DCI Christopher Lee of the ‘House of Commons Police’ and the lies of Nadine Dorries

This entry was posted on
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
at
9:19 am and is filed
under Tories! Tories! Tories!.

This may interest you; my emails to the police officer that Nadine Dorries named in her letter to the Bedfordshire Chief Constable. Christopher Lee works for a Met CID unit based in the Houses of Parliament that Dorries has repeatedly referred to as ‘the House of Commons Police’.

I wish to be crystal clear when I state that DCI Christopher Lee is fully aware that the Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has been sharing, distributing, broadcasting and publishing lies and distortions on his behalf in an ongoing deceit about her expenses claims. For reasons he is keeping to himself, DCI Christopher Lee knowingly allows this MP to politicise his department toward this end in an all-too-personal dispute with myself and other critics she accuses of stalking her/others.

Nadine Dorries pretends that she has been physically stalked to the extent of receiving special instruction from Christopher Lee’s department to lie on her blog about her whereabouts, and only Christopher Lee’s ongoing silence allows her to persist in this deceit.

Through an underling, Lee insisted that half of my questions be addressed via an FOI request, and half via a subject access request under the Data Protection Act. The London Met dragged their heels on both requests, charged me *two fees* for the latter request, and in the end only provided the one single response to Question 18 in the former request:

I can confirm that it is not within the remit of any police force, to enforce the Data Protection Act (DPA). This falls within the remit of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO possess powers (entry and inspection) under Schedule 9 of the Data Protection Act. If required, the ICO would deal directly with the courts to obtain warrants so there would not be any involvement from any police force.

There was also a vague response about any matters of import being referred to the London Met for action that neatly avoided answering any actual questions.

Below is my initial email, along with a follow-up email.

Christopher Lee has also been advised of my intention to publish this morning, and so far there has been no response.

I publicly accuse Christopher Lee of knowingly allowing his department to be politicised, and subsequently contributing to the corruption of Parliament.

If he continues to ignore this matter after I have published this, it will only show that he has no answer to that.

Enjoy the correspondence. Cheers all.

To: christopher.lee3@met.pnn.police.uk
From: Tim Ireland
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:43:36 +0100
Subject: Nadine Dorries, and claims made on your behalf

Hi Christopher.

Here is the detail, as promised.

I apologise in advance for any headaches that may come your way from this email, but Nadine Dorries has been making claims about me on behalf of you/your department that are designed to give an entirely false impression about my status as a criminal, harassing/stalking her and others, when I’ve done nothing of the sort. Quite the opposite, in fact. This has been feeding if not prompting undesirable behaviour targeting me. I am leaving that detail out of this letter as far as I am able (the matter is complicated enough without it, it’s not your problem, and it’s already on its way to court) but the detail is yours for the asking if you have any doubts about my call for urgency at the tail of this letter.

I also apologise if the following seems overwhelming in its detail, but Nadine Dorries has been using a false claim of stalking to avoid valid and due scrutiny for quite some time now, and I have only just learned your name through a subject access request to Bedfordshire Police (you are mentioned in a letter to them from Dorries, and the relevant passage appears in this email). Prior to this, I had made a subject access request to the London Metropolitan Police, which returned no mention of any complaint or investigation.

This document will take you through a timeline of key claims and statements made by Conservative MP Nadine Dorries since Jan 2010, along with my subsequent questions to you, so you might appreciate them in context.

January 2010

Nadine Dorries is made aware that a man named Charlie Flowers has been publishing my name and ex-directory home address alongside the accusation that I ‘stalk women and send death threats to MPs’. She only pretends to report him to police.

A self-styled cyber-vigilante Charlie Flowers claimed to be broadcasting my address alongside the accusation of my stalking a variety of Tory MPs, including Nadine Dorries, on behalf of Dorries herself (along with two other bloggers). He further claimed that he had informed her of this. Expecting to expose Flowers as a liar or fantasist, I confronted Dorries about it, and got no answer beyond repeated public-facing claims that my emails amounted to nought but abuse and/or the rantings of a ‘nutter’. Dorries was subsequently confronted by others about this through Twitter, and she responded as follows:

“I have fwd all emails etc to the Met police who are reviewing with the harassment unit”
Nadine Dorries, 18 Feb 2010
(Twitter)

When she was later confronted about evidence of any complaint about Charlie Flowers, she claimed through a third party that she meant that she had forwarded emails from me to police (ie she made a complaint about the emails from me confronting her about this), and did not mean to cause any confusion.

Q1. Has Nadine Dorries ever sent you any emails that she regarded to be inappropriate?

Q2. Has Nadine Dorries ever sent you any emails that she regarded to be inappropriate that were (a) in my name or (b) presented to you alongside any suggestion that they came from me?

(If 2a applies, I would like to see all emails in my name that were sent to you, please. If you think it necessary, you may regard this to be a subject access request under the Data Protection Act, with my request to cover any reference to any mention of “Tim Ireland” or “Bloggerheads” and associated email addresses. Please advise if this is necessary and the relevant processing fee and details will be sent to you with all speed.)

May 2010

Dorries objects to my presence/filming at a hustings in Flitwick.

Dorries was rumoured to be under police and Parliamentary investigation for her expenses claims, and Dorries had so far managed to avoid any questions about it. Bedfordshire constituents who were concerned the meeting would not be recorded invited me. I was there because I wanted the meeting on record, too. We arranged permission in advance, and I introduced myself upon arrival, double-checking with the Chair before beginning the broadcast to be run alongside the recording. Dorries had already pushed the meeting back so it would be too late for any result to be reported in the local newspaper, and she arrived late and planned to leave early so she might avoid open/unplanned questions.

I made no secret of who I was or what I was doing there, but Dorries, having arrived late, only came to know I was there when my name was announced by the Chair, after the hustings had started. Dorries sought to have me ejected from the room, claiming that I was a serial stalker of multiple MPs who was, at that time, under investigation by police for stalking her.

“I have had to report him to the Met police on two occasions, and one of them is under investigation, and I’m really sorry, but this is a case.”
Nadine Dorries, 4 May 2010
(Hustings, recorded on video)

Q3. Had you received any complaint about my conduct before May 4 2011, from Dorries or any other MP? Have you received any complaint(s) since? If so, please provide dates and details, including any reference numbers (incident, crime, non-crime, etc.).

Q4. Have I ever been under investigation by the Met CID based in the Houses of Parliament?

Dorries made further claims to local press to reinforce her accusations through some appalling emotional manipulation; having no evidence to present, she talked up the threat and sought to portray me as a violent character.

“Tim Ireland lives in Guildford. He is not a Mid Bedfordshire resident and therefore I am not answerable or accountable to him in any way whatsoever. I have been in consultation regarding his behaviour with the Westminster division of the Metropolitan Police, and the House of Commons police, for more than a year. Their advice was to close down my blog and Twitter account and thereby remove the ‘oxygen’ upon which he fed. As an election was imminent, I ignored this advice. Following the Stephen Timms incident last week I have decided that I should pay attention to the police advice and have therefore closed down both Twitter and my blog for the time being.”
Nadine Dorries, May 2010
(Letter to editor of Bedfordshire on Sunday)

Dorries closed her blog and Twitter account an entire week before Timms was stabbed; she has no justification for associating me with a stabbing, and she is either lying, or very confused about which way time flows.

Q5. Is it accurate to say that Dorries had, in May 2010, been “in consultation regarding [Tim Ireland’s] behaviour with the Westminster division of the Metropolitan Police, and the House of Commons police, for more than a year”?

Q6. Have you or any other police officer in the Houses of Parliament advised Nadine Dorries to close down her blog and Twitter account in order to avoid my attention out of concerns for her safety? If so, in what context was this advice given, by whom, and when?

October 2010

Dorries is cleared by the Standards Commissioner over her expenses claims for a Bedfordshire rental property.

Dorries claimed the expenses under question on the basis that it was rent for her second home, but her blog/site entries gave impression that is was instead her first. She answered this problematic contradiction with claims to the Commissioner that she had deliberately given a false impression of time spent within the constituency to ‘reassure’ her constituents about her commitment to them. In the published report she was quoted as saying that the blog she wrote about constituency matters was “70% fiction, 30% fact”

There was an immediate backlash that Dorries did not appear to be expecting at all. It was at this stage that the MP gave an entirely different excuse to the public, one she made no mention of to the Commissioner; she claimed that she had been the target of stalking, and had subsequently been advised by police to disguise her movements through the use of minor fictions about time/dates on her blog.

There was no doubt about her claiming to have been physically stalked, and I was indentified as the main if not only stalker on the basis that I attended the Flitwick event (i.e. the only time I have ever knowingly been in her presence, at a public meeting that I was invited to).

Last night Miss Dorries said the police had advised her to ‘disguise’ her movements on her blog. She said: ‘I have during the course of this inquiry, and before, attracted unwanted and inappropriate attention.’
Daily Mail, 22 October 2010

On Monday, the Boulton blog again ran a negative story and legitimised the very man I had been advised to disguise my movements from, Tim Ireland. Not only has this man stalked me, he can telephone my constituency office so many times in a morning, the staff disconnect the phone, making it impossible for constituents to make contact. He never telephones the London office. He possibly suspects those calls would be recorded. I have reported Tim Ireland to the House of Commons police on three occasions and the Chief Constable of Bedfordshire Police explored the option of triggering section 5 of the Public Disorder Act. The House of Commons Police informed me that Mr Ireland had actually rang their office demanding to know if he had been reported. He had and they were seeking advice from the Met harassment unit.
Nadine Dorries, 28 October 2010
(blog.dorries.org)

Q7. How many times has Nadine Dorries complained to your office about my behaviour, and on which date(s)?

Q8. I do recall contacting your office and seeking clarification on some of what Dorries had claimed, but I was assured that I should pursue my enquiries with a nearby Met office (Charing Cross, IIRC), as this would be where any complaint of this type would be referred. Is this accurate, and/or should I have been referred to the Met in this way?

Q9. Have you or any other police officer in the Houses of Parliament advised Nadine Dorries to disguise her movements on her website in response to any stalking threat? If so, was this advice given specifically or even partly in response to concerns for her safety arising from my activity? If so, in what context was this advice given, by whom, and when?

Following many statements like this, Dorries was under pressure to produce evidence of any investigation, and was eventually challenged to produce an incident or crime reference number (for example) or anything else that might establish that she had at least made a complaint. She offered to go and retrieve from police something that she really should have had on file herself at the time, and she said no more about it until developments that followed in 2011.

Q10. Were you or your office contacted by Dorries (or her staff) in pursuit of any relevant police reference numbers in late 2010 or at any other time? If so, what was your response?

January 2011

Bedfordshire Police advise me that they had begun an investigation in late November 2010 which carried no crime report because – as yet – “there is no crime”. I am invited to participate in an interview under caution.

Police told me at the time that the investigation was in response to a letter written by Nadine Dorries in July 2010. The investigation did not get underway until November 2010. The letter was addressed to Bedfordshire’s Chief Constable, and mentioned you specifically:

“I reported his behaviour sometime ago to Christopher Lee of the House of Commons Police”
Nadine Dorries, 12 July 2010
(Letter to Chief Constable Gillian Parker)

Q11. Did Bedfordshire Police contact you about this complaint or their investigation? Did they enquire about your alleged investigation(s)? What was your response?

Q12. Are you aware of ANY genuine stalking threat to Nadine Dorries, and if so, did you advise Bedfordshire Police of that threat at this time or any other?

[NOTE – I have redacted Question 13 and the surrounding content, as it refers to a powerful revelation I have yet to publish, and Bedfordshire Police deserve a chance to respond before I publish it. Back to the letter…]

May 2011 – present

The investigation closes finding NO evidence of harassment, never mind stalking. Dorries presses on regardless.

Dorries repeatedly tried to give people the impression that I was issued with a caution as a result of this investigation.

This is not the only example (there are many in which she names me), but her intent is most apparent in this reference to me in an article she penned for the Daily Mail just last week, while seeking to associate me with death threats she claimed to have received as part of her most recent abortion-related campaign;

“One particularly obsessive man recently followed me round with a camera, whipped up online hysteria against me and eventually had to accept a police caution for harassment.”
Nadine Dorries, September 2011
(Self-penned article in Daily Mail)

There were repeated instances of my being associated with these threats by Dorries, but never in so many words. It was all about putting my name in close proximity to the threats she claimed to have received. Example:

“The Toady[*] programme this morning used Twitter as an opinion source for their abortion piece. Did they use the Tweeters who issue the death threats I wonder? Or Bloggerheads, who was interviewed by the Police for five hours in Guildford and then on tape and under caution, issued with a warning under section 2 of the Harassment Act with regard to his conduct in relation to the Act in respect to myself.Or maybe one of the Tweeters who email the poisonous emails or Tweets opinion based on zero fact. I think that maybe it’s time for questions to be asked regarding the BBCs obsession with Twitter.”
Nadine Dorries, 6 September 2011
(blog.dorries.org)
[*BBC Radio 4, ‘Today’]

Earlier, Dorries had made this specific claim about the death threats she claimed to have received:

“Last week the Police rang after tracing the author of one of the death threats and asked me should they prosecute, I said no. I said no because I assume that people write such things and then probably regret it later. That policy has changed from today.”
Nadine Dorries, 31 August 2011
(blog.dorries.org)

Q14. Is this comment made in reference to your office? If so, is this an accurate portrayal of events? (I’m just a layman, but it was my understanding that a genuine/serious death threat would lead to an investigation no matter what the recipient might wish.)

Q15. Did Dorries ever intimate to you any claim or suspicion that I was associated with any threat against her, or the cause or author of any threat to her?

Q16. Are you aware of any present threat to Nadine Dorries, ranging from harassment to death threats?

Q17. Are you aware of any past threat to Nadine Dorries, ranging from harassment to death threats?

And we are so nearly there. One final question with a change of topic to cleanse the palate:

Q18. Is it within your remit to enforce the Data Protection Act if an MP has been advised by the ICO that their Parliamentary office is in breach?

Thank you for taking the time to consider this matter.

I’d welcome any immediate feedback you might have about these questions, or outside of these questions. Beyond that, your soonest response in full would be most appreciated. A man who reacts in unfortunate ways to Dorries’ outbursts is due to appear in court on 10 November and I’d like this matter to be resolved by then, if not long before.

Cheers

Tim Ireland
www.bloggerheads.com

To: christopher.lee3@met.pnn.police.uk
From: Tim Ireland
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:35:01 +0000
Subject: Nadine Dorries

Dear Christopher,

The Conservative MP Nadine Dorries claims to have filed a complaint against me with you personally. She was very clear about this in her complaint to Bedfordshire Police and I have paperwork in my possession that confirms this. Dorries further claims to have sent you copies of emails from and concerning me, which represents personal data that I have a right to access and inspect under the Data Protection Act.

After kicking this into the long grass under a demand that I submit my questions under FOI/DPA (and keeping me waiting weeks longer than the appropriate deadlines), the Met came back to me today with an answer that basically said nothing and revealed less.

If there are no emails to show, I wish to have that confirmed in very clear terms, please. You should not be standing by and allowing your department to be politicised in this way

An MP is using a false accusation of harassment to silence and intimidate critics (including her opponent at the last election), and she is using your department to do it. Nadine Dorries quite specifically claims that in May 2010, she had been “in consultation regarding [Tim Ireland’s] behaviour with the Westminster division of the Metropolitan Police, and the House of Commons police, for more than a year”

If any complaint was filed as Dorries claims, then I have a right to any resulting report that names me or otherwise indentifies me, even if all it does is rule out an investigation. If no such complaint was made, or if it was no valid complaint was made, again this needs to be confirmed in very clear terms, not with some vaguie get-out clause about investigations that may or may not be in progress; Dorries has previously hidden behind this specific uncertainty and she will continue to do so for as long as she is allowed.

All I seek from your office is a straight answer to some entirely legitimate questions. Why do you seek to frustrate my efforts rather than simply answer them?

UPDATE (02 March) – It is 5pm on Friday afternoon. My recent emails to DCI Christopher Lee about this matter have this week been read many times in multiple machines, at least one of which is inside the Houses of Parliament. And yet DCI Christopher Lee doesn’t see fit to contradict me when I accuse him of allowing his department to be politicised, and subsequently contributing to the corruption of Parliament. Interesting, no?

Stand by for major revelations about the Speaker next week. In late 2010 and early 2011; his wife Sally Bercow told me that she and her husband and brokered a ‘peace deal’ with Nadine Dorries. I recently revealed this on Twitter and announced to him my intention to publish my full account and supporting evidence. This afternoon, his office described this as “defamatory remarks made against a named Member of Parliament”.








About Tim Ireland

Tim is the sole author of Bloggerheads.
This entry was posted in Tories! Tories! Tories!. Bookmark the permalink.

4 Responses to "DCI Christopher Lee of the ‘House of Commons Police’ and the lies of Nadine Dorries"