup were embarrassed by events on their patch and brought pressure to bear.  • After councillor Melvin Seymour accused the blogger Olly
Cromwell of putting his family at risk by putting Seymour’s address in the
public domain, Bexley council removed its endorsement of his painting and
decorating business from Bexley council’s website in a frantic attempt to
conceal Seymour’s erroneous claim.• Bexley council let its former Chief Executive Nick Johnson retire on grounds of sickness on a pension of £50,000 a year and a pay off said to be £300,000. A few months later he took on a similar job at Hammersmith & Fulham council paying £260,00 a year. Bexley taxpayers continue to fund his £50k. pension. • Bexley council operates CCTV surveillance on motorists and has admitted that it has no certification so to do. It has promised to place its claimed substitute certificate on its website since September 2011 but is yet to do so. • Bexley council’s normal behaviour is to lie, even when the lie is blatant and obvious to all. Councillors have claimed that only Conservatives are aware that Bexleyheath has a railway station, insisting in writing that Labour councillors did not know. They claim officially and issue press releases to the effect that Bexley has more parking spaces than any other borough in South East London. Neighbouring Bromley has nearly twice as many as a perusal of their respective websites will easily confirm.  • Bexley council becomes “a laughing stock” in court when it is found to have
unjustly driven a disturbed elderly gentleman to burning down his own house in
protest at their actions. Councillor Melvin Seymour (of Olly Cromwell fame) had been
responsible for the charges having claimed that the 69 year old man had
“intimidated him on several occasions”.
Link.• Bexley council is the sixth highest salary paying local authority in the country, levying the ninth highest taxes in London. It is the only authority nationwide to systematically invent false charges against its critics culminating in the case against John Kerlen - See column left. |
| 3rd March 2011 OLLY CROMWELL PUTS IN AN APPEARANCE John Kerlen (aka Olly Cromwell) makes his first ever appearance at a Bexley council meeting and films it in accordance with the Communities Secretary’s guidance issued ten days earlier. He captures the Mayor breaking council rules. He blogs it (using only words) three days later. • 8th March 2011 FALSE ALLEGATIONS. COUNCIL REPORTS BLOGGERS TO POLICE Two days after Kerlen’s first Bexley blog, council leader Teresa O’Neill and Chief Executive Will Tuckley give the names John Kerlen and Malcolm Knight to Bexleyheath police accusing them of inciting violence with flaming torches and pitchforks. Kerlen had made no such reference; Knight had reported the statement first made on another website. • 11th April 2011 CPS AND HARASSMENT WARNINGS - BUT NO OFFENCE! After reference to the CPS which had suggested prosecution might be appropriate Kerlen and Knight are issued with Harassment warnings (Form 9993). Police Standard Operating Procedures were ignored. The IPCC later states that “no offence had been committed”. • 27th April 2011 COUNCIL CLAMPS DOWN. ALL FORMS OF RECORDING BANNED Bexley council convenes its Constitution Committee to formally ban all forms of recording and photography at council meetings and decides to publish on its website the names and addresses of any resident who asks the council a question. • 17th May 2011 COUNCIL GETS JUMPY Knight and his colleague Elwyn Bryant book an appointment for 20th May with Mr. Chris Loynes the council's Head of Members’ Services to inspect the Register of Members’ Interests which the council refuses to publish on its website. Heavily chaperoned throughout the visit, Knight subsequently publishes every councillor’s publicly available address on this website. • 21st May 2011 REVENGE! BEXLEY COUNCIL (OR ASSOCIATE) POSTS OBSCENE BLOG 16 hours after Knight and Bryant leave the council offices their visit and other personal details known only to Bexley council are blogged at malcolmknight.blogspot. The domain and blog are impersonations contrary to Google’s T&Cs. • 3rd June 2011 COMPLAINTS TO THE COUNCIL At 5pm on a Friday letters are hand delivered to the council’s post box addressed to leader O’Neill and Chief Executive Tuckley complaining about the obscene blog. • 6th June 2011 COUNCIL ACTS. BLOG CONTENT REMOVED By 11 am on this Monday morning the content of the obscene blog disappears from view. The ‘shell’ of the site remains. • 9th June 2011 CRIME REPORTED TO POLICE Bexleyheath police accept a crime report from Knight and Bryant. • 23rd June 2011 OLLY CROMWELL FILMS ON COUNCIL PREMISES. ASSAULTED In a further attempt to exert his democratic rights Kerlen uses his mobile phone to film outside the council chamber. He is assaulted by Bexley cabinet member Linda Bailey and Kerlen posts the video on YouTube. The police refuse his charge of assault on the grounds that it took place on private premises. For this the council bans him from attending further meetings. • 7th July 2011 POLICE INVESTIGATE. OBSCENITIES LABELLED TIT FOR TAT Bexleyheath police meet with Tuckley in his office to investigate the obscene blogging and continue their investigation into the alleged harassment by Kerlen and Knight - which the IPCC later confirms, in the case of Knight, had been deemed not to be an offence four months earlier. The police nevertheless call the complaint about the obscene blog a mere tit for tat. Under FOI Tuckley subsequently claims the meeting did not take place. Under further FOIs Tuckley refuses to say why he reported Knight to the police for harassment but the ICO eventually compels him to confirm it was the flaming torches metaphor reported on the Bexley is Bonkers site. • 23rd August 2011 POLICE GIVE UP AMID WHELTER OF TECHNICALLY FLAWED EXCUSES Bexleyheath police write to say that there is no data trail to the offending site and the investigation is at an end. malcolmknight.blogspot is still available on Google’s servers. • 6th September 2011 COVER UP! COUNCIL CRIME - “NOT IN PUBLIC INTEREST” Police refuse FOI on their failure to properly investigate the obscene blog as it is not in the public interest to reveal anything. • 1st October 2011 OLLY TWEETS Kerlen posted a picture of an unidentified house and asked "Which c*** lives in a house like this”. No address or name information is provided. Later Kerlen Tweets “send actual shit” still not providing any address information. • 26th October 2011 FALSE STATEMENTS Nearly four weeks after Kerlen makes his Tweet councillor Sandra Bauer who had been election canvassing in Seymour’s street recognises the picture and informes councillor Seymour, embellishing the story to include “urging people to put dog faeces through the letter box”. They both make statements to Bexleyheath police. • 28th October 2011 DAWN POLICE RAID Kerlen’s home suffers a dawn police raid by police officers who have removed their name tags. He is not at home. His computers, phones and cameras are seized as are those of his pregnant wife whose business is thereby crippled by the loss. Kerlen goes to Bexleyheath police station voluntarily and is arrested. • 3rd November 2011 POLICE CONFUSION Bexleyheath police announce in a circular to the great and the good that the owner of Bexley is Bonkers is to be prosecuted for harassment. This is subsequently withdrawn and much later an apology is issued to Knight, the site owner. • 7th November 2011 COURT CONFUSION Kerlen appears in court charged with harassment and pleads Not Guilty. The prosecution offer no evidence and the District Judge requests it to be provided on 12th December. Throughout the hearing the prosecutor refers to Bexley is Bonkers, never to Kerlen’s website. • 21st November 2011 POLICE HAVE CHANGE OF HEART At a public police meeting, the Borough Commander, Chief Superintendent Dave Stringer announces that his enquiry into the Bexley council inspired obscene blog is alive. It transpires that pressure by MPs Teresa Pearce and James Brokenshire has had an effect. • 12th December 2011 ANOTHER PROSECUTION FAILURE Prosecution again fails to provide evidence against Kerlen. • 21st December 2011 HARASSMENT CHARGES DROPPED. OLLY NOT GUILTY Prosecution case is dropped and a Section 127 charge is substituted. Kerlen again pleads Not Guilty. He is bailed but not permitted to refer to any Bexley councillor on any social networking site. A trial is set for 14th February 2012 at Greenwich Court. This is subsequently changed to 13th April 2012 at Greenwich Court and eventually back to Bexley Court on the same day. • 10th February 2012 POLICE MEET WITH MP AND OBSCENITY VICTIMS Bryant and Knight, accompanied by his MP, Teresa Pearce (James Brokenshire was unable to attend) meet the Borough Police Commander, his Deputy and the investigating DI to be told about the obscene blog enquiry. The police refuse to discuss the Harassment issues and for operational reasons fail to give any useful information about the obscene blog except that they have made significant progress and are taking the matter very seriously indeed. • 13th March 2012 OLLY CROMWELL JAILED FOR NO GOOD REASON Kerlen is arrested and kept in the cells for 24 hours because Bexley councillor Philip Read falsely accuses him of breaking bail conditions. A District Judge orders his release but the police confine him unnecessarily for another hour. • 15th March 2012 OBSCENE BLOG FILE GOES TO CPS Chief Superintendent Dave Stringer reveals that a file has been sent to the CPS about the Bexley council inspired obscene blog. • 13th April 2012 OLLY FOUND GUILTY UNDER SECTION 127 Kerlen is found guilty at Bexley court of sending a grossly offensive and menacing Tweet. • 14th April 2012 SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS Allegations of perjury by Seymour begin to circulate on the web. • 21st April 2012 WRONG CHARGES Probation Service interviews Kerlen on the basis of the documents sent by the Court. They refer to the Harassment charges made following the flaming torches metaphor in which Kerlen was not involved and of which he was found Not Guilty. • 9th May 2012 SENTENCING Kerlen was sentenced to 80 hours Community Service and ordered not to contact councillor Seymour in any way during the next five years. Costs of £620 were awarded against Kerlen but his own costs for the unfounded harassment charges were granted to him. • SUMMARY Kerlen was found guilty of calling councillor Seymour a c*** and menacing him with the threat of dog faeces through his letterbox. Supporting evidence was that he revealed Seymour’s address and named him. He did none of those things but was nevertheless found guilty. It is British justice at its very best. |
This is an archived copy of the Site’s Editorial page originally postedon 21st April 2012.