Monday, December 8, 2014

# 61 More evidence of Foreign & Commonwealth Office complicity in having David Fletcher arrested in Thailand.

Mr Phillip Hammond
Foreign Secretary
Parliamentary House of Commons
London SW1A                                                                                   

8th   Dec. 2014

Dear Foreign Secretary

I have no doubt that receiving yet another letter from me is about as much fun for  you as writing it is for me. It needs to be done, however, as this is my ‘paper trail’.

The odds are stacked against Mr Fletcher being in receipt of any assistance from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in his quest for justice but, on the off chance that he does eventually appear before a ‘real’ court in the UK, my 26 letters to you so far will speak eloquently of your commitment (or lack thereof) to protecting the legal and human rights of UK citizens caught up in a corrupt legal system such as the one that prevails in Cambodia.

I have, this past week, been inundated with new information relating to the David Fletcher case. And others such as that of Matt Harland.  I  now have much too much material to work with and too little time to piece it together in such a way as to create a coherent narrative that accounts for how Mr Fletcher found himself jailed for 10 years in the absence of any evidence of his guilt. I am getting close, however, as more and more pieces of the jig-saw puzzle arrive in my INBOX. The FCO may have no commitment to truth, justice, facts, evidence, transparency and accountability but, fortunately, there are individuals within the FCO who do. And I thank them.

I wish that there was a competent, reliable and trustworthy body I could give all this information to but, alas, there is not – either within Cambodia or within the UK. The FCO has no more interest in facts, evidence or truth than the Phnom Penh Municipal Court. Nor do you, Mr Hammond. That is clear.

I will quote here, in full, a press release that I became aware of only today, issued by SISHA on 28th June 2010. I will have a few comments to make about it a little later but please note, as you read it, that as of 28th June 2010, SISHA, APLE, CEOPS and the British Embassy in Cambodia had not, despite their intensive investigations spread across two years, found any evidence at all that David Fletcher was sexually abusing children. All they had was scuttlebutt spread by Peter Hogan, on Khmer440,  and Scott Neeson in his observations made to journalist Andrew Drummond.  

If there had been any hard evidence of wrong-doing on David Fletcher’s part (like raping Yang Dany!) you can be sure that action would have been taken by the Cambodian authorities before 28th June.

Press Release from SISHA dated 28th June 2010

For the past two years, the British Police Child Exploitation and Online Protection team (CEOP), in cooperation with the Cambodia National Police and NGO’s South East Asia Investigations into Social and Humanitarian Activities (SISHA) and APLE have been investigating British national Mr. David Fletcher for alleged sexual abuse of children in Cambodia.

On Wednesday the 23rd of June 2010, media articles were published in Cambodia and other countries which alleged that Mr. David Fletcher, a British national living in Phnom Penh, was running a not-for-profit organisation which provided food and medical services to children living in the Stung Meancheay dump site in Phnom Penh. The media articles further alleged that Fletcher was sexually abusing young children living at the dump site.

On Friday 25th of June 2010, as a result of media articles published, Fletcher fled Cambodia and travelled across land into Thailand.

The British Police Child Exploitation and Online Protection team (CEOP), in cooperation with the Royal Thai Police and NGO - South East Asia Investigations into Social and Humanitarian Activities (SISHA), acting on information provided by concerned citizens living in Cambodia, located Fletcher at a guest house in Bangkok
.
On Sunday 27th of June, Fletcher was arrested at the guest house by Royal Thai Police for immigration offences, specifically failing to notify the Thai immigration authorities of his previous criminal convictions in the UK. Fletcher is currently in a Thai immigration detention centre awaiting a decision from the Thai authorities regarding deportation.

Call to the Public

South East Asia Investigations into Social and Humanitarian Activities (SISHA), is continuing its investigation into the allegations against Fletcher and asks that members of the community who have information regarding Fletcher and his alleged criminal activity or have been potential victims of his abuse, to please contact SISHA on email investigations[at]sisha.org or by telephone 017 382 877.

There are many observations that could (and need to) be made about this press release:

- SISHA has no evidence, as of 28th June 2010, of wrongdoing on the part of David Fletcher but is, nonetheless, defaming him as an abuser of children – using the word ‘allegations’ in a slippery way such that the NGO can be seen not to be pre-judging David Fletcher.

- No evidence has ever been presented in support of the proposition that David Fletcher was sexually abusing young girls. In Dec 2014 all there is is scuttlebutt.

- It provides confirmation, from another source, that CEOP  and APLE were working in conjunction with the Royal Thai Police to have David Fletcher arrested – despite the lack of evidence of any wrongdoing on his part.

That David Fletcher ‘fled’ to Thailand is very easily disproved. The sequence of events leading to David Fletcher’s decision to leave Cambodia is pertinent, and requires amplification, but now is not the time to do so.

I hope, Mr Hammond, that someone within your office (other than a spin doctor) is placing this press release in a time line and asking the same questions I do:

“How is it that as of 28th June 2010, SISHA, APLE and CEOPS  have no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Mr Fletcher and yet, 9 days later, Yang Dany’s mother is accusing Mr Fletcher of raping her daughter and asking for $30,000 in compensation?”

I will leave you, Mr Hammond, along with your senior advisors and spin doctors, to ponder this question. I am sure that between you you can join the dots as well as I can and as well as a properly constituted court within the UK will be able to do if this matter ever reaches such a court. I hope that it does, and that Mr Fletcher stays alive to see his tormentors (of which you have become one) being grilled, under oath, in the dock by a competent Barrister, with a full Press Gallery taking notes.

best wishes

James Ricketson



No comments:

Post a Comment