I'm going to strongly suggest to my mainstream colleagues that now might be a good time to be actually seen to be flittering around this one. - I've explored at length the reasons why Hollie's case has been rendered 'untouchable'. But something does stink to high heaven here... There is just no getting away from that.
I stress that we are not a firm of lawyers, though we do have ready access to one. We are however pretty experienced media professionals, and readily acknowledge the ‘wrongs’ (in terms of reporting) that have been perpetrated in the name of Hollie Greig. Those ‘wrongs’ are the result of bungling amateurs ‘messing about’ in a field they know nothing about; and worse still refusing (for the most part) to educate themselves in...
These are people who do not realise or understand that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing! The sort of individuals who probably think wrapping a fuse in cigarette paper,or replacing it with a nail constitutes a safe repair! - That somehow they know better than the professionals. The truth being of course that if they actually understood the harm they’re doing, they wouldn’t be doing it!
We’ll examine the reasons why people become so driven and misguided at a future date...
More worrying though are the professionals who have bungled things here. – The Scottish Justice system; one begins to wonder with all this gunsmoke and mirrors the presence of Sheriffs in our courts is actually indicative of our overlords having watched “Carry on Cowboy” once too often...
As stated at length – From what we can find of Robert Green’s behaviour we struggle to see how the Procurator Fiscal plans to establish mens rea and actus reus in relation to the charge. Green was certainly wrong to act as he did; but his ‘offence’ is a matter for the civil law (defamation) and the private purse... And nothing we have received by way of contemporous reports from the court causes us to modify that view in any way.
At this point much of the prosecution’s case seems to centre around how upset people were by the ‘Stolen kids’ Blog – Authored, published and run entirely by Greg Lance-Watkins. This was the primary, world-accessible source, of information relating to the Hollie Greig case including many non-redacted documents that carried material which breached the Sexual Offences Act...
The prosecution seized Robert Green’s and (if I recall correctly) Anne Greig’s computers; acts which of course are associated with unwarranted and over-aggressive raids on their homes where serious and unnecessary damage was done. – With no insult intended to either; Anne Greig and Robert Green each have a level of I.T. literacy similar to that of a primary school child. Neither would have the technical know-how to run a blog. (it seems they both struggle to keep a laptop even charged up properly!) And I am yet to hear of any cogent evidence that supports the notion that they might have had any susbstantial control over 'Stolen Kids'...
In fact it is a matter of record that Anne reached a point with Watkins where she felt he was such a 'loose cannon' she insisted he was sacked from the case... At which point Watkins turned his guns (the Stolen Kids blog) on her and Robert and anyone else who supported Hollie!
So why the big deal over their computers? Watkins' machines are the obvious place to look!
There is (I am told) some notion of documents existing on Robert’s computer that ‘evidence’ his responsibility as author of ‘Stolen Kids’. Utterly ridiculous on a few points...
1) At the time of publication Green was under the influence of Greg Lance-Watkins who had duped him into believing he was an experienced campaigner who ‘knew the ropes’. It is quite beyond any reasonable doubt that Watkins would have canvassed for and (from a position of misplaced trust) received these documents from Green.
–For his part Green would have had no cause to doubt that the material was to be used in a lawful and reasonable manner.
– I’d point out here that Watkins makes much of his ‘press contacts’ and experience with the media. - Green's actions then would have seemed reasonable with no intent of malice; rather he thought acted in the interests of justice - mens rea anyone?
2) Watkins is very much in the habit of constructing his blogs from large amounts of material ‘cut and pasted’ from other people – He reproduced articles of mine in full; and the text of “Dunblane Unburied”! His current material is largely regurgitated articles ‘stolen’ from the internet...
3) One report cites an assertion by the prosecution that proof of Green’s authorship and control of that blog lies in the analysis of its punctuation which is supposedly Green’s... Well it would be if huge great chunks of it were simply ‘pinched’ by the real publisher – Greg Lance-Watkins!
4) What is more, the rest of the blog is written by someone I would suspect of being Dyslexic to some extent. – Robert Green’s writing shows absolutely no such signs ! - Greg Lance-Watkins is virtually semi-literate!
5) I’d point out here that Blogger, the platform which supports the ‘Stolen Kids’ blog will hold records of exactly when and from where the Blog was edited. And I believe the evidence in that respect will point squarely to a certain hovel in Chepstow!
- I’m left wondering here why Greg Lance-Watkins didn’t have his hovel raided and his computer seized? And I do hope the defence pursue this point for it is pivotal. My very firm opinion is that raiding this dirty old cur’s ‘home’ and examining what he had salted away would have opened up a particularly rotten can of worms. – And not just in relation to the Hollie Greig case!
-Which brings us back to the very serious question of why a self-admitted firearms offender and would-be murderer, with a grotesque fascination for the details of child abuse cases is apparently immune from prosecution?
Personally I do not accept that publication of the Stolen Kids blog – or the handing out of leaflets do satisfy the actus reus of Breach of The Peace. But let’s play Devil’s advocate here for a moment . The prosecution seek to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that Robert Green caused the people named publically - primarily in the ‘Stolen Kids’ blog; which is a world-accessible platform – that he caused these people alarm such that the actus reus of Breach of the Peace was met...
Why then is Greg Lance-Watkins not also in the dock?
The man who boasts of his firearms convictions, and how he never paid the penalty for them. The man who boasts of having once entered a primary school with the intent of taking a man’s life. The man who applauded Anna Lindh’s murder and was investigated for doing so. The man who downloaded bestiality videos then tried to defame a Police Officer who wouldn’t rise to his attention seeking...
Hollie Greig was raped... ‘The system’ acknowledges that. Her rapists got away Scot free. Misguided and foolish in his action he may be; but Green is simply trying to right that wrong. – Why is HE being targeted when a dangerous bloody nut case with a fascination for firearms is left unfettered?
The prosecution have to prove their case beyond any reasonable doubt. And key elements of their argument pivot on authorship of the Stolen Kids Blog. – Fact is though, that in the same way as Sheriff Graham Buchanan just doesn’t have a Sister – Robert Green just wasn’t the man who published that allegedly disturbing blog...
We hope to learn soon that the defence will produce expert witnesses to refute the prosecution’s assertions with regard to that blog – both to challenge the technical analysis and the text-analysis the prosecution seem to be relying on!
And why they’re about it; perhaps they will also challenge the Police in open court as to why Watkins was spared having his home trashed? - In my opinion such a raid might well have been worth the spend to the public purse as it might have revealed much about many things!
Why is Greg Lance-Watkins apparently immune from prosecution?
