Our campaign has consistently stated that based on evidence and the testimonies of families, that have had their children seriously harmed or who have lost children to suicide due to failures to address bullying, physical and sexual violence in schools, that UK schools may not be the safest place for every child to be.
Despite those concerns, Government and Ministers have chosen to remain completely silent on the issue, despite damning criticisms in the High court regarding their failures to investigate or discuss the subject.
Where they and the media don’t want to ask questions because they don’t want to hear the answers, the opposite is true of parents/carers and advocates. The reason for this is simple. If they ever choose to defend the criticism, they know they’ll draw attention to the failures that they desperately want to hide. The moment they publicly acknowledge there could be a problem, is the moment they open the door to exposing exactly what is happening in schools.
That’s why our campaign is now going to place the power into your hands and give you the power, to ensure that we are successful in our quest for a public inquiry.
We want anyone who is passionate about children being safe in school, to actively help us push for a UK-wide public inquiry, within your local communities. Social media can be great but when it comes to getting people to take action, rather than just spectate, nothing beats engaging with others in the community and sharing your passion face to face.
To do this we’ve made things as easy as possible. We’ve produced the postcard (pictured below), that can be handed out in your community. The postcard briefly highlights the facts and the call for an inquiry and points people to the website Publicinquirynow.co.uk . There they can watch the short video story of the call for an inquiry, as well as contact their MP and share the simple request that can be found on the ‘Contact your MP‘ section of the website asking MP’s to support one.
If you would like to be involved you can either go straight to the site, follow the instructions and contact your MP. If you would like to be more involved and order postcards, please get in touch through the contact form on this site or email admin@fightforthefatherless.org or direct message or comment on any of our Fight for the fatherless in action social media, on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.
In November 2021 our application for a Judicial review against the decision of Westminster Magistrates Court, not to issue a criminal summons against the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson was heard in the High Court.
The application argued that the allegations of a deliberate failure to take reasonable steps to protect children from harm and death in relation to bullying and violence in schools, were capable of crossing the criminal threshold.
It was ultimately decided, that the evidence could not determine one way or the other, whether any failures to investigate were deliberate and as a result, whether or not the alleged misconduct was serious enough to cross the high Criminal threshold. This meant that the application had to be dismissed. The High Court did find though, that on the face of the evidence, no one in Government had ever investigated and ever offered any explanation for failing to do so and that that demonstrated ‘tremendous incompetence’.
The case and the findings of the High court, have now provided a clear basis for the first ever Independent Statutory Public Inquiry of its kind into the harms and deaths. This resulted in an official request to Government in April 2022 and a formal request to around 650 MPs to support the call for that.
This video tells the story of the long road to the call for a Public Inquiry and the failure of Politicians on all sides and outlines the plan to hold Parliament to account, to make sure that lessons can be learned and that all children can be better protected from bullying and violence in the future.
Today the criminal case against Gavin Williamson for Misconduct in Public Office in relation to allegations of a deliberate failure to investigate failings related to bullying, physical and sexual violence in schools was dismissed in the High Court, although what the Judge said about the case has given us everything we need to finally hold Parliament to account by proving that the system is broken and that children will continue to suffer abuse and harm until something significant is done.
A Renewal hearing will now take place in the High Court in London, to decide whether permission will be granted to Judicial review the decision of the Chief Deputy District Judge at Westminster Magistrates, not to summons Gavin Williamson to answer criminally in Crown Court. in regard to allegations of Misconduct in Public Office.
Permission was not granted on the papers but importantly the Judge reading the arguments has allowed scope for what is known as a Renewal hearing, to argue in person why permission should be granted.
The hearing will be focused on the decision of the previous Judge, who had agreed that there may on the face of it, be evidence to prove Gavin Williamson may have failed to take necessary steps to protect children from harm and prevent potential deaths. He disagreed though that there was evidence of any corrupt motive or misconduct of a level high enough to cross the very high criminal threshold, where acting recklessly and deliberately knowing it would likely result in harm amongst other things in this case, would need to be proven.
This will be the first time the allegations will have been explored openly in public and last Monday will have been the first time the Government will have received notification, that this will now definitely take place and was possibly the last thing they would have expected, especially with the Mainstream Media having played their part in failing to hold them to account and keeping the truth from the Public.
It was interesting that as part of the reshuffle last week following that notification, that not only was Gavin Williamson sacked but only one of the 6 Ministers remained in position in a completely revamped DfE. With Nick Gibb also being sacked as Schools Minister after 16 years.
That doesn’t mean there’s any link between the clear out and the hearing but the Government will now be fully aware that the indictment against Gavin Williamson also alleges that the failures to act involved other Ministers in the DfE who it is alleged may have played a part in a cover up.
Whatever is decided in the High Court. Nothing changes the fact, that complaints of failures to take steps to prevent children from being harmed and losing their lives due to bullying, physical and sexual violence in Schools, that have been acknowledged by the London Metropolitan Police and now the Courts as legitimate, have not moved a single MP in Parliament to do anything to protect millions of children in schools right across the UK.
Mr Williamson may eventually be the one put on trial but whatever happens, every MP including our Prime Minister, at the end of this process will have some serious questions to answer.
We now await a listing date, which we expect to be sometime in October but will update everyone when we know more.
On 30/07/2021 documents were sealed by the High Court and then served on the Governments legal department and Westminster Magistrates Court in a claim for Judicial review against the decision not to issue a criminal summons against the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson.
The application argues that the allegations of a deliberate failure to take reasonable steps to protect children from harm and death in relation to bullying and violence in schools, if proven in court would be capable of crossing the criminal threshold.
Both those parties will now have 21 days, to present legal argument to the Royal Courts of Justice, stating why they believe permission should not be granted if they dispute the claim.
Work will continue in the meantime, with an update now most likely to follow later in August.***
*** Update 25/08/2021 The deadline has now passed and the Royal Courts have confirmed that there has been no response from either the Government Legal Department or Westminster Magistrates to the claim that permission should be granted for a Judicial review to be heard in open court, to look at whether or not the decision to refuse to grant a summons against Gavin Williamson was wrong in law.
The claim should now be passed onto a Judge to decide on paper whether or not the application for Judicial review should succeed. There is no fixed date for a decision but we would hope to have one in the next few weeks and will update again when we know more.
On Wednesday 28/04/2021 ‘An Information’ was laid at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, England under Section 6 of the prosecution of offences act 1985, with an application for a summons against Gavin Williamson, MP and Secretary of State for Education, requiring him to face allegations of having committed the offence of Misconduct in Public office, contrary to Common law.
The application was dismissed, by Judge Tanweer Ikram, the Deputy Chief Magistrate (the second most senior Magistrates position in England and Wales). The reasoning being that any alleged failings in his view could not overcome the criminal threshold that would be needed to be reached, to result in any Jury convicting Gavin Williamson of the offence. A reconsideration and failing that, a Judicial review of the decision may now be sought in the next few weeks.
The case is being brought by ‘The Safer Schools Campaign’ through ‘Fight for the Fatherless in Action’. The campaign consists of over 150 families from across the UK, that have had children seriously harmed or killed, many having lost children to suicide as a consequence of alleged bullying, physical and sexual violence in schools. The claim and criminal allegation, is that some of these harms and deaths are potentially as a result of deliberate actions and failures of Gavin Williamson but also Government and specifically the Department for Education (DfE) over a number of years.
The laying of ‘the Information’ followed a decision by the London Metropolitan Police, who had initially begun an assessment of the allegations and evidence in support of those allegations, via the Office of the Met’s Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick and the ‘Central Specialist Crime Division’ from late November 2020 to mid February 2021. This followed a meeting in Parliament, which was organised with Ministers and MP’s in February 2020. After assessing the evidence and making further enquiries, they made a decision to take no further action. It was that decision that led to the application for a private prosecution, with reasons given to the court as to why the police had failed to address the complaint properly.
The Application includes a statement made under oath of the ‘Alleged offence’. This was the opening paragraph from the statement summary that was made in the initial application, which is included in the Judgment as a brief summary of the issue:
3.2: ’ It is alleged that Gavin Williamson, as an MP and Secretary of State for Education misconducted himself on not less than 5 occasions, between 23/01/2019 and 22/03/2021 in that he wilfully neglected his duty, to take reasonable steps to protect children from harm, and to protect children who’s lives were at risk, by wilfully failing to investigate and act to address, alleged failings in the safeguarding complaints/recording systems of the Department for Education (DfE), in addition to complaints of a potential cover up of the issues.’
The allegations as shown in the Judgment, stem originally from a complaint about a school in the UK, where serious incidents and assaults, often with weapons including glass took place on a daily basis for almost a year, with many incidents involving the police and hospital treatment for children being covered up. The concerns and reports of the incidents were raised with OFSTED (School Inspectorate) and the DfE in 2015, who it is alleged failed to investigate. It is alleged that Damian Hinds (previous Secretary of State for Education) and his officials, as well as other Ministers and MP’s, then deliberately failed to investigate these failures, which raised a number of concerns about the National safeguarding systems firstly in England but eventually across all 4 of the devolved nations. It is alleged that the concerns of failure and a potential cover up were raised with Gavin Williamson and it is alleged that he then deliberately failed to investigate, in order to further cover up the issues.
Below is an extract from the Judgment from the applicants statement made under oath;
3.7: ‘At the heart of the complaint of the alleged offences of Misconduct in Public office, is the fact that the results of any reviews of the applicant’s complaints as a whole, at any point over the last two years and more, ultimately would have led anyone reviewing the material, to damning evidence of failings in the countries national safeguarding systems and evidence of a potential cover up of those flaws. The flaws it is evidenced may have resulted in numerous harms and deaths, not just in the last two years, but over decades.’
‘ It is the fact that the conduct alleged, of consistently covering up allegations and evidence of failings and misconduct, as well as leaving alleged serious safeguarding policy concerns to go un-investigated, knowing that children are potentially losing their lives as a result, was deliberate and calculated. It is this act of doing what Mr Williamson is alleged to have done, knowing it to be wrong or with reckless indifference as to whether it is wrong or not, that would be clearly decided by any reasonable jury, to have injured the public interest, so as to call for condemnation and punishment.’
On 18th June 2021, the District Judge refused to issue a summons based on the fact, that in his view he found that although there may be evidence to show that Gavin Williamson may have acted unlawfully and breached the Ministerial code, that that in and of itself is not a matter for the Criminal court. The Judge also found no evidence of a corrupt motive in any of the alleged failings or any evidence of a cover up. Ultimately in his view, there was no evidence that the alleged failures of Gavin Williamson were enough to engage the very high threshold of seriousness needed to engage the criminal standard that would allow a Jury to convict him of the offence.
Below are the District Judges conclusions and reasons for not granting a summons taken from the official Judgment;
3.13: ‘ There is a high threshold for this offence. The Informant accepts there is a safeguarding policy team, policies and laws. A failure to carry out the responsibilities and duties of a Minister, even if true, does not of itself constitute prima facie evidence of criminal conduct. Formulation of policy is a political act and failures in that area are beyond the scope of the alleged criminal offence. Any failings such as the implementation of national safeguarding systems are an operational issue, in my judgment, also beyond the alleged criminal offence as regards the Defendant. Ministers can be held to account for their performance, as regards formulation of policy and giving direction, through the ballot box or through civil remedy where they have acted unlawfully. Criminal conviction can only follow where their misconduct is of such degree as to call for ‘condemnation and punishment.
On any reading, the neglect of duty as framed does not come close to the threshold required, ie ‘so far below acceptable standards as to amount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office holder’.’
There is reason to believe though, that the Judge has made a procedurally flawed decision, in that he potentially failed to take into account relevant evidence that was put before him of a corrupt motive, and it is on that basis, that an application for Judicial review to the High Court may now be made.
It’s important to add that Gavin Williamson remains innocent until proven guilty of all allegations, which stand unproven till tested, and anyone who chooses to, should report the story in a way that does not risk prejudicing any potential hearing in the future.
On Monday 22/03/2021 an ‘Information’ was laid at Westminster Magistrates Court, under Section 6 of the prosecution of offences act 1985, with an application for a summons against Gavin Williamson MP and Secretary of State for Education, requiring him to face allegations of having committed the offence of Misconduct in Public office, contrary to Common law.
It is alleged that Gavin Williamson, as an MP and Secretary of State for Education misconducted himself on not less than 5 occasions, between 23/01/2019 and 22/03/2021, in that he wilfully neglected his duty, to take reasonable steps to protect children from harm, and to protect children who’s lives were at risk, by wilfully failing to investigate and act to address, alleged failings in the safeguarding complaints/recording systems of the Department for Education (DfE), in addition to complaints of a possible cover up of the issues.
The alleged failures that involved two Prime Ministers, Opposition leaders, Attorney Generals, Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet Ministers, The Mayor of London, the London Metropolitan Police Commissioner and a number of individuals within the DfE, including former Education Ministers and Officials, is alleged to have potentially resulted in serious harm and potentially to the deaths of a number of children, mainly through suicide, and continued to leave others at risk. The failures to act are alleged to have been so serious, as to have amounted to an abuse of public trust in Mr Williamson as the Public Office holder, without reasonable excuse or justification.
In layman’s terms the allegations are that there has been a wilful failure to investigate concerns and to cover up any possible failures and misconduct that may have led to the harms and deaths of numerous children across the UK. The case is that these actions are not as a result of incompetence or error on anyone’s part but deliberately done, so as to amount to a criminal offence. The offence of Misconduct in Public office is a serious indictable offence and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Gavin Williamson remains innocent until proven guilty of all allegations and we would ask all media to report in a way that does not interfere with the proper administration of Justice or that would risk prejudicing any trial in the future and contempt of court charges.
We were due to launch the next part of our campaign last month which was a video update and then a letter campaign to Ministers and MP’s and have had to delay that as well as our formal call to Government for a Public Inquiry.
The main reason is that allegations in relation to our case are now under Assessment/ Initial Investigation by the London Metropolitan Police and have been since 20/11/2020. This is in relation to the alleged failure of Government and primarily Gavin Williamson, to look into evidence of Government failings and a potential cover up by a number of Ministers and MP’s in relation to bullying physical and sexual violence complaints in schools, that it is alleged have resulted in the suicides of numerous children and serious harms being inflicted on many more. The complaint is one of Misconduct in Public Office. an indictable criminal offence, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Originally the Met had immediately dismissed the complaint through the office of the Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, as having not met the threshold for this particular crime. The decision was changed days later, after further communications from us and the complaint will now be assessed by the Central Specialist Crime unit, after we have sent further evidence in addition to what they already have.
What this means is that we now need to be very careful what goes out publicly over the coming weeks, at least while assessments and any investigations take place and as mentioned a delay in the launch of the next part of the campaign. That doesn’t stop work privately but just ensures that nothing jeopardises the case until we’re certain what we can and cannot say.
It is possible that the wheels have been set in motion to avoid as much embarrassment for the Establishment as is possible to ensure that a prominent member of Government is not in that position when the inevitable story breaks of the potential cover up of such horrific crimes that would destroy the trust of the public in realising how people in positions of Government and power are capable of acting and not being held to account.
I believe that the exposure of our story and the current investigation of potential criminal misconduct of Ministers and MP’s across all parties by Scotland Yard, including Gavin Williamson and the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in relation to alleged deliberate failures and a cover up of bullying, physical and sexual violence leading to harms and numerous suicides in schools, is going to uncover some unpalatable truths. Families across the UK, that have had children harmed or lost as a result of the alleged actions and omissions of people in positions of power, will have every right to demand justice and that could cost reputations, positions and careers.
All the evidence points to a potential deliberate cover up of this problem by Government spanning over decades, certainly in the UK, but this is also a pattern repeated globally in many countries, where potentially it has been deemed that keeping the issue hidden, is preferable to the cost of addressing it. When wilful choices have been made that arguably have cost many lives, then it’s possible that the actions of those who have wilfully allowed this, will in some cases be deemed to be criminal and worthy of condemnation and punishment.
The truth is, the facts bear this out, the story and message is credible and cannot be simply dismissed. Therefore the only way that this message can ever be discredited or destroyed, is to try and discredit or destroy the messenger.
There are two ways to do that, to either get rid of or smear the messenger or, the campaign group itself. The reality is, that as the campaign lead and the individual that holds the key to so much potential wrongdoing and failure being exposed, I know that if my life was to end for any reason it would make things much easier for so many people in power.
Other than physically curtailing what I’m doing, in order to stop me sharing the truth, which is a possibility I know I cannot just simply dismiss, then a coordinated smear campaign of lies and disinformation about myself or the campaign group, promulgated by powerful people and institutions with the help of the Mainstream media, would no doubt have a similar if not more powerful effect.
The shocking nature of this story, means that much of the public, when faced with the facts, struggle to accept the reality. That makes it so much easier for them to choose to accept anything that the Mainstream media says, even if deep down they know it’s not true. For both these potential outcomes, I am fully prepared and will not let fear or anything else stop me .
Ultimately I don’t hold any fear, I don’t believe the end of my life or whatever damage lies and disinformation can do, will ever be enough to cover up the truth of what has been happening to our children in schools.
The facts are now out there and if people want the truth, it’s available throughout this site, also through video’s posted across all platforms as well as other online information exposing the truth that can easily be searched for and found. On top of that, there are numerous Mainstream media reports on the story, that were reported up until the misconduct began to be exposed and began to become an issue. Most significantly anyone can make a FOI request for the official records and much of the evidence held by the London Metropolitan Police against Government, that would confirm everything that I say to be based on truth.
Whatever happens to me now and even if there is any such plan being put in place to try and silence me, I have faith in God and faith in the families within our campaign, as well as the British public and others that are out there, that knowing the story, as well as the facts about their children and what is happening in schools to be true, will never remain silent and simply allow the truth to ever disappear.
We were extremely surprised when we first read the BBC Headline, that statistics show that there had been no such increase. Nadine Dorries, Minister for Health, Louis Appleby Government advisor on Suicide Prevention, The Samaritans and the BBC all supported this claim based on the Statistics. Given the expertise available, I believe it was no accident that the statistics have been used to mislead the public and sadly that will potentially limit concern and action to prevent further loss of life.
Nadine Dorries said on Twitter of the evidence they were relying on, “Every life lost to suicide, is a tragedy, however this data showing zero increase in suicide figures since lockdown should be reassuring to those who have been concerned regarding the mental health impact of lockdown she went on to tweet “I also hope it will now put an end to some of the irresponsible narrative some have been using around mental health and suicide. There is no tsunami, no cliff edge and no explosion in suicide figures. We are absolutely aware of those who have been impacted by the lockdown.”
Our first thought was that all of the professionals would be fully aware that it is literally impossible to get any relevant data to evidence these claims because of the normal delays in declaring a death a suicide.
The claim that suicide figures from January to March pre-lockdown were similar to figures post lockdown from April to August is misleading at best. Often a death has to be verified by a coroner at inquest as a suicide, which often might not take place till many months after a death. We know this from the experience of many of the families in our group and their stories on this site. There can be no relevant comparison of figures between the 2 periods as many possible suicides between April and August will not even have been registered yet and will be yet to be determined as suicides.
This is borne out in the report that Nadine points to in support of her claims in which Louis Appleby states “Currently the median time from the occurrence of a suicide to its registration is 166 days. This delay means that ONS figures cannot provide close monitoring of suicide in relation to the pandemic.”
That is again supported on the ONS statistics site which makes it clear that these figures are provisional and cannot be relied on for a number of reasons. One of the key points heading the data states “the lower number of deaths registered caused by suicide in quarter two of 2020 should be interpreted with caution this likely reflects delays to inquest caused by the impact of covid – 19 and the pandemic on the coroners service. “
So the question remains, has this data set been used to manipulate the British public into believing suicides have not increased post lockdown, knowing that they most likely have. Stating that no evidence of suicides increasing from this data set is disingenious in our eyes when you know full well that most of the evidence does not yet exist.
Nadine Dorries represents a Government who currently are literally holding the lives of the British Public in their hands through this pandemic and demanding the trust of us all to follow their rules to stay safe. Being part of a Government including a number of Ministers currently facing potential misconduct charges of having attempted to cover up the more than 20 suicides of children in our campaign group pre pandemic, these are issues that raise questions, that we should all be demanding answers to.
