Robert Green has unstintingly campaigned over many years for justice for Hollie Greig who, as a child, suffered horrific sexual abuse at the hands of a gang of individuals in Aberdeen. Far from dirty old men in raincoats the people she named included professionals and those connected to the Establishment. Grampian police described Hollie as a truthful witness and acknowledged that she had been abused. Despite this they did not interview or investigate those she named in her own formal interview with them. Their incompetence or deliberate and calculated inaction ensured that none of the purpetrators were brought to justice, and they remain therefore at large - free to abuse again.
In trying to win justice for Hollie and the thousands of other child victims like her, Robert has been imprisoned twice, and effectively held under house arrest for a year, reporting to Cheshire police daily. So draconian are the restrictions placed upon him that the wider public would assume he is a dangerous man and a threat to society. On the contrary he is simply a peaceful and good man who has done nothing but peacefully campaign against child abuse. Robert is still waiting to clear his name in yet another trial, the date for which has still to be set.
Gillian Swanson, one of many thousands of the general public concerned at Hollie Greig's case, wider child abuse and Robert Green's plight, has written an excellent letter to Lord Gill Lord President of the Court of Sessions and Lord Justice General. Set out below, Mrs Swanson's letter speaks for itself. It is followed by an equally excellent letter by Robert Green to Home Secretray Theresa May, in which he simply asks for her to declare to the public which members of the Government and Establishment have been granted immunity from prosecution over alleged sexual abuse offences. Please read both letters which present a powerful insight into the corrupted state of justice and child protection in Scotland, England and Wales.
8 January, 2015
Lord Gill,
Lord President of the Court of Sessions and Lord Justice General,
Parliament House,
Parliament Square,
EDINBURGH
EH1 1RQ
My Lord,
Open Letter: unacceptable prolongation of the possibly unwarranted punishment of Robert Green
On 13 February, 2014, Robert Green, a Welshman resident in England, was arrested in a cross-border raid on his Warrington home by Police Scotland and taken to Aberdeen, where, after initial attempts to section him had failed, he was imprisoned on remand in HMP Perth, charged with breach of a harassment order. Despite Mr Green’s health giving grave concern to his family and friends as a result of his incarceration, and despite the fact that he posed not the slightest danger to the public at large, bail was refused for a full 96 days before he was finally allowed to return home to England under house arrest. Since then, he has been required to report to his local police station every day, and has been banned from the internet: and, close on a year after his initial arrest, a final date for his trial can still not be anticipated with any confidence.
This is an extraordinary situation. I understand that the longest sentence for the offence in question is six months, which would be reduced to three months with good behaviour taken into account: and Mr Green’s behaviour throughout his time in HMP Perth was impeccable. He has therefore already served rather more than the maximum term which may legitimately be inflicted on him should the court eventually find him guilty of the minor offence with which he is charged.
It is now close on a year since Robert Green was seized and transported north of the border, at the behest of an alien legal system: and the repeated postponement of his trial, with no more serious outcome to be expected than a three-month sentence which has already been served, suggests that the aim of the Scottish authorities in prolonging restrictions on his freedom is not to uphold the law, but to silence an inconvenient person.
This long ordeal of what seems to be systematic persecution springs from an initial failure of Grampian Police and Crown Office officials to investigate Down’s Syndrome girl Hollie Greig’s, well-attested claims of long-term gang-rape by a group of influential paedophiles in Aberdeen (see my letter of 30th July, 2014, to the Advocate General, enclosed). Any action taken by Robert Green which has contributed to his present predicament has been carried out with the sole aim of bringing these alleged crimes before a jury, in a court of law. Instead, it has been Mr Green himself who has been made to face not only multiple court appearances, but - given that there is no evidence that he is a danger to the public - two entirely unnecessary prison sentences: at unwarrantable expense to his personal finances, his health, and the Scottish taxpayer.
It now appears that, in addition to the refusal of the Crown Office to investigate serious and well-substantiated crimes by establishment figures against a vulnerable minor, Robert Green’s original trial and conviction did not accord with legal requirements: thus undermining the very validity of the present long-drawn-out charges. In particular, the previous close association of ex-Procurator Fiscal, subsequently Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini, who failed to appear on the stand when called as a witness for the defence, and Sheriff Bowen, who presided over the hearing, run counter to the requirement that justice be seen to be done.
What is ultimately required, of course, is a proper investigation into Hollie Greig’s claims of abuse. The Scottish legal and political establishment would then have nothing further to fear from Robert Green, and Scottish taxpayers could be relieved of any addition to the considerable sums already notched up in persecuting this campaigner for justice.
However, as Lord President you are surely in a position to start righting the many wrongs that continue to emerge as a result of the initial refusal by both police and Crown Office to investigate a long series of brutal and well-attested crimes.
Yours sincerely,
Gillian Swanson MA Oxon
WARRINGTON
Cheshire
8 January, 2015
Rt Hon Theresa May MP,
House of Commons,
LONDON
SW1A 0AA
Dear Home Secretary,
Open Letter: Victims of sexual abuse coming forward
You have urged those who have suffered uninvestigated cases of sexual abuse to come forward with their claims.
However, you did not mention that if those coming forward claimed they had been abused by anyone to whom the Government had granted immunity from prosecution, the individuals concerned were likely to be prosecuted by the State or sectioned, in order to intimidate them into silence: as certainly occurred in relation to accusations against State-protected criminals Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith.
With a view to preventing unnecessary future stress to those who may well have already suffered horrendous historic sexual abuse, and to put an end to further persecution of victims, would you please, in this election year, publish a full list of all those individuals who, for whatever reason, have been granted de facto immunity from prosecution over alleged sexual offences?
I am sure you will agree that this action will be both in the public interest and in the best interests of compassion and humanity.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Green
