SCOTTISH police were told to ‘reject’ potential criminal complaints relating to covid measures and vaccinations, a freedom of information (FOI) request has revealed. Instead of concerns being investigated, those reporting covid issues were suspected of criminal behaviour, had their names recorded and were then tracked, a move that could amount to the offence of nonfeasance in a public office (a public official’s failure to perform a required duty).
On January 25, 2022, Scotland’s Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) Alan Speirs issued a statement about those working in settings related to the covid-19 vaccine, as this video confirms. The video shows citizens at Govan police station attempting to submit evidence of vaccine-related deaths.
DCC Speirs’s memo was addressed to ‘all officers and staff’. It said: ‘We are aware of individuals attending police stations or calling police to either report what they believe to be criminal offences relating to the vaccine or to request police support in their attempts to “serve” papers on staff and volunteers or to shut down facilities.
‘In some cases, these individuals have claimed that a police investigation is taking place into criminal allegations relating to the UK’s vaccine programme.
‘The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) received a complaint and a number of documents on 20 December 2021. The MPS provided the complainers with a crime reference number and is reviewing the content of the documents.
‘However, the MPS has been clear that nothing has been found to suggest any offences or grounds for an investigation, and that no such investigation is taking place.
‘Should any officer or member of staff be approached or contacted by people requesting assistance in line with any of the above, then these requests should be rejected.
‘While we continue to uphold individuals’ rights to freedom of expression and to protest, this must be balanced with the rights of others, keeping the public safe, preventing crime and disorder, and seeking to minimise disruption.
‘None of the type of behaviour outlined above should be considered as protest activity and could in fact constitute criminal activity.’
The MPS complaint DCC Speirs is referring to was submitted by two lawyers, a doctor and a former police officer all well aware of the law. They had hundreds of documents alleging the law had been broken in the name of covid. On December 20, 2021, solicitor Lois Bayliss, of Broad Yorkshire Law, Dr Sam White, a former partner from a Hampshire GP practice, solicitor Philip Hyland of PJH Law, and former police officer Mark Sexton submitted a complaint at Hammersmith police station. Mr Hyland said it alleged ‘negligence, misfeasance, corporate manslaughter and misconduct in a public office’. The police listened to their concerns for four hours and the team were given a crime number, 6029679/21, and an internet link to upload evidence. Detective Sergeant Mallett, Detective Inspector Struthers and Detective Constable Hussey were assigned as their designated contacts. The team did as they were asked and uploaded hundreds of documents backing their claim, then without explanation, the investigation was dropped in February 2022, not long after DCC Speirs’s statement.
Instead, the police were instructed to continue with Operation Talla in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, while Operation Norden ran in tandem with Talla in Scotland. Insiders claim that Op Norden was almost exclusively an intelligence-gathering operation. Both were introduced in March 2020, after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. Op Talla was a co-ordinated police initiative designed to reinforce pandemic measures, despite their alleged illegality. Guidance was published on the advice of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), who co-ordinate national police efforts, and the UK Gold Command Structure, which includes senior police and government officials. Gold Command was instrumental in making decisions and issuing directives during the pandemic.
On the surface it was about ensuring public safety and protecting police officers, but evidence has emerged that it also involved intelligence-gathering and tracking individuals and groups expressing dissent. It worked in tandem with the Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) framed as ‘preventing radicalisation’ or addressing ‘health extremism’.
Headmaster Mike Fairclough, from West Rise School, Eastbourne, was a target. He spoke up for children during the pandemic, objecting to masking, the closing of schools and vaccination as children were at minimal risk from covid. His lawful response put him under scrutiny at the highest levels, and he found out through FOI that he had been monitored by the CDU and their Department for Counter Extremism. This was after a complaint to East Sussex County Council, who cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Journalists were targeted too. The organisation Big Brother Watch produced a report titled Ministry of Truth. On page 13, it describes how Talk Radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer was featured repeatedly in the Covid-19 Mis/Disinformation Platform Terms of Service report commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). Ms Hartley-Brewer discovered this after she submitted a subject access request (SAR) that confirmed she was included in the ‘reports of online activity’ section.
Campaigners are now asking whether DCC Speirs’s directive and the resulting crushing of evidence amounts to ‘nonfeasance in public office’. Nonfeasance refers to the omission of an act that ought to have been performed – for example, taking seriously complaints about the covid vaccine and harmful pandemic measures.
How much harm could have been prevented if the police had investigated? The pandemic was overshadowed by collateral damage caused by pandemic measures. Over 3,000 covid vaccine-related deaths and more than 500,000 serious adverse events were reported to the Yellow Card scheme run by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). According to the Office for National Statistics, nearly 700,000 (11.8 per cent) British businesses disappeared in 2021 and 2022 thanks to covid restrictions. (The Institute of Directors also blamed the cost-of-living crisis and the economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.) More women died because of domestic abuse during lockdown, the highest number for 11 years. In the first three weeks of lockdown there were 16 domestic abuse killings of women and children in the UK. The final total is not known. Then there are the ‘ghost children’, vulnerable kids who disappeared from the school system by summer 2022. Exact numbers are not available, but the figure is between 100,000 and 140,000. Finally, more than 50,000 elderly died in care homes because of draconian pandemic measures which were so concerning that Amnesty International investigated.
Late last month, lawyer Ian Clayton from the organisation Ethical Approach, who monitor and gather evidence about the actions of UK-based regulators, sent a letter to Police Scotland’s professional standards department suggesting that sanctioning people trying to raise awareness of covid crimes is nonfeasance, a crime that can result in civil or criminal damages.
It was ‘a serious dereliction of this statutory function’, Mr Clayton said. Adding: ‘The duty of constables to investigate reported crime is a cornerstone of lawful policing under the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. The blanket refusal to accept or consider such reports – solely based on subject matter – is a serious dereliction of this statutory function.
‘The onus is now on Police Scotland to come back and provide their perspective or provide justifications of their alleged nonfeasance.’
