# 50 for Scott Neeson. If you have evidence that David Fletcher was 'grooming young girls' make it public now.

Dear Scott

Within the next two weeks David Fletcher will die. Although it will be by his own hand it will be because the words and actions of a large number of people, yourself included, have left him with no hope for the future.

Whilst it was Peter Hogan who, by his own admission, set out to destroy David Fletcher’s life, you very quickly jumped on the bandwagon when you publicly accused Mr Fletcher of ‘grooming young girls’.

 “There is little doubt Fletcher devotes his time to grooming young girls….The fact is these children can be bought. It’s difficult to stop it. 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.”  

These are the words you spoke to Andrew Drummond and which he published in June 2010. As a marketing person you know precisely what impact these words would have on the readership of his article. It was the impact you wished the words to have – to destroy David Fletcher’s reputation. Your words, accepted as statements of fact by other journalists, created an atmosphere in which corrupt Cambodian officials could do as they pleased with Mr Fletcher – with no regard for his legal or human rights. As recently as last week David Fletcher was visited in prison by a ‘lawyer’ offering to ‘represent’ him. I reality this was a fishing expedition. How much money could David Fletcher afford to pay to have his conviction overturned. As you know, Scott, as the British Embassy and the entire NGO community in Cambdia knows, this is the way business is done in a country with an irremeably corrupt judiciary. Innocent men are sent to jail. Guilty men are released. Those who oppose the government are jailed on trumped up charges and used as pawns in a political game with the Opposition.

In any country in which there was the rule of law David Fletcher could have sued you for defamation. Not in Cambodia, however where you, Samleang Siela, Thierry Darnaudet and others can destroy the reputations and lives of others with impunity. And you can do so with the blessing of the British Embassy and the Foreign Secretary, Mr Phillip Hammond.

When David Fletcher dies there will be few who will mourn the loss of a man who grooms little girls. Only those who believe in the rule of law, believe in the right of an accused person to defend him or herself in court, will be left wondering if, in fact, David Fletcher was guilty as charged by you. Certainly, those who do not believe that a young woman’s hymen can grow back after two ‘brutal rapes’ will have their doubts. And so they should. No one should be pursued and prosecuted on the basis of rumour, innuendo and scuttlebutt of the kind perpetrated by yourself and Peter Hogan.

If you have any evidence at all that David Fletcher was grooming young girls or of sexually abusing underage girls (as reported by the Phnom Penh Post) make this evidence public now. If you have no evidence you owe David Fletcher a public apology for accusing him of grooming young girls. If you had the decency to admit that you were wrong in your accusation you could also add your name to a list of those who should, if they believe in the rule of law, be placing pressure on the Minister of Justice to allow Mr Fletcher a fair trail – as is his right in accordance with the Cambodian Code of Criminal Procedure.

As Mr Fletcher has told me many times, if he is found guilty on the basis of evidence, he will accept his punishment without complaint. He will not, however, accept his punishment on the basis of scuttlebutt of the kind you and Peter Hogan have engaged in.

Your silence condemns you, Scott.

David Fletcher has, this past week, been saying his farewells to friends who have stood beside him. Here is part of one such farewell:

Many Thanks for your kind thoughts. I have the greatest respect for you as you know, in my language you walk the walk, in my book that takes a real man.

You have succeeded where I failed, and I admire your guts to go on and do the right thing.

I am not giving up just because of these ignorant plebs, but the two main reasons, is not just of being able to carry on helping those poor children, but the loss of my Khmer wife.

I was hit very hard by this and has been a terrible load to carry these years. The love from the children got me over this, but without both for four and half years has been too much to bear.

In my past I have been able to stand up and fight my enemy, but I am not able to do that now because I am vegitating in hell. So now there is only one option.

You were so right one day when you said you thought there was two sides to me, but both those sides, good or bad, have their honor and code.

Here I have no honour or code, and the animals around me live on a different planet to me.

I have taken the pain, as I feel is my honour to do so, but now is enough, these neanderthals are having no more of my life.

I wish to die with dignity and on my own terms, with my finger in the air to them and go to sleep thinking of my Khmer wife and those wonderful children.

I intend to get dressed in my own clothes and die with my boots on, my mother always said that i would, as always she was right.