Phillip Hammond
Foreign Secretary
Parliamentary House of Commons
London SW1A
24th October 2014
Dear Mr Hammond
re David John Fletcher
I have received no
acknowledgment of receipt of my letter of 22nd. Oct. In a way I am
nor surprised. Silence is now probably the only option open to you given that
the alternative would be to admit to a huge cock-up within the FCO and to
apologize for it.
There was a glimmer of hope
yesterday, that the FCO might at last be taking an interest in this matter.
Nigel Eustace wrote the following to Mr Fletcher:
Dear Mr
Fletcher,
FCO in London
have received a request from Bruno Min at Fair Trails International regarding
information on your forthcoming appearance at court; namely
I am unsure whether this is due to be a preliminary
hearing or a full trial, and I would be very grateful if you could provide
whatever clarification you can. It would also be great if you could also
confirm whether, to your knowledge, Mr Fletcher is getting a retrial in
Cambodia, as I have not yet been given clear information on this matter.
·
We would appreciate it if you would
allow us to garner the information from your lawyer (if you wish to supply us
his contact details and give us permission to discuss your case), we believe he
is Mr Teng Meng Y but have no further information on his details
·
If you would prefer that we do not
talk with your lawyer, that is fine, but would appreciate any further
information as to your forthcoming appearance
·
If you do not want to furnish us with
any information, you could email Bruno directly at fair Trails International.
Regards
Nigel
Given Mr Fletcher’s circumstances I
was clearly in a better position than he to provide Nigel with as much
information as he needed or wanted so I wrote the following to him:
Dear Nigel
Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is James Ricketson.
I am an Australian filmmaker who stumbled upon Mr Fletcher and became aware of
his situation quite by accident - as I was researching another film.
Clearly, the left hand of the FCO does not know what the right
hand is doing so, to bring you up to date, please visit the website I have
created to alert readers as to what is going on.
Please also find pasted below my most recent (and my 9th) letter
to Mr Phillip Hammond, Foreign Secretary.
You will note, when you read the most recent entry of my blog,
that there is now no question at all that Mr Fletcher raped Yang Dany. It would
be good to think that her preparedness to admit to this would be the end of the
matter. Alas, it is not that easy. She is being represented in court by lawyers
who know that the rape did not occur, could not have occurred, but are
presenting her case to the court as though she was. This NGO (APLE) is very
powerful, very rich, and has a vested interest in keeping up a constant flow of
convictions of 'pedophiles'. Whether these men are guilty or not is of
secondary importance.
Mr Fletcher's lawyer quit this week, leaving Mr Fletcher
unrepresented. Mr Fletcher now has no choice but to defend himself in court. I
am in the process of trying to find him a competent translator.
I will copy this to key personnel within FCO. I have been
attempting, without success to date, to get answers to questions relating to
the disappearance of Mr Fletcher's passport. If you can assist in this matter
in the next 24 hours it would be greatly appreciated.
If there is any other information I can provide you with that
may be of use, please do not hesitate to ask.
best wishes
James Ricketson
As of 7pm on Friday night in Phnom Penh, the last working day
before Mr Fletcher is due to appear in court, I have heard nothing back from Nigel.
David Fletcher sent him a text message this afternoon asking
what, if anything, the British Embassy was going to do to help him in court on
Monday. He got back a message to the effect that Nigel was not at work and so
not obliged to respond. Monty Python again – with a dash of Kafka and Alice in
Wonderland thrown in for good measure!
Do you realize, Mr Hammond, just how ridiculous the FCO’s
position is in all this? More to the point, do you actually care? It seems not!
That an innocent citizen of the UK should die in jail for a crime he did not
commit is a preferable outcome, it seems, to any acknowledgement from yourself
that the FCO has cocked up in its handing of Mr Fletcher’s case. Mr Fletcher’s
death in jail will be but a small price to pay in the FCO’s determination to
maintain, in the public eye, the illusion of competence. So be it!
As this matter draws, inexorably, to a conclusion of one kind or
another on Monday 27th Oct, you may be interested in the fourth to
last blog entry I will make before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court decides on Mr
Fletcher’s fate:
The last entry will be this email to yourself.
best wishes
James Ricketson
Post Script
In is now Monday morning in Cambodia,
just a few hours from when David Fletcher is due to appear in court.
In convoluted double-speak typical of
diplomatic ‘communication’, Conor Doherty admits, in an email received by David
Fletcher less that 48 hours before he is due in court, that the Foreign &
Commonwealth Office destroyed evidence pertinent to David Fletcher’s case.
Doherty’s letter in full:
Dear Mr Fletcher,
Further to our exchange below, I wanted to write to you on the
points you have raised. As I have explained, your passport came to notarial
staff in British Embassy Bangkok who followed the procedure for
recovered/returned passports and sent your passport to Her Majesty’s Passport
Office (HMPO) in the UK for cancellation.
On receipt of this passport, HMPO followed the correct procedure
for cancellation of returned passports and logged the passport as returned, and
destroyed it securely. HMPO have confirmed that they do not keep any details of
entries on the visa pages of destroyed passports.
“If it would be
useful for you to confirm with another party that this passport is not
available, as it was cancelled and destroyed by the British authorities, we can
write to confirm this.
Please let me
or my colleagues at the British Embassy in Phnom Penh know and we can issue a
letter to this effect.”
Kind regards
Conor
The proposition, in the ‘Age of
Terror’ that we now find ourselves in, that a British embassy can accidentally
cancel and destroy the valid passport of a UK citizen does not pass the ‘laugh
test’.
As for Mr Doherty’s offer to David
Fletcher, less than 48 hours before he is due in court, to “issue a letter to
this effect”, this is pure “Yes, Prime Minister”:
SIR HUMPHREY It will look good on paper, Prime Minister, and that is
what counts.
PRIME MINISTER We made our best endeavours to help Mr Fletcher but he
failed to contact Sir Nigel Eustace.
SIR HUMPHREY Mr Eustace has not be knighted yet, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER Oh! But Nige….Nigel is on the list?
SIR HUMPREY Indeed, he is, Prime Minister. He has been a loyal
servant of Her Majesty.
PRIME MINISTER But the dates, Appleby, the dates! How could Mr Fletcher
have possibly made a request for a letter over the weekend to Nigel? From his
prison cell? We are closed on the weekend? And we don’t open on Monday until
after the court hearing!
SIR HUMPHREY It is highly unlikely that any journalist is going to
worry themselves with such details, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER But what if they do?
SIR HUMPHREY Refer the question to me, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER And what will you say?
SIR HUMPRHEY That the question of Mr Fletcher’s passport has been the subject
of a great deal of correspondence and that, as a very busy man, you have no
intention of discussing further a matter that has already be adequately
canvassed.
PRIME MINISTER What does that actually mean, Appleby?
SIR HUMPREY No comment.
PRIME MINISTER Then why don’t I simply say, “No comment.”
SIR HUMPREY Because that would make it seem as if you were trying to
evade the question, Prime Minister.
PRIME MINISTER Yes, yes, I see your point, Applely, but that word
‘canvassed’, what does it actually mean?
SIR HUMPREY I would not worry about that, Prime Minister. It will
sound Prime Ministerial, and that is what counts.
PRIME MINISTER Indeed, Sir Humphrey, indeed!
It will be interesting to see if Nigel
Eustace turns up at court this afternoon to observe the legal proceedings -
perhaps bearing with him a letter for the judges explaining that the British
embassy in Thailand accidentally destroyed evidence that Mr Fletcher was hoping
to be able to present to the court in his defense?
This is almost an unbelievable story! Set up NGO's whose job it is to help children, British Embassy destroying evidence of innocence, Hymen intact in a rape trial! Defendant was not able to attend the trial and present a defense, miss conduct by the court on procedure. Promise from the Cambodian govt. of a 'retrial'
ReplyDeleteConviction by an expat (anonymous, prior post) of Fletcher for rape because of pictures where he is holding a child's hand. That being the case, what does Scott Neeson deserve for pictures of children in his lap, undressed young girls and hugging Yang Dany?
How can there any question that in a civilized, educated country, that a retrial is necessary?
I have sent the following to human rights organisations and members of the 4th Estate in hopes that some questions will be asked:
DeleteDear LICADHO, ADHOC and members of the 4th Estate
Consider the following:
- Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office admits to destroying evidence pertinent to David Fletcher’s defense in court.
- APLE (Action Pour Les Enfants) pursues David Fletcher through the courts whilst knowing that the alleged rape victim, Yan Dany, was declared to be a virgin (hymen intact) in September 2010 after having allegedly been raped twice in 2009.
- Yang Dany and her mother, Kheang Sokun, admit to a filmmaker and two journalists that no rapes took place.
- In June 2010, Scott Neeson accuses David Fletcher of ‘grooming young girls.
- In June 2010 none of the following organizations, who had been investigating Scott Neeson’s allegation David Fletcher was ‘grooming’ young girls, had found any evidence of wrong-doing on his part: SISHA, APLE, CEOPS and the Anti-Human Trafficking section of the Ministry of the Interior.
- In July 2010 Yang Dany claims that she was raped twice in 2009 by David Fletcher.
- In 2013 Peter Hogan boasts online of his 4 year campaign to see David Fletcher in prison.
A whole host of questions arise that should, I believe, be asked by human rights organizations and members of the 4th Estate alike.
I have no opinion one way or another about the guilt or innocence of Mr Fletcher but if he can be convicted in absentia on the basis of no evidence at all of his guilt, other than the say so of a young woman who now claims she lied, none of us working in Cambodia, if we are men, are safe. We are all eligible to become victims of scuttlebutt - which is all that is required it seems for NGOs like APLE to swing into action and have us jailed - thus providing evidence to donors of the NGOs success at stamping out the vile crime of pedophilia in Cambodia. I am seriously considering not renewing my contract as I work with children and there is doubtless a photo of me holding a child's hand floating around that APLE could use to frame me.
ReplyDelete