UPDATE, 12 May 2014

by **Tony Bennett** 12.05.14 14:34

Senior Metropolitan Police Chief, Alaric Bonthron, called in on the Lee Balkwell case

Complaint made to the Bar Council against senior barrister in the case, Karim Kahlil Q.C.

It can be revealed that the mystery senior Metropolitan Police Officer, called in by the Crown Prosecution Service to help sort out serious problems with the prosecution of a Defendant for allegedly causing Lee Balkwell’s death by negligence, is their current head of the Met’s complaints department, Alaric Bonthron (see previous news update on this forum). His full title is Head of the Metropolitan Police Professional Standards Department.

He promised to investigate claims by Lee’s father, Les Balkwell, made in a statement submitted to the CPS and Karim Kahlil Q.C. at a meeting on 13 March this year, that two Intelligence Officers with first-hand knowledge of the case had told Les Balkwell and other members of his family many years ago that Lee had been murdered and that there was a well-organised, high-level cover-up of the truth. In his own words to Les, he said: “I am here to help you with your problem”.

On 30 January 2012, after an investigation lasting over 4 years, the Independent Police Complaints Commission upheld 26 of Les Balkwell’s complaints against a number of very senior Essex Police Officers.

Unfortunately, Mr Bonthron has not yet been able to meet the one and only condition that Les has set for naming the two officers. He has politely asked Mr Bonthron if, in investigating Les’s allegations, he will write to Les agreeing that:

a) if they talk, the Intelligence Officers will be guaranteed immunity from prosecution under the Official Secrets Act or any other legislation, and

b) their police pensions will be fully guaranteed.

Such an offer was also made to the original Senior Investigating Officer in the current Kent investigation, Detective Superintendent Lee Catling. He was told that honest, whistleblowing former Intelligence Officers were willing to talk, if given the above guarantee. He replied: “Anyone who breaks the Official Secrets Act is a criminal and deserves to be prosecuted with the full force of the law”.

So much for the whistleblower’s charter!

Incidentally, some of these same honest Intelligence Officers also posted through Les Balkwell’s letter box, many years ago, the entire documentation of Operation Portwing on three computer discs, plus a great deal of accompanying paperwork. This was an anti-drugs operation running from 2003 to 2005 which put the Defendant in this case - and 13 others - in prison for drug-dealing.

Examining the transcripts of hundreds of conversations between undercover police officers and the drug-dealers (as Les Balkwell and I have done), it was evident that these drug-dealers had excellent contacts with corrupt police officers, corrupt dog-handlers and corrupt HM Revenue and Customs officers - all combining to make sure that large quantities of drugs reached their drug-dealer mates. No doubt these vile criminals in uniform got a decent ‘cut’ of the profits made from these illegal Class A and Class B drugs being sold on the streets of Essex and London.

Meanwhile, Les Balkwell has filed an official complaint about the conduct of Karim Kahlil Q.C., the high profile Head of Chambers at One Paper Buildings who was instructed last year by the CPS to prosecute the Defendant. Les’s allegation is that the prosecution of the Defendant for manslaughter-by-negligence is simply not supported by the evidence.

Lee worked with the Defendant on drilling out a small amount of setting concrete on the night of 17 July 2002. The work started at just before 8.00pm and was finished at about 9.15pm.

This can be demonstrated in a great many ways, notably:

A. CCTV evidence showing that work stopped at 9.15pm ( see 10-minute YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0b7bpOQIXM )

B. Clear evidence that no lighting was ever available in the concrete mixer drum – it would be impossible to work in the dark

C. The lorry being seen on CCTV to go down the lane for its final washout at 9.15pm

D. Several lines of evidence proving that only a minimal amount of concrete needed to be drilled out

E. Evidence from a witness at the Inquest, who was present on the scene at 8.00pm that night, that he was told by the Defendant that work would be finished within the hour

F. The clearest possible evidence from the tachograph that the drum of the lorry was not being used to ‘inch round’ the drum all evening, allegedly to make drilling out the concrete easier, as the Defendant had persistently tried to insist

G. Provably false statements made by a number of witnesses about the events of that evening

H. Police photographs taken at the scene, which inter alia showed the two Kango hammer drills placed neatly in piles of rubble, thus proving that work had finished long ago, and disproving claims that Lee was inside the drum when it was switched on (twice) at 12.59am and 1.03am, and

I. Further evidence from the scene photographs and CCTV that the setting concrete had been drilled out and finished much earlier in the evening.

In the face of the above, and a total of 141 evidential points submitted in writing to the CPS and Karim Kahlil Q.C. on 13 March 2014 showing that there was simply no credible evidence that this was an accident, Les’s complaint is that Karim Kahlil Q.C. is acting contrary to CPS guidelines and the rules of justice by continuing to prosecute the Defendant for alleged negligence.

A further issue has arisen over Les’s persistent claim that no Scenes of Crime Report was ever prepared by the senior Scenes of Crime Officer (Detective Sergeant Argles) who visited the scene that night. Despite both Essex and Kent Police having maintained for 12 years that there was such a report - although neither Les nor his advisers has never been able to see it - we now hold a written statement that one was never made.

Les is calling for:

The current prosecution of the Defendant for negligence to be abandoned
The case to be passed immediately to a police force unconnected to Essex, the Met or Kent Police for a full, no-holds-barred re-investiagtion, and
A top-level investigation into possible corruption within both the police and the CPS in the conduct of the various reviews and investigations into his son’s death.

Meanwhile, the next hearing in the case is scheduled for 16 June. Head of the East of England Crown Prosecution Service, Ms Grace Oniniwu, who, like Karim Kahlil Q.C, has officially signed off this prosecution as, she claims, based fairly and squarely on what she maintains is proof that Lee’s death was caused only by an accident (in turn due to the Defendant’s alleged negligence), still has the matter under active review.

Les hopes he will shortly receive news that his three requests (above) will be met.

Monday 12 May 2014

by **PeterMac** 12.05.14 16:05

Tony,
Your persistence and dedication in this case, as in others, is worthy of high praise.
But, as you know, you are up against heavy opposition.
Peter

by worriedmum 12.05.14 16:13

It's hard to know where to begin, reading the account above. Thank goodness for the fortitude of Lee's father, poor man, and his unbending conviction that Truth and Justice must prevail. Tony I salute you. Truly humbling.

by **Tony Bennett** 12.05.14 18:55

Alaric Bonthron's involvement in this case [Lee Balkwell] is very strange.

Recently, I posted a couple of articles in the Independent which referred to the Metropolitan Police's deliberate cover-up of a damning internal report by Operation Tiberius:

https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t8917-scotland-yards-rotten-core-police-failed-to-address-met-s-endemic-corruption-independent-10-1-14

Tiberius concluded that there was an entire network of senior police officers, CPS staff and court officials who were acting corruptly to assist drug dealers and other major crriminals to maintain their evil empires. The report actually named half-a-dozen senior Metropolitan POlice Officers who were known to be assisting major drugs families. Yet a succession of Metropolitan Police Commissioners did NOTHING about it - and that includes the current incumbent, Bernard Hogan-Howe, and his Head of Professional Standards (sometimes, but incorrectly, styled as an 'anti-corruption unit'), Alaric Bonthron.

The Met was stung into reacting, and Bonthron was wheeled out to whinge to the public: 'You cant eliminate police corruption, it'll always be there':

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exclusive-police-corruption-cannot-be-eliminated-admits-head-of-specialmet-unit-following-independent-stories-9070682.html

Great!

The head of allegedly the most powerful anti-corruption unit in the country has already given up!

With a defeatist attitude like that at the heart of the corruption-riddled Met, police corruption is only likely to get even worse.