Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services, or what used to be know as the
plain Social Work Deptartment, has seriously compromised its
professional integrity by defending a member of its staff who
deliberately told lies in a report to the Parole Board in an attempt to
sabotage my chances of release from prison. Behaving like corrupt
policemen instead of traditional social workers seems now to be
acceptable practice at Edinburgh Social Services.
In an official report for the Parole Board written on the 29/2/2012
Brenden Barnett, who works for Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services, made
the following incredible claims about my original case in 1980.
“Secondary motives for using violence described by the trial judge and
acknowledged by Bowden himself suggest a pattern of behaviour that
allowed for the predatory targeting of vulnerable human beings on the
margins of society defined by race or sexuality”. “Bowden has suggested
that his victims were easily discriminated against on the basis of race
or sexuality”. “There has been no investigation of the values and
beliefs that informed Bowden’s targeting of individuals, i.e. what
particular characteristics deemed a person worthy of attack; ethnic
background, deviant sexuality”.
There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support Barnett’s
bizarre claims and in fact I was convicted in 1982, alongside two other
men, of the murder of a white Caucasian heterosexual male during a
drunken party in South London. If ethnicity was any sort of factor in
the case it was actually represented in the defendants, two of whom were
Irish and the third second-generation Irish; the victim was a native
white south Londoner. Neither the police who investigated the case or
the prosecution authorities or indeed trial judge had ever claimed that
either racism or homophobia had played any part in the case; Barnett’s
claims are a total lie, as he well knew.
Naively, I imagined that by officially complaining to Barnett’s
superiors his lies would be exposed and the record put straight as far
as his report to the Parole Board was concerned. Instead I was about to
enter a sort of Kafkaesque nightmare.
On the 2/4/2012 I was interviewed by Jackie Peters, Manager for “Risk
Management Services” and Barnett’s immediate boss, and Sheila Ritchie, a
“Sex and Violent Offender Liaison Officer”, and also a colleague of
Barnett’s. Both made it absolutely clear that they intended to defend
and support their colleague no matter what, even if it required some
twisting of the facts and a total disregard of the truth. Throughout the
interview I was treated with obvious contempt and at one point I was
actually asked if any of my victims (I was convicted of one murder) were
black or homosexuals. Despite my constant protestations that neither
race or sexual orientation played any part whatsoever in my conviction,
as the official files make clear, they steadfastly determined to somehow
defend and justify Barnett’s lies. I eventually realised that the
interview was meaningless and their intention was simply to defend their
colleague, so I told them that I would pursue my complaint beyond them
and do whatever it took to expose Barnett’s lies. In their subsequent
report they would describe this as a “threat” against Barnett. They also
alleged I had been “angry and aggressive” towards them and tried to
shift the focus from Barnett’s lies onto my behaviour during the
interview, which they insinuated suggested a potential risk to both
themselves and the wider community. The issue of Barnett’s lies in their
report was glossed over and my complaint rejected. It’s important to
remember here that we’re not dealing with some miner factual inaccuracy
or a biased interpretation of established fact, a fairly common
phenomenon in social work reports on prisoners; Barnett wrote blatant
lies in his report, claims that had absolutely no basis in fact or
reality, lies that are easily disproved by reference to the mass of
information in my prison and social work file, and yet those supposedly
responsible for investigating my complaint decided that Barnett had done
absolutely no wrong and his report was completely acceptable. Protected
by an occupational culture that views and treats “offenders” as things
to be monitored, supervised and policed, authoritarian characters like
Barnett believe they have total power over those under their supervision
and with it the absolute right to increase their demonisation and
dehumanisation, even by writing blatant lies about them.
Those who employ Barnett and those who work alongside him in the
Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services must ultimately take responsibility
for his behaviour because by defending and supporting him they have
seriously compromised their own integrity and are complicit in his
dishonesty and abuse of power. A more senior social worker, Stephen
Laird, signed off Barnett’s report and therefore gave the official seal
of approval to his lies, which is why those supposedly investigating my
complaint, Peters and Ritchie, felt an even greater predisposition to
support Barnett, even if his lies regarding my original offence were
obvious and indefensible. This is how corruption spreads within
institutions like the police and Social Services; defending and
supporting colleagues who have abused their power, especially over
people considered something less than human and utterly powerless,
creates complicity and a culture of abuse generally. The prison system
and police are riddled with this culture, which is why the abuse and
death of people in custody is widespread and why those directly
responsible are rarely identified and prosecuted. It would seem that the
“Criminal Justice Services” generally, including social workers and
probation officers, are also contaminated by this culture of lying and
treating “offenders” as people stripped of all basic rights; my
experience with Barnett and his colleagues certainly illustrates this.
Undoubtedly at my next parole hearing Barnett will claim that by
challenging the lies in his report I have also challenged his authority
over me and therefore I represent a “High Risk of Re-offending” because
of my adversity to being supervised by Barnett in the community. As
always Public Protection will be cited and used as a justification for
my continued imprisonment, when in reality I shall probably remain in
jail simply because I challenged Barnett’s lies.
I have now complained to Peter Gabbitas, Director of Health and
Social Dept. in Edinburgh, who has overall responsibility for Barnett
and his colleagues, and he has yet to even acknowledge my letter, which
suggests a disinclination on his part to recognise either my existence
or that of my complaint. Incredibly it would seem that a pathological
liar like Barnett has the absolute freedom to describe someone in an
official report as a “racist and homophobic” serial killer without a
shred of evidence, and absolutely no-one in his entire dept has the
integrity or moral courage to criticise or expose him, and that
apparently includes even the dept’s Director. The complete absence of
any basic integrity amongst those at Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services
is both scandalous and deeply worrying for those under it’s
supervision.
The response of Barnett and Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services to my
exposing his lies has been to ask the Scottish Prison Service to
engineer my removal back to the English prison system, and on the
4/5/2012 Sharron Di Ciacca, Legal Service Manager of the Scottish Prison
Service, wrote to me informing me that such a transfer would take place
soon. Moving the “problem” on is of course a classic method of
controlling and punishing “difficult” prisoners.
Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services should not be allowed to suppress
or simply get rid of “offenders” who complain about and expose
individuals like Brendan Barnett, and I ask all groups and individuals
concerned about the treatment of prisoners and ex-prisoners at the hands
of a corrupt social work dept like Edinburgh Criminal Justice Services
to write letters or e-mails of complaint to the following addresses:
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman
4 Melville Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7NS
Social Work Advice and Complaints Service
Waverley Court
Level 1/7
4 East Market Street
Edinburgh
EH8 8BG
Michelle Miller
Chief Social Worker
Grindlay Court Social Work Centre
Criminal Justice Services
2-4 Grindlay Court
Edinburgh
EH3 9AR
Peter Gabbitas, Director
Health and Social Care Dept
Waverley Court
Level 1/8
4 East Market Street
Edinburgh
EH8 8BG
John Bowden, 6729
HMP Shotts
May 2012
http://bristolabc.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/criminal-justice-services-continue-to-cover-up-lies-about-john-bowden/
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