CHAPTER 17 - SINISTER EVENTS (THE MYSTERIOUS MR X)
While the Smart litigation was in progress, a number of sinister events occurred.
John’s solicitor, Richard Woodman, received a call from a Mr Daniel Wilson claiming to represent the Daily Express newspaper. “Mr Wilson” asked a number of questions about my son’s SMART claim against Shell. Subsequent investigations revealed that the telephone number Mr Wilson gave did not exist and that the Daily Express had never heard of him.
A short time later Richard Woodman was contacted by an American, “Mr ******* *****”, who claimed to be a reporter working for the “The ********” newspaper. “Mr *****” made the same claim when he spoke to my son. “Mr *****” travelled over from ***** and spent several hours interviewing my son. He insisted on picking up the £90 lunch tab. Within a few days he had tracked down and spoken to several people involved on our side of the case including our solicitor and a number of potential witnesses and had always introduced himself on the same basis - a reporter working for "*** ********". He had clearly spent a considerable amount of time and money on his investigations.
However, the Editor of the relevant newspaper subsequently informed John that “Mr *****” was not working for her paper. She knew nothing about the matter. His story was a cover for whatever he was actually doing. According to Shell, he never contacted them to seek their side of the story which was obviously essential for anyone writing a balanced article.
The activities of the tall “Mr *****” with film star looks, who sounds like a character from a James Bond movie, were decidedly sinister. He deliberately deceived all of the people that he contacted on the matter.
A UK national newspaper, The Guardian, investigated Mr *****. After making inquiries overseas they informed John that ******* ***** once worked for ******** **** magazine and had a past association with the relevant newspaper, but had not apparently produced any articles for some considerable time. They said that he was a “spook” (I use their term) working under the cover of being a journalist.
Frankly, John and I both thought that any allegation of Mr ***** being a CIA agent was far-fetched as we could see no possible reason for the American Secret Service to have any possible interest in our case. That was until Shell admitted to The Sunday Times Newspaper that it had hired an active member of the German Secret Service to infiltrate its perceived enemies – organisations campaigning against Shell including Greenpeace. Apparently some secret agents freelance for the top Private Investigation firms in their spare time – firms that are often founded and staffed by former agents of the security services.
The acknowledged expertise of Mr ***** extends to Nuclear WMD, the geopolitics of drugs, etc. I also now have concrete evidence as a result of a whistleblower, of his connection with the US Intelligence community. (information deleted - see below) I suspect that having been unmasked on the internet (enter: “******* ***** CIA" on “Ask Jeeves”), I will soon be hearing from Mr ***** or his masters.
(*Webmasters note: We did hear from the relevant gentleman on 7 July 2004. He
accepts that his credentials do point to him being an intelligence agent but
denies that this is in fact the case. Four different individuals all gained the
same impression from this gentleman about his credentials, which subsequently
turned out to be a misrepresentation. The alternative conclusion is that all
four individuals, including a solicitor, misunderstood what they were told by Mr
*****, which seems extremely unlikely. In any event, it has been deemed
appropriate for security reasons to delete his name and other information which
might allow him or his family to be identified)
To summarise, Mr ***** came to the UK specifically on an intelligence gathering
mission against my family, our lawyer and our key witnesses. He used false
pretences on behalf of his client by claiming to be working on an assignment for
The European newspaper. This, as Mr Wiseman of Shell and Mr Colin Joseph of
Kendall Freeman know, was completely false. Using this cover story he gained
access to privileged documents.
Just a few days after the visit by ******* *****, a “Mr Christopher Phillips”, visited our offices in Bury St Edmunds and made clandestine enquiries about us. He was caught in the act of checking mail in private post boxes inside the building. He gave a false alibi for his presence in the building. He said that he worked for “Cofton Consultants” and was looking for offices for a marketing company. He then inexplicably asked questions about Don Marketing and about my son and I, raising further suspicions about his activities.
By co-incidence or otherwise, in an anonymous phone call that my son received within days of the “cloak and dagger” mission by Christopher Phillips, threats were made against potential witnesses. Basically, our witnesses and John and his family would be in danger if he continued with his litigation. Certain information was given that suggested the threat came from someone who had insider knowledge. Shell UK has admitted that it has carried out an internal investigation at Shell-Mex House to try to identify the person who made the threats. Simon Rines investigated on behalf of the Guardian newspaper. He managed to track down the telephone box in London from which the call was made. He examined closed circuit TV videotapes from a local bank. Unfortunately he could not identify the caller.
On 16th June 1998, we received by fax a letter from Mr Colin Joseph of DJ Freeman (Kendall Freeman) professing concern at the anonymous threats. He also mentioned Mr *****, but strangely made no reference whatsoever to Christopher Phillips. It was only after John’s solicitors wrote to Cofton Consultants, the business name printed on a business card given to the receptionist by Mr Phillips, that Shell UK admitted its connection with the uncover agent Mr Phillips, who was retained by D J Freeman (Kendall Freeman) on behalf of Shell.
We then had a series of burglaries in quick succession. Roger Sotherton, who was to be a key witness in the coming trial, returned home one evening to discover that his house, had been burgled and that someone had examined his files on the case and prised open his briefcase. When John mentioned this event to his solicitor Richard Woodman, he was astonished to hear that the same thing had just happened to Richard at his home in South London. A short time later, John’s house was also burglarised in the same strange fashion. Files had been tampered with. The police sent the same forensic team that had attended at Roger Sothertons’ house. The CID investigated the whole affair including the anonymous telephone call. They interviewed staff at Shell-Mex House including Andrew Lazenby. The CID discussed setting a trap at a further address which they thought was likely to be targeted by the undercover operatives. The Police eventually advised John that despite the fact that they had concluded there had been a criminal conspiracy against us, it was unlikely that it could ever be proved to the satisfaction of a Court.
Perhaps it was purely coincidental that D J Freeman (Kendall Freeman) represented the Harrods boss, Mohamed Fayed, in the libel action brought against him by Neil Hamilton, the former MP. Hamilton lost the case and then (unsuccessfully) appealed the decision after it was discovered that documents had been stolen from his premises prior to the case coming to Court. The documents had been passed to Mohamed Fayed who used them to his advantage during the trial.
I recently stumbled across a website called www.nuclearcrimes.com
The site contains extremely serious allegations that Shell UK deliberately dumped nuclear waste some years ago and have covered up the facts ever since. The gentlemen responsible for the website, Mr John Alfred Dyer, alleges that after Shell quickly responded to news that Carlton Television had commissioned a TV programme on the subject, “Investigators kept me under surveillance, my telephone was tapped, my mail intercepted.” Once again DJ Freeman (Kendall Freeman) was the firm of solicitors acting for Shell. It is notable that Shell has declined to take legal action against Mr Dyer for libel, presumably because what has been alleged by Mr Dyer is true.
Returning to my story, I have only recently discovered to my consternation that some of the same titled Shell directors I wrote to bringing the uncover matters to their attention, including a former Group Chairman, were simultaneously also the spymasters of a shadowy sinister organization called Hakluyt, closely linked with the British Secret Service. Hakluyt is staffed by former MI6 officers. Shell has admitted using Hakluyt agents including a serving German Secret Service agent to engage in undercover operations against organisations campaigning against Shell. This “cloak and dagger” activity was exposed by The Sunday Times in a front page story (17/6/01). When the Police investigated at Shell UK’s London HQ the threats/burglaries in our case, Shell did not disclose its ties with Hakluyt, an organisation skilled in the same covert tactics which had been directed against us.
In addition to the covert operations against us
and various worthy NGO’s including Greenpeace and Body Shop, Shell
simultaneously set up and paid for a private army of 1400 Police spies
supporting the then murderous regime in Nigeria ( Mail on Sunday article 4 April
04 “Shell Chief had a private army”). The “Shell Chief” in question was Sir
Philip Watts.
Under the circumstances the cover-up, deception and intrigue at Shell regarding
the recent shortfall in oil and gas reserves holds no great surprises to me. I
have felt like my family was up against the mafia, not the great company I once
admired. Our High
Court action against Shell was completely undermined by the disgusting uncover
tactics which were worthy of the mafia. Indeed there is credible evidence that
Shell was involved in a criminal conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
The underhand activity already admitted by Shell cannot possibly be compatible with its much-vaunted code-of-business ethics, pledging honesty, integrity and openness in all of its dealings. I had hoped that Shell senior management would as Sir John Jennings had done, honour its pledges to uphold the Statement of General Business Principles published by Royal Dutch/Shell Group, but they failed to do so.
So much for the Royal Dutch Shell Group PR strap line: “Profits & Principles”.
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