Can I, or should I be sending a copy of this to the Home Office, possibly as a complaint? Can I, or should I be making a complaint to the Department of Works and Pensions? I was one of the victims of criminal damage. It was part of a seven-year campaign of harassment. It went to court, he was found guilty, but only received a conditional discharge. A one-sided and provably untrue version of events was presented to the court by the defence and we had no right of reply. The judge said the defence lawyer should have asked us about the things she was asking the defence witness, but then let her say anything she wanted unchallenged. It destroyed our reputation. It probably made his sentence lighter. We could have demonstrated it was a lie if we were questioned when we were the prosecution witness. Much of what they were doing to us they claimed we were doing to them. Some were not small lies, but big ones, falsely claiming the police had banned us from walking on the pavement past their house. We have been victims of these lies for years and now he has been allowed to use a courtroom to repeat these lies without being challenged. Three days after the trial he started his harassment again and has done something literally every day since for six months. I still hide in the house and never use our garden as a garden. We only leave our property by car and never walk into the village past his house due to his bullying and his setting up scams. He never turned up to court the five times he should have been there, even the final trial. Unknown to us he was claiming he had mental illness. His mental health claims do not match what we experience. In reality he is cocky and arrogant with a God complex, but was portrayed as a timid, delicate man. His partner claimed he had agoraphobia, only feeling safe in his house and garden. On and around the court dates he was walking his dog, driving his car and joining neighbours walking down the road spreading false rumours loud enough so we could hear as he walked by our property. He appeared to be enjoying this. The court was not told about this. He still walks his dog away from his house even today. She also claimed he had depression, but has been having a lot of fun harassing us over the years. Three days after the trial he climbed a tree overlooking our property, grinning at us as we cleared up the mess he had caused over the year. At the end of the trial when it was clear the judge was going to find him guilty, the defence lawyer also claimed he had paranoia. She also claimed he had an honestly held belief to justify his criminal damage. Note: Unknown to the court, both the defendant and partner have claimed they worked for mental health. He claimed he did so for 15 years. He stopped and has been living on benefits since 2012, coincidently the same year he was convicted for two counts of battery against someone else. He has boasted to us, and i believe others, that he is rinsing the system. There was a piece of evidence that had been given to the police/CPS that implied he knew his belief was not true, but that was not shown to the court. That may have also convinced the judge about his calculating character and questioned his so-called paranoia. I had discussed the importance of that with a young police officer and another police officer who attended my mother on a court day incident months before the final trial. They appear to have not informed the CPS. Also, the police had allegedly told him his belief was not true before any of these attacks on our property for the court related case. Again, this was not told to the court. We replaced the damaged property about five months before the trial. He was continually throwing debris, dog's mess etc into our garden and onto our roof. It would startle us when he did it on our conservatory as we entered that room. He knew we were there even with all blinds closed. He then attacked the replacement 535 times. This was not told to the court. Just 15 minutes before the first of those 535 attacks the police handed his full-time carer/partner a letter saying his belief was not true. The police alleged he filmed this. This was not told to the court. The carer/partner told the court his belief **was** true. She is not claiming she has mental health issues. We were not asked in court about what the police had told them and she did not offer that information. None of the vast amount of CCTV evidence as he started his attacks was shown to the court that showed his belief was definitely not true. He delayed the case for a year while he argued technicalities. He also tried to get incidents they were engineering throughout the year submitted into the case to possibly damage our reputation. We were reporting those incidents to the police. They were causing us considerable stress. They were also possibly emailing these incidents to the council, possibly to try to establish his claim of an alleged honestly held belief. We did not know that at the time. We were phoning the council to try to get them to stop the harassment, but the council lady was never there and did not phone us back. She still has not done so since the trial. When the judge asked us why we had installed CCTV, it was the only opportunity we had to mention the harassment campaign in court. We started giving details of strange and disturbing incidents that happened. However, before we could say anything that we could connect to the defendant, such as an assault he did against our eighty-year old father on our property, the judge said he got the idea and shut us up. I do not understand how a judge knows what you are going to say without hearing it. Is that allowed? The defendant sent in his partner to be his witness. She asked for screening saying she was terrified of us. This did not match the video of her calmly leaning on our gate away from their property after he had assaulted my elderly father. Of course the court knew nothing about that. (I am concerned that he might have claimed something similar and that was why he did not turn up to court. This would not match the wealth of film we have of him standing on a chair overlooking a six foot fence shouting foul and disgusting abuse at us leading up to the trial. The neighbours heard, but appear unaware of his mental health claims so this will have damaged our reputation further.) The defence lawyer asked the partner about us. She then started lying her head off, destroying our character. The judge stopped her and told the defence lawyer she should have asked us those questions. However, he then said he wanted to hear it and let her continue without challenge. I do not understand why the judge allowed that to happen. Is that allowed? Can we complain? The defence witness, now knowing she would be unchallenged, then started to really lie. For example, she falsely claimed the police had stopped us walking past their property. The police have never restricted our movements. The reality was the defendant had received a harassment information notice which he ignored. Then, I believe in retaliation, every time we walked by both he and his partner would engineer situations to try to make counter claims. In 2015 we ourselves decided to stop walking by and have not done so since. This was due to the scams and the extreme stress this was causing our elderly mother who has a stress related medical condition. This triggers a condition that requires a procedure and that carries risk. He knows she has a stress related condition. We are cut off from the village by walking due to his bullying. Effectively, the partner completely distorted reality and turned an incident of harassment by the defendant into making them look like the victims. We tried to walk by after the trial, but again he spat at us, so again we have stopped. The carer/partner lied about many other things, some of which we could easily prove were not true if asked. The defence lawyer must have known she was going to ask these questions, but did not ask us. So I am concerned she was knowingly trying to get these lies into the record without challenge. Not a word of our witness impact statement was read to the court, even though we had evidence of much of what was in it. The prosecutor was completely unaware the impact statement existed. We were told the defence lawyer would see it, so that may have been another reason why the defence lawyer may not have wanted any challenge to the partner's testimony. The defendant was also engaged in sleep deprivation from the moment he realised he had finally been caught about a year before the final trial and then all the way up to the trial. For example, by banging our outside wall between 12am and 3am. We had some good proof of this, including a 14 minute attack a week before the first trial date at about 1am where he had failed to cover our CCTV camera properly. You could see the pole coming from his garden. The police did not view or collect this as normal and allowed this to continue all the way up to the trial. Sometimes we would phone the police multiple times a day and our earlier phone calls for that day had already been lost. We had to turn up to the trial at our wits end, tired and agitated. This was in our witness impact statement, but was not told to the court. There were 27 attacks on the day before the trial. I do not understand why defendants are permitted to compromise a witness up to the trial and this is not mentioned in court. He was also boasting he would not have to turn up to court and his partner was going to say foul things about us. I think this was intimidation. All this was unknown to the court. Shortly after the sleep deprivation started my mother had a medical incident and had to go to hospital for the procedure again. This was the third time it has been triggered at a time when he was causing extreme stress. As normal, this was not known to the court. The defendant attacked our property on one of the trial days he did not attend when my elderly mother was on her own. She thought the roof was caving in. He was the only person there in his house. We had CCTV evidence that showed the attack came from his property. All our other cameras showed no one entered or left our house or garden until the police arrived. He was not questioned as normal. This was in our impact statement which was not known to the court. We had to stay up with our mother all night as she was having medical problems. We reported something to the police about that attack we did not understand. Months later in the court the defence lawyer said something that could have been related to that incident. It could have implied he was tampering with the evidence after the event to try to pretend something of minimal value was damaged instead. This was not known to the court. During one of the rants in the week or so before the trial, the defendant stopped ranting suddenly and then put on a victim voice saying he was depressed. This was really unusual as he is always really cocky. In the final trial we had to wait about an hour while they argued technicalities before we gave evidence. During the trial the defence lawyer said we knew he had mental health issues. I am concerned they may have been setting up a ruse in that hour to create an illusion for the judge. When we were asked if we knew he had mental health issues the judge shut us up and said something like we could not know his mental health status. What the judge did not realise is we might have evidence that could dispute he had mental health problems at all. When he was found guilty the judge said something on the lines of his two counts of battery in 2012 against someone else were nothing, but he had taken no evidence from us to realize this type of intimidating behaviour was happening to us and election canvassers since. Also, one of the court case related attacks was very aggressive, but was not shown to the court. The judge did not say it directly, but implied it with a story he told that we should just pick up the dog's mess he was throwing. The judge was unaware that a lot of the dog's mess was being thrown on our roof and clogged up our guttering, which resulted in a major and disgusting job. This continues to this day. The defendant has never been questioned by the police since we first contacted them in 2015, even for the assault against my father in 2016. For the court case he kept on bullying us on a daily basis for weeks while he refused to be questioned by the police. A community officer ultimately insisted he go into the police station. He went in, had a rant, refused to be questioned or sign anything and left within three minutes. The judge was told about the latter, but it appeared to have no effect on sentencing. The judge was not told about his other refusals to be questioned. The 535 attacks, and all the abuse throughout the year has been written off and not addressed by anyone and unknown to the court. Our inability to work due to lack of sleep literally destroyed our business as a result. As mentioned the defendant continues to harass us almost every day. His mental health claims do not match the evidence that was withheld from the court. In fact, you could say it shows a very calculating person. There are other very serious reasons why the defendant could be successfully lying about his mental health issues. I have written to the DWP and they effectively said to go somewhere else. They were named in court as proof he had these mental health issues. Also, I think the judge said there may have been a note from the DWP. It was not read to the court and once again not challenged. The defendant has boasted to us he had access to two of his children removed at one point, but they were returned at a time when he was harassing us. The DWP or social services employee who did this may have been the person who wrote the unchallenged note to the court and therefore could have a vested interest to hide her failings. What can be done? Were we treated correctly in that court? Was it correct for the judge to allow her provably false testimony to be entered into the trial which destroyed our character without giving us a right of reply? Was it correct for our witness impact statement to be 'lost', especially when we had proof of much of what was in it? Was it correct for the evidence that disputed his claims of an honestly held belief to be withheld from that court? Was it correct the judge took no evidence from us about either the defendant's or partner's character, but allowed her to totally destroy our character? Was it correct his claims of mental health were not challenged, especially when there were these more serious reasons to challenge those claims? I see little point in phoning the police as they ignore crime, even when we have good evidence. Only the community officers ever seem to want to try to stop him. There is no point in phoning the council as they rarely ever want to talk to us and may even be used by the defendant to manufacture a defence. Our lives were bad before the trial. They are much worse since. A few days ago the council have been cleaning up handmade road signs the defendant put up along the road that are mimicking real ones. We have had significant retaliation from the defendant possibly as a result. Today has been another bad day with him ranting at my father as he walked by our property with the child that is not biologically his. Surely the biological parents have a right to know how he uses his children? He has also thrown stuff into our garden again today. Life is a constant chore. We live with are curtains almost constantly drawn, or he films us or harasses us in some way when he sees us. Our lives are hollow and without meaning as we have to live under his rule in his twisted world. What is worse is they are never held accountable, challenged or questioned about the provable lies, not even in a court.

Sexual abuse of cadets 'was covered up by officials who urged victims not to tell police' READ MORE HERE: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/04/sexual-abuse-cadets-covered-officials-urged-victims-not-tell/

Hello, in the last few days have I discovered that Vanquis Credit Card company are [problem]mers. I already have credit cards with Barclays and Capital One, and manage them perfectly well, am not in debt to them. I apologise, here, for the length of this post. In June this year, I received (junk mail....) an envelope from Vanquis, offering me a credit card with them. Because I was in need of a bit more cash at the time, I stupidly filled in the online application form, and then received a phone-call from them. They approved me for one of their cards. I did NOT then know that this company, Vanquis, are for people with bad or no credit history...to my shame, I simply assumed they were a mainstream, legitimate credit card company. After the card was received by me, a couple of weeks later, I used it to purchase a few items. Taking it up to within £3 of the (£250) credit limit. When I went through the application process over the phone, in June, with one of their staff, I arranged (or THOUGHT I did...see later) a Direct Debit with them, for the minimum payment. I told them that I'm on a (Civil Service) pension, and that it gets paid into my bank account on (the specific date of the month it's paid in). I thus said to them, "The DDebit will, therefore, be taken from my account several days later, right?". (ie, in line with all my other monthly payments). The Vanquis staff member said "Yes, of course All my relevant bank details were given to him, over the phone, in June this year, in order to [or so I thought...] set up the DDebit. Then, to my horror, on 18th July (just 6 days ago), I received a text from Vanquis claiming that my account was £33 overdrawn. Of course I phoned them immediately. I'd ASSUMED that the DDebit which had (ostensibly) been set up in June, had been taken from my account a couple of days earlier. Ie, I assumed my account was okay. (Not then knowing that they are a [problem]ming company - as I do know, now...). Prior to phoning them on 18th July, I went online to look at my account. And found, to my horror, that a couple of days earlier (ie, the date on which the DDebit SHOULD have been paid from my bank account, to Vanquis), Vanquis had slapped onto my account with them a £12 "Late payment charge" (???). A (FAKE charge, by them) charge which tipped my account over the credit limit. And that they therefore then slapped on a £12 "Overlimit charge". When I eventually spoke to Vanquis on 18th July, I said "WHY did you not take the Direct Debit which had been arranged in June?". The staff member said to me "We DID try to take it from your bank, but it was rejected". (NB., this, I learnt, was a deliberate lie on the part of Vanquis...). I told him that I had more than enough money in my ordinary bank account to cover the DDebit - that it should have been taken just a couple of days after my pension had been paid in. The Vanquis chap continued to claim that my bank had rejected the DDebit. I continued to say to him "That is nonsense, I STILL have more than enough in my bank account to cover that DDebit". The chap then had the audacity to say to me "Pay us £31 on your next pension payday and we'll clear the overlimit charges, and start again from scratch...". I checked with my own bank this morning, and not only did they confirm that Vanquis had NOT tried to put through a DDebit to them, but that NO Direct Debit has been registered with my bank, by Vanquis; even though in June I arranged such a DDebit over the phone - even telling them that (of course) they would need to take the DDebit each month on a date a few days AFTER my monthly pension is credited to my account. Having, in the last couple of days, read online re. the horrific [problem] that is being perpetrated by Vanquis - FAKE charges being slapped onto people's accounts (my own example, above, being one such), willy-nilly, and the extortionate interest charged, I'm very panicky indeed about what they might do to me, finance-wise, re. my account with them. I realise it was very careless of me not to have realised that they, Vanquis, are not a mainstream credit card company. It is an immensely stressful time for me, currently, due to other personal matters, so the very LAST thing I needed, right now, was to discover myself in the nightmare situation with Vanquis that I now see I AM in - thus adding to my stressed state. I've been reading some of the many horrific stories of people's experiences with Vanquis, online, and really do not know what I should do, in the first instance, to try to limit their horrific assault on my finances, with the FAKE charges they've slapped on my account with them. And re. the fact they deliberately did not, in actual fact, set up a DDebit for me, even though in June it had, I thought, all been arranged over the phone. Ie, they deliberately did not set up a DDebit with my bank, to them, precisely in order then to PRETEND they'd tried to put through the DDebit just a few days ago, to then PRETEND it had been rejected by my bank, in order to then slap FAKE charges on my account. (I've read, online, that other people have found this - that Vanquis have claimed that their bank had rejected the set-up DDebit, and then the victim discovers (as did I, earlier today) that they'd not set up a DDebit, precisely in order to slap the fake charges on... I would very much appreciate any advice as to what I should do, in this situation. Thanking you in hopeful anticipation.

Banks are refusing to pay compensation to card fraud victims based on nothing more than a "hunch", while others are forced to wait longer than four weeks to get their money back. An investigation by Which? showed that banks are “inconsistent” when it comes to handling fraud claims. Worryingly, banks appear to be refusing compensation to genuine fraud victims. The FOS said that while it had seen some improvements, in many cases banks have based their decisions “on a hunch”, without conducting a full investigation. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/bank-accounts/11869596/Banks-refusing-to-repay-card-fraud-victims-based-on-a-hunch.html

Just saw this on the news... An accident on the M9 was reported on Sunday 5th July - Police failed to investigate until yesterday, 8th July. They found two people, one dead, one critically injured (and who has since been placed in an induced coma). The couple had already been reported missing, so you would have thought the Police would have clicked when whoever reported the accident advised it was the same vehicle the missing couple had been using !!

http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/11451963.Police_tell_crime_victims_to_carry_out_their_own_investigations__watchdog_says/?ref=rss

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/wonga-fraud-complaints-continue

At least 1,400 soldiers have received unfair sanctions, including dismissal and missed promotion, because the Army spent several years wrongly disciplining anyone who received a police caution. Minutes and briefing notes from two Army Justice Board meetings show that the Adjutant-General, the Army’s most senior personnel officer, knew as early as 2011 of the problem, which is related to changes in the law on rehabilitating offenders. It is unclear, however, whether those affected by the mistake have been informed that potentially career-ending penalties should not have been enforced against them. One senior army officer told The Times that compensating for the error could cost millions of pounds and that the damage to soldiers’ careers would be irreparable. “The Army has unlawfully taken action in 1,400 cases, including dismissing soldiers — and they are covering it up,” the officer claimed. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/defence/article3649756.ece Full article; http://www.arrse.co.uk/current-affairs-news-analysis/192588-times-army-faces-huge-bill-victims-rough-justice.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-19432497