TALKING ILL OF THE DEAD - THE JERSEY WAY

Dear Readers,

         My dead son Simon Abbott has become a sort of game show football in the Channel Island of Jersey. The cowards were kicking him about on Facebook now that he’s not around to defend himself.

         And the game’s promoter was none other than Tony Bellows that lover of the truth and defender of cyber-bully Murray Norton (See my post DEFENDING MURRAY NORTON by Tony Bellows)

BREAKING: 30/10/2013 BBC Radio Presenter Murray Norton announced today on his 9-12 slot that it was his last day for the foreseeable future.

         Not content with his long winded defence of Norton on his blog Tony’s Musings, Bellows had to have another punch at Simon by starting a Facebook debate on the Politics Jersey Forum so that everybody could join in.

        

TONY BELLOWS

He began it to discuss Britain’s Mail on Sunday splash about Norton and my son’s death headed BBC man’s Twitter bullying campaign helped kill my son.

         I followed this with DID CYBER-BULLIES KILL SIMON ABBOTT? & CYBER WOLVES HUNTING SIMON ABBOTT on my blog.

         Through out all this bad publicity Norton, who had previously been so outspoken in running down my son on Twitter and Facebook, remained mum.

         The Mail’s report ended Our calls to him went unanswered.

         South Africa’s Sunday Afrikaans newspaper Rapport got the same brush off.

         And on Tony’s Facebook page Jacques Chartier rightly commented: Murray had the chance to respond. Why didn’t he?  

         A guilty conscience perhaps or more likely the BBC had told him to lie low, at least until my complaint to it had been finalised.

Anybody seen MURRAY NORTON lately?

         Alternatively may be he was relying purely on his friend Tony to bellow enough on Facebook and anywhere else to convince everyone that he had done nothing wrong.

   

      Jill Gracia summed up Tony’s efforts perfectly with these very appropriate words on the Forum that Bellows was moderating: I have read every single comment on this thread, and all I can say is, as a mother who has suffered the loss of a son, to speak ill of the dead is the most heartbreaking, obnoxious path anybody can take for the grieving parent/family. Not knowing the rights and wrongs of this case let us wait until the true facts become known, and lest we forget Murray Norton is still around to give his ‘take’ on this. Simon Abbott is not and therefore an easy target for the knockers. Let him RIP and give the family some respect rather than airing all the dirty linen in public.

A 2009 tribute that is just as relevant today

         You would think that Bellows would have been more in line with Jill’s thinking having lost his partner Annie in 2009 - the same year that Simon’s sister Samantha died.

         And that tarot card reader of note Maureen Morgan, who is so adept at telling people their fortune, also took this opportunity to knock Simon once again. She was one of eight people including her friend Norton who Simon sued for libel damages in Jersey’s Royal Court.

         After cyber-bullying prevented Simon from holding events in Jersey to raise money for the Samantha Abbott Trust that he set up to help women with post natal depression, he tried to stage one in Britain in Exeter, Devon where his mother’s family had come from.

LOVE MUST BE CRINGING

         That was when Morgan joined Norton and others and effectively killed it. In the court papers Morgan admitted that she posted the following on Facebook: Please take note my Devon fiends – THIS IS A SCAM!  It is run by a man called Simon Abbott who conned and upset a lot of people in Jersey. He tried his luck in Guernsey but we managed to nip that in the bud. Please spread the word. Thank you x

         To show what a lap dog (I was sorely tempted to get the gender right) she was she added that she did this at the suggestion of Mr Murray Norton. Her defence was that she had reasonable grounds (no proof, mind you) for suspecting it was true.

         Presumably if a well known BBC presenter said it was then it must be so.

        But it wasn’t true and this was born out by the fact that neither the Police nor any other official body ever took any action against Simon.

         On Bellow’s knock Simon Abbott page Morgan piously stated: Cyber-bullying is unacceptable but that emphatically is not what happened to Simon Abbott. What he called bullying in my case was telling him publicly on Twitter , in my own name (that made a change as much of the bullying was done by various people using false names) that he was wrong to run a mum’s group on Twitter (MUMsInTheUK) anonymously and encouraging vulnerable women he was a mother too. He wanted to take out another libel action against me for stating the group was run by a middle aged man who was not in the UK, not understanding that the truth cannot be libel.

         Is Jersey not considered to be in the UK then?  

         On the Twitter Profile for MUMsInTheUK it clearly stated it was created by Simon in memory of his sister and it asked people to support the Samantha Abbott Trust.

         Does that make it anonymous Maureen?  Let’s hope, for the sake of your paying customers, that your tarot card readings are a lot more accurate than your Twitter Profile readings. Otherwise I’m afraid, to use your logic that would be classified as conning people.

         Maureen took time out from running down my son to have a go at Trevor Pitman, a member of Jersey’s Parliament. Bellows banned him from the Forum for as Trevor put it: Daring to criticise the handful of people who Bellows was letting have a free rein to attack a man who obviously could not answer back. It probably made him feel important being able to ban an elected politician whilst letting the people carrying out the abuse just carry on.

         But Trevor was not kicked out before the following spat with Morgan, which showed her up for what she is. 

Pitman: Thanks for the message from one of the contributors here, who shall remain nameless reference Maureen Morgan’s homophobic comment that my photo is ‘camp’ (Actually very happy with that as someone who stands up for equality for gay people). But hate filled AND homophobic – what a winning combination Maureen! Still, chuckle I certainly did when I read this; ‘Never mind Maureen’s abuse about your hands on your hips photo Trev. At least you can fit your hips in to a single frame photo.’ Humour – Isn’t it great for stress. 



MORGAN throwing her weight around

Morgan: I said you had a very camp pose – that isn’t homophobic. Camp is defined as ‘exaggerated effeminate mannerisms, posturing.’ My large number of Gay & lesbian friends will find it hilarious that you think I’m homophobic. It’s amazing how much you guess and have wrong about me (That’s exactly what you did Maureen where Simon was concerned). Grow up Trevor.

Morgan: And to clarify I don’t hate anybody, not even you Trevor, despite your aggressive and bullying tactics. The only thing I hate is the lies being told about Simon Abbott (And she knows better than anybody who one of the chief culprits were), the reason I got involved. 

Pitman: Maureen face facts. You are a bully and worse, you have a selective memory about your unwarranted abuse.

PITMAN

Pitman: So Maureen, if the only thing you hate is the lies being told about Simon Abbott, tell me this, having never before spoken to you let alone insulted you what prompted you, let alone warranted the ill-informed abuse aimed at me.

Back on the subject of my son.

Morgan: I’ve been criticised here for ‘attacking a dead man.’ I want to make it clear that my comments are made purely as a result of the issues being dragged into the spotlight by Jon Abbott via the Mail on Sunday. Had that not happened I would not have written another word about Simon Abbott on any public forum. Tony I would be grateful if you would let this comment stand to clarify my purpose please. 

         Bellows had been busy deleting some comments and warning people not to post anything which may be defamatory of Mr Abbott’s father. He added: The moderators have discussed this and think it would be wise to remove any entries which may have potential legal implications. This will be done shortly.

Ring any bells TONY?

         But it is anybody’s guess as to how many people saw certain abusive comments before they were deleted.  As Pitman said: Some may have been wiped by Bellows after my ban to make things look more balanced.

         Bellows did make this one concession to my son. Jacques Chartier has noted that I am friends with some of Simon’s detractors. That’s true, but I always research on a strict historical fact basis. That’s why some of the accusations levelled against Mr Abbott, that he abused women on anti-natal groups, I can see no evidence for.

The BELLOWS still fanning the flames

         As you showed on your blog Tony, you might research on a strict historical fact basis, but then you draw the wrong conclusions from the facts and get some of them wrong as well.

         I’m just wondering what people like Norton, Morgan and the numerous other cyber-bullies who flew in like vultures for the social media killing of my son will do now for amusement.

         Pick on somebody else I suppose, unless the authorities in Jersey do something about this at long last. Vultures can’t live on one kill forever.

                                                                  

         Regards,                                                          

         Jon

Note: I’m not finished yet. There are still some more cyber-bullies who need to be named and shamed. That may be the only way to clip their wings and keep them grounded, at least temporarily, if that’s possible. 

DEFENDING MURRAY NORTON by Tony Bellows

Dear Tony,

            I hope you don’t mind if I begin by introducing you to my readers. Tony is a 55 year old prolific author and blogger (Tony’s Musings). He lives on the Channel Island of Jersey and from what I’ve seen on the internet this could be in the running for the title of Cyber-bullying capital of the World.

       To use the island’s pet expression, if this is The Jersey Way it is nothing to be proud of.

       Anyway Tony the real point of this letter to you is to deal with the whitewash job you did on Murray Norton, the BBC Jersey Radio presenter, whose cyber-bullying activities were exposed by Britain’s Mail on Sunday to its 2-million odd readers. 

BREAKING: 30/10/2013 Norton announced on his 9-12 slot that this would  be his last day for the foreseeable future.

       And also of course on my blog (see Where have all the children gone? DID CYBER BULLIES KILL SIMON ABBOTT & CYBER WOLVES HUNTING SIMON ABBOTT).

       Your version made him whiter than the best washing powder could ever do.

BBC Jersey Radio presenter MURRAY NORTON

       Surely Norton is big enough to stand up for himself. I gather he wouldn’t speak to the Mail on Sunday, which speaks volumes. And when Simon sued him for libel he justified nothing in his answering affidavit, but merely denied all Simon’s allegations.

       On your blog you say that my son had decided to sue those who had unwisely used robust language in describing him. You neglected to mention that Norton was one of them.

       And if there was nothing basically wrong with what had been said why did you describe its use as unwise?

       By a strange coincidence robust language is exactly how Jon Gripton, Norton’s BBC boss, described what Norton used when he ruled that this had not been cyber-bullying. 

       Was that once again the Jersey Way I wondered?

       You excuse the use of the word con by saying: Some of the language used may have been provocative, but Mr Abbott’s rebuff against legitimate questions probably caused that.

       What obligation did my son have to explain himself to people, many of whom he had probably never met, when they were slating him on the internet?

You added: The essence of Twitter is brevity, and while the word ‘con’ may not imply a criminal scam, that is not always apparent.

       If you think that the use of the word con can have another meaning other than that the person is a crook then you are in Jersey fairyland. And Twitter’s brevity is not an excuse for indelibly staining somebody’s character.  

Con man, con artist or con merchant is a person who swindles others by means of deception or fraud. In other words a crook. 

       Elsewhere you say: We have to look at the parameters of deception. It is pretty clear that Mr Abbott was not an outright conman (is there a difference between this and an ordinary conman?), aiming to swindle people of goods and funds and make a tidy profit. But there are other kinds of deception, such as continuing to promote events while aware of financial mismanagement because of accounting ineptitude. That is not deliberate deception, but it is hiding the true state of affairs.

       You were doing everything you could to put a dishonesty label on him. He was trying various schemes in an effort to get one to work. And he didn’t have to do much accounting because he hardly made any money.

But in doing so he never defrauded anybody. In fact he said in a statement I have that if tickets were sold for events that never took place he always gave people their money back.

       You say you have been unable to trace what happened to various donations such as 10 300 bottles of spring water; 10 000 finger rolls and 7 500 sachets of sun tan cream which were promised for Simon’s World’s Largest Picnic event

       Well Simon didn’t take them. In his answer from the dead (his statement which I have) he said: I have records of all the offers of sponsorship, but I did not have to call on these offers as the event did not take place.

       He explained he had applied for a Public Events Licence with a very detailed plan. But as the people who had volunteered to help him fell away he was left on his own and that’s why it was turned down by the Bailiff’s Entertainment panel.    

     

SIMON

  You complained that the Mail on Sunday article put the failure of all Mr Abbot’s (‘t’ for two please) fund raising down to the intervention of Mr Norton. This most emphatically is not the case.

       So you kicked off your post by seeing something that was not there just as the cyber-bullies did in my son’s case. And you continued doing this throughout your defence of Norton.

       Inevitably you left out things that might have been detrimental to Norton while at the same time you complained that the paper had not given the complete picture.

It quotes me as saying that Simon’s schemes failed to raise money, partly due to his own shortcomings and partly because it was an impossible task to make a success of any project being slated on the internet.

       How can this possible mean that Norton stymied all Simon’s fund raising efforts.

       You quote Simon as saying in court papers: People think I am a conman, dishonest, and even that I make up the death of my sister. Because he (Norton) works for the BBC everyone follows he (sic) and joins in.

       You interpreted this as meaning that Simon was accusing Norton of saying this about his sister when he was referring to people in general as having said this.

       And you defended Norton, as you did throughout your post, by saying: There is no evidence at all that Mr Norton made any accusations against Mr Abbott that he made up the death of his sister.

       Of course there wasn’t and Simon never said there was.

       I dealt quite extensively in a previous post (CYBER WOLVES HUNTING SIMON ABBOTT) about how Norton arranged for his photographer friend Ian le Sueur to be at St Thomas Church so he could snatch a picture of Simon during his meeting with Norton.

Flash LE SUEUR in  the shadows

       But you didn’t mention anything about Le Sueur even being there or that the photograph was then put on Twitter to make Simon’s life a further hell.

       As Norton and Le Sueur were clearly acting together they are equally responsible for what each of them did with that picture.

       But according to your version of this meeting Norton did everything right.

    

Snatched pic of SIMON

  
       Norton agreed to meet Simon alone, but you say Norton turned up with a few people to witness the meeting, and make sure it was properly recorded.

       Of course this wouldn’t have been the least bit intimidating for Simon.

       You quote this online message which you say was purportedly written by the radio host: Simon, if you are reading this - which my friends, he might be – give it up, come clean on the finances of the Trust, put the items you claim to have from the famous to good use. I’ll auction them for some people in real need instead of false events that help no one.

       You go on to imply that this couldn’t be any kind of bullying as the Mail did not make it clear how this could be deemed harassment.

IAN LE SUEUR exposed

       What about this that formed part of the quote that you used only part of: I have pretty well run out of patience with this guy. I’ve met him, tried to help him and he even had the cheek to complain to the BBC that I’m harassing him. The Police and the press and possibly the taxation authorities must be sent all the complaints, with hard evidence that Simon has actually done something wrong. I will once again ask Jersey Police if they have any further thoughts on him.

       If that’s not harassment I don’t know what is, especially as there was absolutely no evidence to warrant any kind of Police intervention.

       Here’s a sample taken from the court records of a few more comments from Norton and others, who climbed on this trolling wagon so ably led by the presenter. They were made in about September 2011, when Simon was trying to organise a fund raising event in Guernsey.

       Norton: Our friend Simon Abbott - For those wishing for an update on what the Samantha Abbot Trust is doing - it does appear he is attempting to hold a Fashion Show … in Guernsey.

       Fran Torode: Thanks for the warning!!!

       Fran Torode: Yes please, I want to spread the wraning (sic).

       Paula Jayne Richford: Oh Maureen, if it wasn’t so awful, it’d be laugh out loud and pee your panties funny!! I’m going to spread the word.

       Norton: As we find out more we will publish … just thought you should know - it won’t happen - these events never do.

*    *   *   *

       Norton: Well he’ll have to find another venue now! The (sic) have been asking about him and I don’t think they like what they’ve heard so far!

       Karen Slater: When are we going to be able to put a stop to this man Murray you have done a great job so far can’t our local police sort  him out x

       Daniel Straiton: Thanks for the update will make sure I pass the info on. I don’t know about a film being made maybe a cartoon “Looney Tunes”

       Fran Torode: the total complete fraud - you’d think he should be inside for this??

       Christophe Chateau: Am tagging some Guernsey friends in this message so they can read the posts above and be forewarned Avril Earl, David Earl please pass onto any Guernsey contact!

       Liz Walton: We’ll keep an eye out over here Murray. Thanks for the tip off.

       Liz Walton: I have posted a warning to my Guernsey friends.

IS THIS HARRASSMENT TONY OR WAS IT JUST ‘ROBUST LANGUAGE’?

      

       There was a lot more similar stuff on both Facebook and Twitter. Here’s a few of Ellen Vincent beauties that were on Facebook:

       Ellen Vincent: Is that Simon Abbott not on facebook himself he’s only set up a page for his sister so as to con us honest jersey people out of our money!!!! What a sicko he couldn’t have really loved his sister to use her name in this way.

       Ellen Vincent: I’ve just been blocked by simon abbott from his sisters page for questioning him about his bad intentions.no one give this man money if you want to donate do it with respectable valid charity not his car crash im(sic) starting to doubt he even had a sister and hes(sic) just a typical con man (There’s the quote Tony that you blamed Simon for attributing to Norton)

       Ellen Vincent: excactly(sic) who will take up the challenge of opening the simon abbott is a conman page and then we could set up a charity fight between him and some big f.k.r and all proceeds will go to charity without fail lol

IS THIS HARRASSMENT TONY OR IS IT STILL JUST ‘ROBUST LANGUAGE’?

       You say there is no evidence of continual and mass harassment by Tweets of the kind suffered by, for instance, the historian Mary Beard. 

Just because Simon didn’t receive a bomb threat the harassing he did get seems to have been alright in your eyes, even though at least one Tweet suggested he should be assaulted.

       You also accuse me of letting my grief be channelled into an outburst of hate against Mr Norton.

TONY BELLOWS defender of the defenceless

       You once again jumped to the wrong conclusion. I could hardly hate Norton as I had never heard of him until after my son died and nor have I ever met him.

       But I believe that if you have a job as a BBC presenter you should be a lot more responsible than to take part in cyber-bulling of this kind, because it reflects not only on your own moral standing, but on the BBC’s as well.

       And that’s why I felt this type of bulling, which he was part of, should be exposed in an effort to stop it happening again as it clearly must have pushed my son over the edge.

       Regards,

       Jon

               P.S. You wouldn't by any chance be Norton's friend?

*NOTE: I have had numerous comments for the posts about my son Simon being cyber-bullied to death. The majority were from Jersey's largest family - ANONYMOUS.  Only a few people had the guts to be named. When I asked a Jersey resident why so few people there were prepared to come out of the shadows he replied: Because they lack testicular fortitude.