Friendly Fire- The Homophobic Ministry of Defence

Due to impending Legal Action, I cannot reveal the names of those involved in this story at the present time.
This is a real story and it does concern actual friends of mine.


What follows, is not only an inspirational story of courage and determination, but it is the personal account I made a couple of months ago.


I'd be grateful if you pass on this story!

Put it at the bottom of any email you send tonight.
Talk about it when you go to the pub or supermarket.
Most importantly, think about it yourself.
On one level, you see someone dealing with adversity with dignity.
On the other hand you see the foul corruption at the heart of religion and our Government.

Anyway's enough ranting from me, here's what I wrote a couple of months ago;

"Back in July, when I found out I was to be going in for surgery, I was
wandering about online, looking for information.



To cut a long story short, I got in contact with someone local, who had had
heart surgery himself and invited me over to talk me through it.



This is the story of , a friend of mine and the strongest person I
have ever met, or am ever likely to meet.

His story starts on Christmas Island, where his father was stationed during
the Atom Bomb tests.
While Top Brass were down in bunkers, ordinary soldiers, like my friends father,
watched the show outside and were exposed to incredible levels of radiation.
In later years, his father suffered from tumours, which is bad enough, but
the tragedy is the legacy he passed on to his progeny.
While his siblings all have various ailments attributable to radiation exposure,
my friend got the lot.
Blind in one eye, Cateracts in the other.
4 Holes in the heart.
Facial palsy.
A malformed spine.

He had Open Heart Surgery aged four, then again aged twenty four. He was the first child to survive long term from 'hole in the heart' surgery.
A walking, breathing miracle.


He needed further keyhole surgery on his heart in 2007.


As I went in for my own operation, he was on the waiting list for a Heart
Transplant.

I tried to get in contact again when I got out, but it took a while.
He was doing a tour of the National Hospitals, seeking help, but to no
avail.
His diagnosis is Terminal!
They can no longer operate!

He has a rare form of Angina, called Prinzmetals, which causes the arteries to
spasm, making surgery impossible. He has numerous defects to the wiring in his heart that cause life threatening arrythmias. This also makes the only known medication for Prinzmetals dangerous, as they cause his heart to slow down and makes the arrythmias worse. At one point his heart

was missing 75% of its beats!
In another episode it was 180bpm.

Now the back story;
Despite all his troubles, he has served Queen and Country, as a civil servant attached to the forces for twenty two years, seeing active tours of duty in Bosnia & Kosovo. He is one of the few civil servants with Military medals (3).

Six years ago, he met his life partner and in 2006 they announced their intention to wed,
to his superior officer.
Said Officer was less than happy.

You see, the partner he decided to marry, is another man!
Yes, my friend is Gay!
Despite his medical condition, his superior Officer, who "couldn't condone it", started piling more and more work onto him, which led to a rapid
deterioration in his health.

Eventually, he took sick leave.
Unhappy not to be able to crack the whip, his Superior started to abuse his
position, manipulating the MOD police to pursue and harass him.

Just before Christmas, he tried to kill himself.
He took twice the dosage of medication required for the job, but his partner
found and got him to hospital in time.

See, he's in constant pain, from uncontrolled Angina spasms and Neural pain in
the back.
He also felt that he was a 'burden' on everybody and thought to solve everyone's
problems at once.
He hid it all from everybody and the kind of life he's had makes him good at
that.
He tolerates daily levels of pain that would have the toughest people alive on
their knees, while he laughs and jokes and is one of the nicest people I've ever
met.

When I've felt hard done by myself, I just think about him and the example
he's set for courage.

I spent many evenings in the latter part of last year, visiting him in the
Mental Hospital.
He could perhaps talk more honestly with me, than he could with his younger
partner.
I just told him stories and dirty jokes.
Kept him company and made him feel normal, because looking around one, a Mental
Hospital is an awful place to be.
He became the star of the place, taking an interest in everyone.

(continues)

[edit on 13-6-2009 by Bong Sau]

Meanwhile, his superior, was still trying to have him arrested by MOD Police and
even sent a nasty letter which arrived to pull him down again just before
Christmas.

Prescribed Anti-Depressants, he was progressively released from care.
I continued to visit.

At some point, the guys started showing me documents.
His partner is a highly organised individual and has kept everything.
Records of telephone calls, times and places, Emails and letters all filed
organised and timelined.

While in Mental Hospital, he sent in a letter of resignation, which was
acknowledged, but the pursuit and harassment, led by his superior officer,
continued.

What, in a nutshell, has happened, is that his superior officer has been
pursuing a campaign of hate against him, because of his chosen sexuality.
I've seen it all in Black and White.

I went to visit him this afternoon.
It was a shock!
He had a GP in, to give him Morphine, just to allow him to stand up, on top of all the other medications he has to take.
Yesterday, he had an MRI scan and was told he had Spina Bifada, which had been
undiagnosed all his life.
He's been walking with a stick for the last few months, but the future looks
likely to be a wheelchair.

He's been given a new home, closer to the Hospital and I spent today, painting
his kitchen for him.

I've also been incredibly touched and honoured.
As his partner was too emotionally attached to everything that has happened.
They asked me to go to his initial grievance hearing with the MOD as his
witness.

Sadly, while he has glibly talked about opening a nightclub in Cyprus with
the proceeds of the lawsuits that now start. (This has been a longterm dream for both of them)
I fear that he will never realise his dream.

He is my Hero!

So those that pray and those that don't, give a little thought or prayer for
this guy tonight.

Probably the nicest person, you'll never meet!"

(continues)

The official MOD policy is this;

"The Armed Forces diversity goal is to achieve an environment free from harassment, intimidation and unlawful discrimination, in which all have equal opportunity and encouragement to realise their full potential. The Armed Forces respect and value every individual’s unique contribution, irrespective of his or her race, ethnic origin, religion, gender, social background and sexual orientation, and seek to enhance their operational capability by maximising that contribution."

Spread this story to as many people as you can, because it's subject still has doubt's that he did something wrong!

There will be more on this story in coming weeks, so please consider your responses carefully and stay on topic out of respect!

(continues)

This is my friend with his Dog.
The Dog's 19 and still acts like a puppy, while believing he's actually a Cat.



You can hear him in his own words here;

You see, what was happening, was his Homophobic Line Manager (coincidentially an elder in the local Baptist Church) was 'binning' his sick lines and 'fitting him up'.

This is where he was while supposedly AWOL;

April 19th 2009

Hi folks, what follows, is a personal account of today (yesterday)

Gonna refer to my friend as A and his partner as B.
Just want to state that they are 'both' my friends, not just A.

I'm a bit 'ragged at the edges' tonight.
It's been a very, very long day.

In my voluntary capacity, as independant carer to A.
I took responsiblity for his care today, as he was forced to attend a police station in Carlisle, to face the accusations of the MDP (Military of Defence Police).

Got them prepped last night.
They let me sleep on their couch, so we could get an early start in the morning.

We got maybe an hours sleep apeice.
Up at 5am.
Set off about 8am.

Carlisle is a good 150 miles drive and the guys got me on their insurance for the day in their 'motability' vehicle and I drove them down.
Took a couple of breaks on the way.

We had to go first of all, to the lawyer in Carlisle for a briefing, then we navigated our way to the police station after a couple of false leads (never ask old women for directions lol).

We were observed entering the police car park at 11 am, by a group of people and I immediately felt uncomfortable.

B, A's partner, is in a full leg cast and on crutches, having recently suffered a really nasty Femoral Avulsion Fracture, so I got him out first, then assembled A's wheelchair and got him seated.

They were told, in the Car Park, that they were being placed under arrest for 'Conspiracy to commit fraud'.
They then wanted to know who I was and I intruduced myself as A's carer.

This was 11AM.
We didn't all get back together in that Car Park, untill 5:30PM

Now have a think about that for a second.
That's a teminally ill man, who's been getting up and organised, then travelling for two hours, who's had an hours sleep, subsequently spending 6 & 1/2 hours in a police station, kept segregated from his crippled partner.

Unfortunately, I was there as primary carer for A, and could do little for B.

It took about an hour, just to get past the front desk Custodial Procedures.
I now know the often hidden signs of A's pain and I knew he was in incredible agony.

A had prepared a card with all his medications and various conditions, which he handed over.
He described his Prinzmetals Angina to the Custody Sergeant (Civil Police) who had difficulty with the spelling of 'prinzmetals' at which point I had to intercede, as he wanted to just use the term 'Angina'

Now Angina, is typified as being crushing chest pain.
'Prinzmetals' Angina is a condition which can lead to SCDS (Sudden Cardiac Death Syndrome), which is why his diagnosis is ultimately 'Terminal'.

So I butted in and ended up on the phone to the Police Surgeon, who turned out to be half an hour away and I had to explain the condition to him, as he was unfamiliar with it.
We wanted a medical presence on site, but that never materialized.

Due to the Neural pain caused by the Spina Bifada Occulta, A has real difficulty going to the toilet sometimes.
He doesn't get the sensation of peeing/needing to pee.

(continues)

The Civil Police were mostly great, at least for A.
We were placed in a reasonably smart interview room and could get cups of tea and water when required.

As I had the keys to the motability vehicle, I was asked by the MDP for the keys.
Andrew was asked what the two other keys on the key ring were for.
The keys were taken without explanation.

A relies heavily on GTN (Glyceryl Tri Nitrate ) sprays to relieve his heart pain.
These are the lesser of two evils, as I know, when you have chest pain, you are damaging the heart, the GTN relieves the strain on the heart by opening up the blood vessels, but the downside can be incredibly blinding headaches, which A suffers from particularly badly, due to his combinant medications (50 tablets a day).

I realised his spray only had a couple of doses left and offered to go and get one from the car, as I still keep one on me at all times for emergencies and knew I had a full bottle in my jacket pocket.
There was a bit of cafuffle over this and I was escorted t the car by the MDP.
I opened the boot, opened my jacket pocket, removed the medecine and returned with it to A.

Some time later, I was pulled out of the interview room and asked about the contents of my jacket pockets.

Now, I run my own business as some of you know, and I tend to wait until I have a decent amount of money to bank, before trekking across town to deposit it, so I had about £1,000 in my inside pocket (used to be a lot of money eh?).
I'd have banked it, if I hadn't been doing this, but I thought, surely it would be safe in a police Car Park?

Now, because they had searched the vehicle and found money, they HAD to count it, in case it could be later proved that money had been removed.

Think about that for a minute!

I explained why I had the money.
I was then asked about the other contents in my pockets.
I said, "Well, there's my wallet, shop keys, house keys and to be honest, I'm a bit Klepto and keep all sorts of crap in my pockets".

This jacket, is something I was given in my previous job as a Sales Rep.
To buy, it'd probably be about £500/$1,000.
Its inside pocket, where the money was, actually has my full name in big letters on it.
Nonetheless, all the contents were removed and investigated.
Among said contents, were my wallet, with my driving license (photo ID), credit cards etc and before they even got to the money, that pocket had my own personal medical prescription.

So I was dragged away from my role as Carer for A and interviewed in a seperate room.
A did have his lawyer with him at this point and I had given him a quick briefing on 'warning signs' for A's issues previously.

They explained, that they had a warrant and right to search our transportation and they needed me to sign that the amount of cash found in my jacket was correct.
Now, without driving 150 miles home and checking my till readings I had no way of knowing the exact amount in my pocket.
I explained this.
They wanted me to sign a form, saying the amount was correct.

I told them I was signing nothing that I would not be getting a copy of (having seen the way they 'fit up' evidence).

They then told me that my money would be 'kept', pending investigation!

I told them that, should they choose to keep my money, they were interrupting the 'cash flow' of my business and I would be immediately instigating legal action against them, moreover I wished to make a formal complaint.

I did a bit of a "Rant" at this point;

[edit on 13-6-2009 by Bong Sau]

"I am a Civilian! You have no jurisdiction over me. I'm here in the capacity of independant carer. You should have asked me if I had any personal effects in the transport, your officer observed me removing such, with permission/acknowledgement.
More importantly, the Terminally ill man you are investigating, is the subject of a hate campaign and a 'fit up' case, despite having served the Army for 22 years and being decorated for active tours of duty in the Balkans and Kosovo.
You have no right to do this!"

I was told that I didn't know the "facts".
Well, actually I do and due to my Sales training, recognised the 'leading' (wanted me to expand on what I knew) question.
'What did I know?'
I said nothing!
Fishee no biteee!

There was more to it, but if you can picture a 5' 6" and a bit Scotsman looming over two 6' Military Police, cowering in their chairs, you're getting the idea.
B, A's partner, later told me, he could hear me shouting "You have no right!" at them from within the locked cell he was in, down the corridor.


At this point, the Civilian Police Inspector was called through and I had a private interview with him, stating that they, the MOD should have informed me of their intention to search the transport vehicle and the reasons for why as it was on the property of Civilian Police.

He then spoke to them privately and I was called through, where the MDP were forced to give apology to me and return my cash!
However..........I was asked to sign an MDP form for the release.
Having seen the way they 'fit people up' I insisted on a copy and that the blank section below the data was scored through, so no editing could be done.
They did get my home address though and I asked if that meant they'd be raiding my home too?
I couldn't deny them my address, as I knew they'd been through my wallet.
It was all I could do, not to rip out their throats!

All that sorted, I got back to A and the Lawyer.
Briefed on A's symptoms, my role was primarily in watching A's facial colour, respiration and pain symptoms.
A was unaware, because of the aforementioned Neural symptoms and despite 8 prior trips to the toilet, he had wet himself.

The Civil Police, particularly the girls were really nice.
I got him a pair of replacement trousers and a couple of towels to sort himself out, before he even realised what had happened.
He was sitting in his wheel chair, in a puddle of pee, not even aware that he had wet himself.

When I passed him the towels and let him know what had happened (he was transfixed on the lawyer across the table at the time), I had to go back out for the trousers.
I came back in and he was shedding great tears of embarrasment.
Heartbreaking!
Just so NOT fair to be in that position and in that condition.
Heads will ROLL.

Got a break, got him to the toilet and got him sorted out.
Military mind n all that, he'd packed his own spare underwear and clothes in the car, so I got those out and dressed him, so he wasn't stuck with the Police Blue.

With my 'ins and outs' to and from A's interview room and my trips to the car etc, I'd got the occasional glimpse of B.

I'd spoken to the Custody Sergeant, explaining that B's leg was to be kept elevated whenever possible.
He did his best, but it wasn't the case for much of the time I saw him.
Despite the conversation I had with the Police Surgeon, medication was given to these two, not only late, but reluctantly.

Having had the exchange with the Inspector when I made my formal complaint, I caught his eye and Tylex pain relief capsules were passed to both, to the credit of the Civilian Police.

There's so much to explain in all of this, that I cannot get it all across in one post.

What eventually wound up proceedings, is that A agreed to 'take the rap' for what I see to be 'doctored' documents submitted either by the MDP, or more likely his 'Line Manager', at which point, all charges were dropped.

Guilty yer Honour!
Leave me alone now please!
I'm dying!

What we suspect has happened, is that the MDP have realised that a member of the MOD (A's Line Manager) have acted innapropriately and they were being used as the 'Fall Guy' in impending action against both by A.
The MDP, by effectively dropping all action, have played the ball back into their court, absolving themselves of blame

This is only the start!

B has had a shocking day too.
He was locked up in a cell smelling of Piss, when he's done nothing wrong.

The Civilian Police, were becoming increasingly horrified with the whole thing as it unfolded.
The MDP basically took over a Civilian fascility, and used it, or tried to use it as they saw fit!
Remember Hitler?

At the end of A's statement (and a more endearing person you'll never meet), the MOD officers were on his side.

It took ages to get away.
A and B had to submit their fingerprints and DNA before they could be released, which they both, particularly B objected to.

In the Car Park, it was all smiles handshakes and waves, but I stuck my oar in again and told the MOD Police, "if they ever harassed my favourite cripples again, I'd find out where THEY lived and pan their windows in".

While all of this was going on, they had two squads of support MDP at two seperate addresses, trying to gain entry to property.
The keys they still retain, denied us acces to property on our eventual return to their home.

Anyways

Despite all of this, the guys were still willing to take a detour to Dumfries and met with a friend.

A friend who has been most helpful in all of this and is the one who has been sorting out the youtube links etc.

Cheers for taking the time out P!

We had a bite to eat and continued on home.

Guys are beat, I'm beat, but the really meaty stuff starts now!

Sorry if the above rambles a bit.
Been a very long day, not had much sleep and wanted to get my thoughts down while they were relatively fresh!

[edit on 13-6-2009 by Bong Sau]

The Ministry of Defence in Whitehall have been served legal papers for the following reasons..

1. Defamation of Characters
2. Unfair Dismissal
3. Discrimination contra to Equality Acts
4. Discrimination on grounds of Sexual Oriention
5. Discrimination contra to the DDA
6. Breaches of DDA leading to damge to health
7. Damage to physical & Mental health
9. Breach of Data Protection Act
10. Unlawfull deductions to wages contra to Employment law
11. Failure to comply with statutory employment law!!
12. Failure to comply with Health & Safety laws
13. Breach of EU working time directive.

The papers went to Whitelhall so we are taking on the government.

In other words lawyers and the QC's have never seen a case like it!!

Mp's will now be called to testify regarding expenses claims.. They can not refuse..

on another note if you want to have a go at an mp here is a nice list of email addresses!!


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...etc.

Got em all the way up to Z if anybody needs em?