My meetings had reduced in time from an hour to half an hour. This according to Danielle Buckley was because of my “good behaviour” and my “co-operation” with my licence conditions. Of course suggesting it coincided with a letter we wrote to John Brimley questioning what the fascination was with me and why I was being kept for an hour each session and interrogated is simply speculation. I for one would not wish to suggest that Danielle Buckley had a really odd fascination with me that caused her to keep me for so long every week and ask me personal questions, so I wont suggest it, or imply it.

 

Buckley informed that from now on (June-ish 2010) my weekly meetings would be reduced down to fortnightly meetings and home visits would no longer be required.

 

“well you could at least be happy, this is good news for you” Buckley offered. I must have had a look on my face which was as disinterested as it normally is in her company. It is like somebody stealing your car, committing so many offences in it, crashing it and setting it on fire before smugly handing you your wheel trims back and saying “well at least you could be happy” Two years, almost, of tolerating this woman who had done absolutely everything she could (lying, law breaking, making laws up, threatening, attempting to bully etc. etc.) to make my life difficult and I should be happy because my meetings with her will be reduced to fortnightly? I had lost my job, my house, had no contact with my son or wife for nearly a year, I had been in prison with some of the most revolting cretins in the entire world, in a hostel with inbred oxygen thieves, and been subjected to her for all this time. How selfish of me, of course I should be ecstatic. Dear god.

 

“I won't be here for our next appointment, but my colleague will be here. You wont be in long, just a quick in and out, make sure you attend”

 

I almost felt relieved. I could see if it was just her or if the other probation officers were reasonable human beings. I unfortunately cannot recall the name of the lady I saw that day, but if I was in for more than FIVE minutes, I would be surprised.

 

“Hi Kristian, I'm......(name forgotten) Hows things? How are you getting on here?

 

I was primed ready to say “My wife and son are none of your business..........” but I didn't need to, this wasn't Buckley. The difference was astonishing, I was literally in for five minutes, and ok she wasn't my probation officer, but she was polite, friendly and helpful, all within the glimpse of an eye I was with her. I didn't feel I had to be on my guard every second, that everything she was going to say, ask or do was some twisted trap in her little plot for........something.

 

“Have you had any joy with the job club?” The lady asked me

 

“The what sorry?” I asked blankly.

 

“The job club.......upstairs? Meets here twice a week to offer support and guidance to anybody on probation?” The lady was desperately trying to give me clues so that I might vaguely have some idea of what she was saying.

 

“I'm sorry I have no idea what you are talking about.”

It turns out, the “job club” did indeed meet twice a week, and was apparently a fantastic tool to help people on probation look for work. I should have been entitled to go along as often as I liked, plan my probation meetings around them and talk to others for advice. Lets see who’s been paying attention, why had I not been told about this? Why had I spent the last year being questioned about my life, my family, and my private life, and not once been offered this service? Yup, you're right. Danielle Buckley.

 

“Its never once been mentioned to me” I offered

“It must have been, how long have you been coming here?

“Since February”

“If you like I can have a word with the lady who runs it and get you an appointment, I'll speak with Danielle and organise your next meeting so you don't have to make two trips?”

“Thank you” That was the first time I had said “thank you” to anybody in the Probation services. This lady had been so helpful and friendly within five minutes and done more for me than Danielle Buckley had ever done.

 

I have been brought up to believe you shouldn't expect others to do things for you, you should get off your backside and get them yourself. I would have liked it to remain that way but as Danielle Buckley had blocked every attempt of mine to do things off my own back, I was left with no choice.

 

A final letter to John Brimley of further evidence if he needed it, that Buckley was doing everything she could to make life hard for me. Naturally Brimley declined to respond again but the next time I saw Buckley she led me up to the job club and whilst waiting for the lady to be free, she spoke to me;

 

db=Danielle Buckley K=me

 

db “Why do you keep lying to your parents?”

K “Sorry?”

db “|you keep telling your parents I have done nothing to help you and they keep writing letters in complaining so for whatever reason you keep lying to them, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop”

 

Getting in trouble were we?

 

K “I don't lie to my parents, you lie to me, you deliberately don't tell me things that could assist me. I tell them what's happened and they complain because its wrong.”

 

db “what have I lied about? What have I not told you?”

Oh my good god I thought, where do I start, door opened much?

 

K “how about you have lied about everything you could have, you have done absolutely nothing to assist me in anyway whatsoever and you didn't tell me about this job club”

 

db “Well you haven't complied whatsoever with anything I’ve asked of you and I did tell you about the job club”

 

K “ Haven't complied? The only thing I haven't complied with is things you have tried to bully me into which I am not lawfully required to do and you most certainly did not tell me about the job club”

 

db “Yes I did”

 

K “oh, ok, when was that then?”

 

This seems like yet another one of these situations where Danielle Buckley says she did tell me therefore it must be true, I just forgot she'd ever mentioned it, never once brought it up in the time I'd been there and acted with true surprise when the nice lady mentioned it to me for the first time ever. I have got form for that though, forgetting all the important things Danielle Buckley had told me. Remember the sign in times at the hostel that had been relaxed? The ones Buckley swears she told me about but both I and the hostel staff coincidentally forgot and I continued under the old sign in times? Remember following the MAPPA meeting in December where my MAPP level had been reduced but Buckley told me nothing had changed? The same one she now swears she told me about and I must have just forgotten? Remember the home leave for Christmas she told me nothing about and the Hostel staff had to tell me? I should get my memory checked out or buy one of those brain training thingies. It is a mystery how I ever coped, when in the police, I had all those important laws, incidents, faces, places and registration numbers to remember.

 

That or somebody was telling porkies again..............

 

 

I spoke with the lady in the job club, who again, was very helpful,very friendly and professional. The lady asked me what sort of jobs I would like to look at or whether or not I had considered any training courses.

 

“Yeah, I am currently trying to learn different aspects of web design and the associated graphic design programmes, but also, I have been thinking about an HGV course to get a class one licence.”

 

“Brilliant” the lady offered. “ We have **d R*** training (name deliberately left out) coming in next week, they are looking for people to do a course and we can get you funding for it. It may be an issue because you don't have long left on your licence but we'll try to get it arranged quickly for you”

 

It was like stepping into a different reality altogether. I suppose when you become used to Buckley treatment, anybody nice or helpful takes you aback.

 

“That would be great thank you”

 

The lady went through the funding forms with me, explained what would happen next and booked me and appointment with RR training for the following week, I met with a man from the company who explained everything to me and gave me the green light to go ahead with the course, pending funding.

 

I have to explain, I was excited like you would not believe. After two years of believing there was never going to be any hope for me job wise, after Buckley’s treatment, I was resigned to nothing good was ever going to come of this. This was the best news I'd had in a while, I was happy again, I could see light at the end of the tunnel. With my conviction, a self employed job out the way of people (lorry driver) would be ideal for now.

 

You did know there was a but....right?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weeks passed, I heard nothing, I phoned up to ask what the progress of my funding application was, so I could crack on with this course...nothing. I attended my next appointment with Buckley at Bury. As I finished the meeting and was heading for the door, I saw the job club lady making a bee line for me,

“I'm so glad I've caught you” she said excitedly.

 

I was hoping the next words she would utter would be “funding has been approved”

 

“I’ve been asking your Probation officer to contact you for a while, you'll have to sign the forms again. I sent them down to your offender manager to complete but she said she couldn't find them”

 

I remember standing there allowing an ironic laugh to escape, the sort where you roll your eyes, shake your head and say to yourself “gosh.......there's a surprise”

 

“Not a problem” I said, I followed her back upstairs and filled the form's in again.

 

“your offender managers Danielle isn't it?” the lady asked

“yup” said I

The lady rolled her eyes in acknowledgement “I'll make sure these get sent off”

 

I never got the lessons. I got the funding 3 months after I left the UK. What a fantastic woman Danielle Buckley is.

 

 

By now time to the end of my licence period was fast approaching. The meetings now turned from my private life to what my plans were now;

 

db “So your licence has nearly finished, what are you going to do after?”

K “ Continue fighting for justice and have nothing more to do with you.”

db “You really should think about letting all that go and rebuilding your life. Are you going to stay with your mum and dad?”

K “That's none of your business, when my licence has finished your involvement with me finishes what I do, where I go is my business not yours.”

db”You'll still be managed by the SOMU (sex offender management unit of GMP) what about your wife and son, are you planning to reunite with them?

K “None of your business, I really don't have to tell you anything about what I do,say or think when my licence ends”.

 

Db “well if you ever need any help or advice in the future you have my email address”

 

It was over, my licence had finished in October 2010. No more probation, no more Danielle Buckley.

 

I joined the Police in 2003. It had been a life long dream. Joining the police for me, was the proudest day of my life at the time. After a few years the shine had worn off and I could see that the UK as a whole, was a toilet. Day in, day out, seeing the same thieves, drug addicts, burglars and general low life's go between the courts and the police stations. Whilst ideas were conceived such as ASBO's to curb anti social behaviour, which were only seen as trophies or awards amongst the recipients and drug treatment programmes and all the other nonsense that the criminals cared not a jot about, crime raged on in deprived estates. I could see looking from the outside, this was a lost cause but on a vast scale.

 

The criminals, were not the problem. They are merely a by-product of a system. I had seen the “justice” system for what it really was. I had seen barristers from opposing sides in court deciding whether or not to provide a defence based on which one of them had won the last case. I had seen 15 hours of police work without stopping for rest, home, sleep or otherwise, washed down the drain when the offender had stolen his 26^th car that year and been released on bail again, with the same conditions that he had broken 85 million times. And yet somehow I still believed in right and wrong, that getting out of bed and doing an honest days work was better than sitting at home getting fat and receiving handouts. That the “system” somewhere in itself still had some good, that it somehow worked towards the equilibrium of society. Then I got arrested.

 

My experience over the last five years has shown me that anyone choosing to  leave the U.K. is making the right choice. The United Kingdom is overrun with crime, drugs, gangs and much more besides (I appreciate those who live in rural leafy suburbs or those whose life depends on what is happening to Katie Price next or what Victoria Beckham may or may not be wearing this week may, find all of this a mystery) The criminals are only a small part of the bigger picture. The Public life in the UK is swamped by office empires, the “nothing doing here” “not our fault” brigade. Every single well paid ombudsman, complaints system or channel is neither use nor ornament. So much money is spent on telling us what they can't do or how they have done nothing wrong instead of listening, taking on board and changing this age old “can't do” disease. I know I'm a heathen for suggesting such outrageous things.

 

Every step of the way we have faced office empires telling us they have done nothing wrong even when they have been presented with the evidence to the contrary. The Etoninan way of life will forever drive the UK into the toilet as long as governments, politicians, bankers, judges, lawyers et al continue to lie and get richer. What possible incentive is there to those on benefits to get off their backside as some would suggest, and earn an honest days wage, when those who do are punished, taxed, ripped off, stressed out and miserable whilst those in power get richer and richer? Whilst the level of violence is by far worlds apart, the levels of true “freedom” in the UK are no better than those in Syria or those in Libya. For a country that preaches democracy wherever it decides to lay its head (Read: invade for oil) it is high time it looked inwards before judging others.

 

It is the case that there are no “citizens” in the UK (as would be under a democracy), only “subjects” of a Queen. People cannot demonstrate outside parliament without fear of arrest or police violence. Whichever situation people find themselves in; family tragedy’s, injustice, utility bills, any aspect of life in the UK. There is a department set up to stop you getting the rights and freedoms which we preach to the rest of the world. A department set up to “hold a public inquiry” and “learn the lessons”. A department set up to go to as much effort as they can to tell you “not us gov.” or “nothing wrong here procedures have been followed”

I grow tired of people saying “well if you don't like it, vote for change, vote for a new system it is your right”. Vote for what exactly? A different public school educated person who stands for the same beliefs as the person you want out? Change can not happen in whichever aspect of life you want changing all the time you have people in power who have no concept of being poor, who live in very very nice estates out in the country.

 

My advice then to anybody who finds themselves following in my footsteps is this; don't be fooled ever, into believing these people (police appointed lawyers probation services et al) are your friends, that they are there to help you. They are not. Challenge everything, record everything, ask for everything in writing to you, research the law yourself and most importantly tell them nothing. By doing this, I have collected enough evidence to take out private civil litigation against a few people, That day will come.

 

There may well have been a time when the police were there to help the public, where the probation service really cared about changing offending behaviour, now we have statistics charts, figures, targets which ultimately means they (offender managers, police officers etc.,) do not have the time to deal with people on their own merits. You must now fall into a box or category. If you do not, you are a problem, you have not complied. You must fall within certain tick boxes or guidances which were dreamed up following meetings about meetings to decide whether or not meetings should be held and how dare you question our authority. Resistance is futile.

 

How on earth can an organisation possibly curb offending behaviour when it has no idea of the law itself? How can an organisation expect criminals to stop breaking the law, when their own chief executives break the law and when challenged change their minds? The probation service in my experience is not fit for purpose. One only needs to look at the figures for recidivism to be sure. Having spent almost two years in close quarter company with offenders, 99 per cent of them really could not care less and laugh at the notion of probation, drug rehab courses, community payback and other such nonsense. I lost count of how many times in the beginning of my police career, when arresting somebody for some horrible crime (believing I had caught the bad guy, that he/she was going away for years and years) I got told “ yeah mint boss, I'm only getting probation or a community order innit? I'll be bang at it again next week”

 

I used to believe that intelligence is measured by degrees, education, your job. Therefore all Barristers must be very intelligent, all probation officers, social services, any body of that ilk. Turns out I was wrong. Intelligence is the ability to debate, discuss, question, not to follow orders regardless of their merits, not to be able to tick boxes and follow targets and certainly not only being able to asses somebody based on what a form tells you should be doing.

 

It has been said I have a problem with authority by those who I have dared to question, maybe that is portrayed in that which I have expressed. I don't. I have no problem with authority, my problem is with stupidity.

 

Thanks for reading, onto the Social services.....................