For over 12 years, the Met Police and their colleagues in 13 different countries have been pointing me out to thousands of security guards, as well as non-security staff in shops, restaurants etc across the UK and Europe, whilst deliberately leaving me in doubt that this is happening. They have done this, and are continuing to do this, not in spite of the fact that my life had already been destroyed by schizophrenia, but because of that fact, and the knowledge that this will cause myself – the victim of it – extreme psychological pain and distress, and likely, eventually result in my suicide or my losing possession of my mind and grasp of reality altogether. I believe I have sufficient (hidden) video evidence accumulated now that this did and is still happening, and I have 100% faith that this is illegal on their part. It shouldn’t even need explaining that this is illegal, and the United Nations own Convention Against Torture, clearly defines this as psychological torture.
As I described in a recent post, in late 2017 I e-mailed a lengthy plea for help to the (then) director of Redress – Carla Ferstman. I had previously contacted them nine years earlier.
Hi,
I first contacted you 9 years ago about the situation I, a British citizen, was experiencing in London and elsewhere and that I interpreted as torture, desperately seeking your help and advice. I am a disabled individual who was diagnosed and briefly hospitalized with paranoid psychosis around 20 years ago while at university. I continued to suffer with this diagnosis for a number of years, sometimes getting better, sometimes relapsing. The last time was around 9 years ago. Unfortunately, when I was extremely ill at this time, I did behave in a inappropriate and verbally threatening manner, for example mumbling under my breath in a small number of supermarkets in a way which appears may have been interpreted as threatening and understandably therefore caused some alarm and distress to cashiers and staff. I apparently also did this in several McDonalds and Burger King restaurants were I was being bullied and had even been physically assaulted twice by staff.
This behaviour was highly regrettable, but it is unfortunately sometimes what mentally ill people do when they are relapsing and likely happens thousands of a times a year in a city like London.
What has happened since should be of some concern to you. My photograph has been passed around to hundreds or thousands of security guards in a number of European countries, in fact as far as I can determine, to every country I visit (I travel often and to about 13 in the last nine years). This appears to actually be the case. At no time during my illness, even when I was at my very worst 20 years ago, have I suffered from visual hallucinations (nor auditory hallucinations, or at least not ‘voices’). For a time after my breakdown 9 years ago in which I behaved aggressively, every security guard in every shop and restaurant, shopping center etc I visited would clearly recognize me and make a point of ‘letting me know’ by clenching their fists etc and behaving extremely agitatedly and aggressively. Not only that, but my photo was passed to cashiers in every shop and restaurant and pub in West London, and it appears in towns where I had been observed visiting in the past such as Oxford and Brighton. Again I can be confident that this happened because these cashiers and serving staff would clearly recognize me and behave very strangely. This would happen in shops that I had never visited before, as well as the handful of shops I had behaved aggressively in the few times I went back into them. It appears also that postal delivery men as well as private delivery men were also shown my photograph. Even more disturbingly, it appears that my local GP’s reception staff, and even doctors were also shown my photograph, as well as pharmacists and even airline staff. At one stage I had to travel outside of London in order to collect my mental health prescriptions. The one friend I had at this time, and who I could have had some support from, had recently moved into an OAP retirement home. I tried to visit him and was aggressively turned away at the door by a member of staff. Two residents who saw me clearly panicked and it seemed evident that my photo had been shown to the entire home, including my friend, who ignored my attempts to call him. All I had done was ring the buzzer and politely ask if I could see my good friend (I had never visited the residence home before).
Showing the photograph of a paranoid schizophrenic around thousands of shops, restaurants, pharmacies etc, would be legally and ethically problematic in itself, I’m sure you might be able to reluctantly agree as one of the world’s leading anti-torture charities, but a further problem was that together with my photograph instructions or incitement was evidently given to bully, intimidate and mock me as means of ‘punishment’. For example, when I realized that I had relapsed and had been behaving oddly in supermarkets, I decided to have my groceries delivered to my home. The first time I did this, the deliveryman shouted aggressively at me whilst clenching his fists upon my opening the door and actually appeared to come close to physically assaulting me.
Again, this in itself would amount to psychological torture by the state if it had just lasted a number of weeks. Unfortunately it is still happening 9 years later despite, or because of, numerous complaints on my part pleading for it to stop. Furthermore, it isn’t confined to just London, Oxford, Brighton etc, but to every country in Europe I have visited in the last 9 years. This summer I visited Kiev in the Ukraine, and it was evident that security guards in several supermarkets I visited had been shown my photo and immediately recognized me and became confrontational, crossing their arms with their face contorted in rage etc. It seems that every security guard in XXXXX has been shown my photograph, and continue to be aggressive, and mocking.
As the one of the world’s leading anti-torture charities, I’m sure you can see at least some point in my allegation that the photograph of a paranoid schizophrenic being shown to thousands of security guards and even some members of the public all over Europe over a 9 year period with no end in sight might just raise some issues regarding psychological torture. As one of the world’s leading anti-torture charities, I’m sure you’re probably aware that the use of psychological torture by the state is in fact outlawed in the UK and every other European country and the fact that is being normalized through the torture of a British citizen in 13 different European countries over a 9 year period and counting, should at the very least be of some small concern to you.
The most disturbing thing about all this, and what takes this to an even more horrific level, is that I’ve been complaining about this for 9 years now. I’ve made complaints via e-mail and online contact forms to the stores, restaurants in question etc, as well as forwarding the complaints on to some of the world’s leading anti-torture charities. Not only are my complaints either ignored or dismissed, It appears that all these security guards, and even members of the public such as store managers, cashiers, and even airline flight attendants, have been given instructions or incitement to mock these allegations of psychological torture and/or intimidate me from continuing to make them. In particular, it seems that my allegations have been dismissed as myself simply ‘not liking to be looked at’ (by security guards etc). For example, very often, I get security guards (and police officers) making a highly theatrical point of turning their backs on me. This happened several times in Kiev. Security guards still clench their fists with their faces contorted in rage. Sometimes as I’ve walked out of shops and security guards have said things like ‘you take care mate’. I’ve been spat on at least once.
Not once has a company that I have made a complaint to has admitted that my photograph has been shown, sometimes they are aggressively denied, and usually they are ignored alltogether. Clearly the deliberate implication is being made both to myself and the anti-torture organizations that I have been forwarding the complaints onto that I am simply suffering from paranoia.
The very first anti-torture organization I contacted 9 years ago was yours. You do, after all, invite victims who are experiencing torture to contact you for help. Somebody called Kevin (I think his surname was James) replied and told me that it was ‘not in the remit’ of Redress’ to provide assistance to me. I replied back rather upset and he in turn replied asking me to stop spamming him. Since then I have not passed on my complaints to you in the 9 years since until my last complaint this summer (which was again ignored by you). None of the other organizations that I have contacted numerous times and that receive their charity status on the grounds that they fight torture have ever replied back to me, except for amnesty international who also asked me to stop spamming them.
In the days after I made that complaint to Redress 9 years ago, Police officers would pass me with fists clenched making theatrically furious faces. In one incident I was heading towards a Starbucks in South Kensington when a group of heavily armed police officers were walking in my direction. I walked into the Starbucks and ordered and sat down with my drink. The group of 3 or 4 police officers with Heckler and Koch submachine guns walked in and glared at me for several moments and then walked out again without ordering anything. Obviously, that happening the day after being told by the UK’s leading anti-torture charity that my situation was of no concern to them and to ‘stop spamming’, left me in a rather distressed and hopeless state, and understandably very fearful for my life.
Just to be clear, as I mentioned above, even at my very worst I never once suffered from visual hallucinations. I suffered from paranoid thoughts and crazy ideas that I could later clearly see where just that and a result of my illness – for example, that bands such as Radiohead were writing songs about me etc. I never heard voices, never had visual hallucinations, and even my paranoid thoughts were grounded in some reality. After my brief hospitalization I made two steps forward, one step back type progress over the years, completing my degree at XXXXXX, until suffering the relapse that caused my ‘punishment’ through continent wide never ending torture. Since that time, despite what has been happening to me, I have been very stable and can be confident using a host of reality testing techniques, including covertly recording some of these experiences, that this really has been/is happening to me. That is not to say that nearly every day of the last 9 years I haven’t been tearing my hair out and been questioning my reality, especially when I sit down to compose an e-mail like this, and know that it will be ignored like the other 100.
The fact appears to be that the photograph of myself – a paranoid schizophrenic – has been passed around thousands of commercial outlets across Europe with the deliberate intention of extra-judiciously punishing myself through means of my mental health diagnosis for behaviour I regrettably conducted in when I was clearly very ill, was being subjected to tremendous pressure by the very same people who have subsequently ‘punished’ me, and was likely not legally accountable. Furthermore, the scale and duration is an entire continent and 9 years with no sight in end. As stated above, they appear to have shown my photograph with incitement to harm (myself) to security guards in a country as notoriously corrupt and with known problems regarding torture as the Ukraine, with the legal justification behaviour on my part that took place 9 years ago when I was suffering a mental health breakdown in the UK. Furthermore, this appears not only to be motivated by the desire to ‘punish’ through torture, but to intimidate myself, the victim of torture, through further torture, from making further complaints or attempting legal action.
This has all taken place in the context where over the last two years it has been tragically made clear that the authorities do not have the resources to track dangerous known Jihadists, including one who appeared in a BBC documentary on Jihadists watched by millions. If I was the most dangerous man in Europe, what has happened to me and is continuing to happen to me after 9 years, would unambiguously amount to psychological torture under UK and international law. If I was a sane individual, it would unambiguously amount to psychological torture under UK and international law. The fact that I am neither the most dangerous man in Europe nor sane but an individual who is not a threat to anybody at this point and who has suffered from paranoid schizophrenia in the past makes it something beyond even torture.
Clearly it is either the honest opinion of Redress that it is highly probable that what I have described above and in my complaints is simply a paranoid delusion, or you realize that what I have described is likely or could very possibly be taking place and are fully aware that this is (psychological) torture by the state and you don’t want any part of helping me for fear of the affect it might have on donations etc. If the latter, I believe you should now reluctantly be considering the financial and existential implications of Redress staff members being criminally liable for accessory to my torture and being convicted of this in a court of law with global media attention at a future point.
Cheers
After receiving no reply, I then sent her the following e-mail in desperation, and some disbelief (at that point, I still believed that if I articulated what had been happening to me for a decade, then any reasonable non-psychopathic person would see the gravity of it, let alone the chairwoman of one of the leading anti-torture charities in the world. I have no such belief or hope anymore).
Hi,
can you at least explain to me why you’re ignoring my complaints? I’m a paranoid schizophrenic who has been having my photo passed around to thousands of security guards in every country in Europe I visit. The justification for this on the part of the authorities is behaviour I exhibited when I was suffering from a mental breakdown 9 years ago brought about partly or wholly by the pressure they were exerting upon me, likely illegal itself. This is in the context of those same authorities not having the resources to track Jihadists returning from Syria etc. In fact, If I was a Jihadist mass murderer what has happened to me over 9 years would now constitute psychological torture on the part of the state (and no doubt you wouldn’t have any hesitation whatsoever in helping me). When I make a valid complaint about the behaviour of security guards and claim that this is (psychological) torture on the part of the state, instructions are apparently given again to thousands of security guards that lead them to even more aggressive and intimidating behaviour against myself (in 13 different countries).
I could presume that you are simply dismissing this as a paranoid delusion on my part, but when I first contacted you/Kevin James, he told me it was not in the remit of redress to help me. If what is being done to me is not psychological torture, then psychological torture has no meaning or significance in law. Unfortunately, as one of the world’s leading anti-torture charities, all of your staff presumably are aware that psychological torture is in in fact illegal, and that the intention to cause psychological distress by public officials is defined as torture and illegal in the UK. If you feel this is an error, and that the pendulum has swung too far since the Enlightenment and that psychological torture should be decriminalized and worldwide anti-torture treaties redrawn to omit reference to psychological torture, then you need to lobby the British and other governments. As it stands, psychological torture is illegal and you are failing in your moral and probably legal duty to help me. Again if 13 different European police forces passing the photograph of a paranoid schizophrenic to thousands of security guards for 9 years, no sign that it will ever end, whilst the schizophrenic’s complaints to the stores etc in question employing these guards are ignored or dismissed as paranoia, I’m not sure what would constitute psychological torture. Maybe if I told you that these security guards were deliberately misgendering me or somesuch I could get your attention as a worthwhile cause?
Sorry to be flippant, I really don’t feel flippant. In fact I’m increasingly starting to feel I am literally in some form of hell. Again, I am a victim of ongoing (psychological) torture requesting the help of Redress. Again, I understand you are simply a business whose primary drive is to generate donations rather than fighting torture as an end in itself, but at the end of the day my case is going to come to court at some stage and you do need to consider how Redress as a registered anti-torture charity is going to come out of it – ignoring the victim’s appeal for help for 9 years whilst over that period extra-judicial torture has been normalized in 13 different European countries. I appreciate there are many more cases you are helping of people who have suffered horrific physical torture, but it doesn’t alter the fact that what has happened to me, or is continuing to happen after a decade with no end in sight, is in its own way equally horrific – particularly that I am a British citizen being tortured in the UK and at least 12 other European countries – and should be of enough concern to you that you could at least reply to my pleas for assistance.
Sincerely
This time, she did reply back :
Dear Mr XX,
I am sorry you feel let down by REDRESS’ decision 9 years ago not to take forward your case. REDRESS has a narrow mandate and does not have the possibility to take on the issues of all persons who contact us. We must take difficult decisions about the best use of our very limited resources. I would suggest you contact your local citizen’s advice bureau about your concerns.
Sincerely
Carla Ferstman
As described in my earlier post, 2 or 3 days after this e-mail exchange, I was very aggressively intimidated by Easy Jet staff on a flight to London. A decade earlier, after my first unsuccessful attempt to get help from Redress, four armed police officers followed me into Starbucks in South Kensington, stood glaring at me, and then walked out.
According to Carla Ferstman, Redress has a ‘limited mandate’. That would apparently be the mandate that grants them charitable status – ‘ending torture, seeking justice for survivors’. Looking at their website, they seem to be more interested in topics such as fighting the ‘criminilization of women in the Sudan’, and other feminist/extreme left-wing causes.
Unfortunately, virtually every other so-called anti-torture charity is of exactly the same nature.
I just discovered that it appears Carla Ferstman was director of Redress from 2004 to 2018, so in fact she (and not ‘Kevin James’) was director when I first contacted them a decade ago.
As mentioned above, Redress spends most of the huge public donations it receives as a UK based charity with a remit to combat torture, on issues such as gender discrimination in the Sudan and the like. And of course, on the salaries of its staff, who can then virtue signal away all day on Twitter when not being paid to attend ‘conferences’. In fact, in the weeks after I sent my e-mails to Carla, informing her that the Met Police had successfully persuaded 13 different European police forces to gaslight and torture a mentally disabled British citizen, and then being told she couldn’t help, she was Tweeting stuff about a Redress campaign helping British citizens being mistreated by police abroad.
Now that the Met Police (and 13 other police forces in Europe and counting) have learnt how easy it is to extra-judiciously psychologically torture somebody in this manner, it’s hard to believe they wont do to it to anyone else, or indeed haven’t already.
A reminder of how torture is defined under the United Nations Convention Against Torture :
1. For the purposes of this Convention, the term “torture” means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.
https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cat.aspx
Carla Ferstman is apparently ‘a member of the experts committee of the Convention Against Torture Initiative’.