# 33 An open letter to Scott Neeson & Peter Hogan

Dear Scott Neeson and Peter Hogan

As two expatriates who played significant roles in the downfall of David Fletcher your presence is required to testify in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on either 20^th or 27^th Nov 2014.

The court has yet to notify Mr Fletcher of the date of his hearing.  Two dates are floating around on the Phnom Penh rumour mill (20^th and 27^th Nov) which is why I cannot be sure which it is at this point.

Let me remind you, Scott, of what you told Andrew Drummond prior to the publication of his article (“Preying On The Garbage Dump Children”) on 20^th June 2010:

 “There is little doubt Fletcher devotes his time to grooming young girls….The British Embassy have been told about Fletcher. Many organizations have files on him, but nothing has happened. If you can get this guy sent packing you are doing a service to the children here.”

As you know, David Fletcher was ‘sent packing’ a little over one week later – arrested in Thailand on 27th June. He was subsequently charged with raping Yang Dany who, as you have known since September 2010, remained a virgin after the alleged rapes – her hymen intact. Mr Fletcher’s passport, containing evidence that he was not in Cambodia at the time of the alleged rapes (March 2009) was destroyed by the British Embassy in Thailand.

Since you have never retracted your June 2010 allegation that Mr Fletcher had been ‘grooming young girls’, despite having been invited by myself to do so, I have to presume that you still believe this to be the case. If so, either 20^th or 27^th Nov will present you with the ideal opportunity, in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, under oath, to present whatever evidence you have in your possession pertaining to Mr Fletcher’s ‘grooming’ of young girls.

Given that your allegations were aired in the secret trial at which Mr Fletcher was not in attendance and unable to present a defense, your presence as a witness is required on either 20^th or 27^th Nov. I trust that I will be in a position, within the next 24 hours, to let you know on which date the hearing (or trial!?) will occur.

The same applies for you, Peter Hogan. You worked in conjunction with Scott Neeson and others to defame Mr Fletcher, using your blog Khmer440 to boast about the role you played in his downfall. You and Scott also lobbied the British Embassy to have him investigated by CEOPS – an investigation that, as far as I can see, resulted in CEOPS finding no evidence in support of the allegations made by you and Scott.

On Wed 2^nd Oct 2013, at 3.33 pm, you posted the following comment on Khmer440 under the moniker ‘keeping it riel’ in celebration of David Fletcher’s recently announced jail sentence:

“Cold drinks will most certainly be taken this evening to toast Fletcher's first night in his new abode.

I recall that 4(!) years ago when Grandslam and myself hatched our plan, we made a sequential list of desirable outcomes beginning with getting his 'charity' closed then moving onto having his shithole-in-the-wall bar closed, having him outed in the press (and fuck, did we achieve that one!) etc etc.

Today, the last box on the sheet ('Fletch in Prey Sar') was finally ticked off so I'll allow myself a few strong drinkies in celebration and will be raising my glass to Grandslam back in the UK.

You take pride in the role you and Scott Neeson played in creating an atmosphere in which, in the presence of so much smoke, the presumption was made by many people (including the British Embassies in Cambodia and Thailand) that there must be some fire somewhere. This was, of course, yours and Scott’s intention. In the case of Scott he had a ‘competitor’ in the Phnom Penh dump that he wanted to get rid of. In your own case you and Mr Fletcher had had a falling out over something rather petty and he called you a ‘Plebian’. You then decided to do all you could with your Khmer440 blog to blacken his name. Mr Fletcher is not to only person whom you defamed on Khmer440 and whose lives and careers have been damaged by your scuttlebutt. He is, however, the only one that I know of who is in jail largely because of rumour, scuttlebutt, innuendo and outright lies perpetrated by yourself on Khmer440.

If you have any evidence at all that Mr Fletcher had been ‘grooming young girls’ prior to his arrest in June 2010, please bring it with you to court on either 20^th or 27^th Nov. In any event, you will be required to attend as the rumours started by yourself and Scott have clearly played a significant role in the original judges deciding,  despite Yang Dany’s intact hymen after the alleged rapes, that Mr Flether must be guilty. With so much smoke, how could there not be a fire!

It is my belief, Scott and Peter, based now on a good deal of first hand experience, that you are both cowards; that whilst you are happy to spread rumours and to attack others using fake names, you do not have the courage to stand up in public and say what you say anonymously or, in the case of you, Scott, to a journalist of the ilk of Andrew Drummond.

It is my suspicion that neither of you will appear in court on 20^th or 27^th Nov; that both of you will find reasons not to be in Cambodia on either of these dates; that neither of you will respond in any way to this open letter; that both of you will hope, despite the total lack of evidence that any rape occurred, that the Phnom Penh Municipal Court upholds the original 10 year jail sentence and that David Fletcher dies in jail.

The alternative, that David Fletcher is found to be ‘not guilty’ on 20^th or 27^th Nov, is not one that would please either of you as it would leave Mr Fletcher free to sue you both for defamation.

If either or both of you do have the courage of your convictions, if you have any evidence  at all of David Fletcher’s guilt, you will respond to this open letter.

I trust that the journalists to whom I am copying it will ask you some (if not all) of the questions I have asked you both here and elsewhere on my Cambodia440 blog.

best wishes

James Ricketson