Hope Not Hate and their Inconsistent "Truth"

So, Matthew Collins has recently published an article in the Independent (Wednesday 17th July 2019), maybe a response to the recent bombardment that he and his fellow bigots at Hope Not Hate have received on twitter? An attempt to redress the balance in the favour of Hope Not Hate? Well, no chance! Here at Lick Bowles we deal only in facts and evidence, hence why our world renowned investigative journalism arm is in constant demand. Is that the sum of your powers Mr Collins, an article in the Independent! I suppose there may be more to follow?

Let's tackle some facts, now the majority of his article centres around the afternoon and night of Saturday 1st July 2017, which was the night of a supposed meeting of the banned far-right organisation National Action (NA) - which was banned 16th December 2016, making this "meeting" illegal. I say supposed, because when this supposed meeting took place there were said to be five senior figures of the 'supposedly' still active far-right group sat around a table in a Wetherspoons in the Warrington Friar Penketh. Those at the table were said to be Chris Lythgoe, Matthew Hankinson, Andrew Clarke, Jack Renshaw and Robbie Mullen. Out of those five at that table, only two were ever convicted of membership following the ban, to me this sort of breaks down the fact that it was not a "meeting". What it was in reality was a night out, a drinking session, which began at 4pm that afternoon.

Two juries at the Old Bailey were unconvinced by Hope Not Hate's evidence the bulk of which made up the case, their so called evidence was circumstantial  backed up by the witness testimony of Robbie Mullen, a discredited and comical witness - the idea that this night was a meeting was rejected twice. The first trial was a mess, finishing in July 2018, resulting in a retrial for some, an acquittal for one, and guilty verdicts for two. The retrial was finally held in February 2019, at the conclusion of the evidence at the end of the final trial in April 2019 the Jury at the Old Bailey remained out deliberating their decision for 48 working hours in total, they were out for over two weeks and considered the evidence diligently - then rejected it overwhelmingly.

Even with the abundance of prejudicial material presented, this jury, like the last did not believe a word of Mullen's evidence, Collins and Lowles evidence was so bad and clearly fabricated, it wasn't even put before the jury by the prosecution and when the defence attacked the organisation Hope Not Hate, they were not even invited to defend their lies. One could say that the prosecution acknowledged the fact that they were unable to defend themselves. By all rights, they should have been in the dock with the defendants.  

Collins in the Independent piece describes how Jack Renshaw arrived in Warrington on the night of July 1st 2017 in a taxi, waving around his credit cards he says. It was a known as a matter of fact and sworn evidence that Renshaw was driven to the Friar Penketh that night in the back of a car which Andrew Clarke's friend was driving. Clarke had attended the Friar Penketh earlier in the afternoon at around 4.30pm by chance, this being his local pub, and stopped off for one drink were Lythgoe, Hankinson, and Mullen were conspiring the murder plot of Helm.

Clarke had other plans, plans to go to Liverpool for a night out drinking. He said hello to the others and when his friend picked him up, they left. Clarke's friend had agreed to drive from Liverpool to Warrington, some 16 miles, to pick him so that they could go out.

Mullen was calling Renshaw and asking him to go to the Friar Penketh, Renshaw had been drinking in Liverpool with Helm, Clarke's friend then had to change his plans later on and drive back down to Bristol to meet his girlfriend, this was on the night of the 1st July 2017. Whilst out, Renshaw had unexpectedly turned up where Clarke was drinking. Renshaw asked Clarke to go the Friar as there were friends out there drinking, Clarke's friend had agreed to drop Clarke and Renshaw back off in Warrington were he lived, as it was on his way to Bristol. 

Garron Helm had let Renshaw know where Clarke was, as Clarke had been trying to convince Garron to come and drink with him in Liverpool City Centre that afternoon and night. So, Clarke, Renshaw and Clarke's friend drove to Warrington that evening (for free) where Clarke and Renshaw got out of the car walked over to the Friar Penketh in order to carry on drinking, Clarke, at this time around 7:30pm had been drinking for three hours, Renshaw for probably a bit longer. Clarke's friend then drove off to his destination in Bristol. So, Maff, what is this taxi? A small discrepancy, but none the less an important one. Collins article says:

Collins speaks of the amount of drinks that were consumed in the three or so hour period that this meeting took place, the police counted fifteen drinks between the five:

This would be correct, shocked? Well don't be, there is a caveat. The court warrant that was issued to seize the CCTV from the Friar Penketh allowed officers to seize footage from 7pm to 11pm which missed out the previous three hours, people were in there drinking from around 4pm. The police did go back to try to get the earlier footage but they left it too late. Mullen had concealed the true time of the meeting which caused this evidence to be lost, CCTV overwrites itself after 28 days. Mullen didn't drink which would place the drinks bought as needing to be divided by four, which is 3.75 each during this period not including what has been consumed in the hours earlier. Collins, is never one to allow the facts to come between him and a good story. 

Let's introduce the SOCPA agreement. 

Mullen was eventually given full immunity for three offences contrary to two sections of  the Terrorism Act 2000 and one from the Terrorism Act 2006. Under Section 71 Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) in exchange for Mullen's full cooperation with Counter Terrorism Police he was debriefed over a series of fifteen interviews at discreet locations around the country, with officers from Counter Terrorism Command (SO15). When reading the 901 pages of that agreement, it is quite easy to see that there were no offences committed, the officer all but coached and spoon fed Mullen answers. It was during these interviews that Mullen learned the word "Tradecraft" which was to later feature in all Mullen's section 9 witness statements.

Collins refers to the series of interviews in the Independent article but tries to make them appear as though officers interrogated Mullen for some seventy hours, making Mullen appear as a victim - which says' a lot about Collins victim-hood mind-set. Once a SOCPA agreement is in place it is a binding contract between the individual, which in this case would be Mullen, and the Police, in the debrief interviews he is supposed to effectively cleanse himself of his wrongdoings for which he is supposed to confess fully and openly about, to interviewing officers. 

Any lies which are told break the terms of the contract, as is the case if he refuses to acknowledge an offence or plays down his part, and he is therefore then open to prosecution for the offences he had being given immunity for. The purpose of the interviews is for Mullen's benefit they keep him out of prison. You would think that Hope Not Hate would be best pleased they are taking place? However, never one to shy away spin Collins tries to twist the process another way,  making out Mullen as an eternal victim. 

Was Mullen open and forthright in his SOCPA cleansing interviews? No, anything but, he was evasive. Let's analyse his passport, in the Independent article Matthew Collins says that:

This contradicts account in his debrief with SO15; Mullen (Andy Brown is Mullen's name which he was given by the Police to conceal his identity during the early days of the investigation, you can hear Mullen acknowledge it in this recording at 5.05) states that he asked Hope Not Hate for a passport:

Collins had emailed Jemma Levene, calling her "babes" (sexist?), Levene a Hope Not Hate director, Collins had asked her to transfer over to Mullen's banks account £200, which was for a passport, how much is a valid UK Passport? Passport fee's run up to  £95, so was there any change from the £200? Mullen goes on in his SOCPA debrief and does not tell officers that he has had £200 transferred into his bank account when asked:

It begs the question, why? 

Mullen is asked by the interviewing officer "and what other payments did you receive from them?", "None" he says. Another lie. 

The officer then asks "So, you've only ever received one payment from them?" 

Mullen responds:

What? Do you not understand how to be open? Why are you being evasive with how much money you are receiving from Hope Not Hate! A rhetorical question. 

Mullen was travelling the length and breadth of the country visiting Matthew Collins, he went around to his home, they were in constant phone contact throughout the case. Robbie has received thousands of pounds from them in return for keeping up the narrative that National Action were active - Hope Not Hate need an enemy, an enemy they can publicise so that they secure funding.

The passport which Collins did tell Mullen to purchase, after failing to answer officers questions regarding how much money he has received from Hope Not Hate, Mullen also left out the fact that he had a all expenses paid trip to Dublin, with Matthew Collins, Nick Lowles later joined them and gave him £300 in a brown envelope Mullen left that out of this debrief, Lowles later made a statement to the police saying he had given Mullen £300 in case he needed it...

Ireland. This is trip is made in August 2017, Mullen is now the star witness in what will be a major terrorism trial held in the summer of 2018. Mullen has been asked to not have contact with Hope Not Hate to protect the integrity of the looming court case - Mullen refuses to comply (see earlier recording) in a ballsy move telling SO15 officers it is none of their business. He obviously knows his handlers are connected to a higher governance than Counter Terrorism Command.

The trip lasted three days, a weekend, when asked by officers what he did for the three days Mullen says to the officer:

The conversation goes on:

Officer: "it was more of a holiday"

Mullen: "yeah"

Hope Not Hate cannot keep a story straight, they change it almost every time a new article appears with the waffling on about how virtuous they are. 

I'll finish this piece on another snippet of information they failed to tell the police or the court of, yet which these idiots think is fine to do now. It is a matter of perverting the course of justice, they had at numerous points in the case deleted evidence - again Collins admits to Hope Not Hate deleting information that would have been relevant to both the prosecution and more importantly the defence teams:

CPS guidance is clear: "concealing or destroying evidence concerning a police investigation to avoid arrest" is preverting the course of justice. 

They feared arrest after being threatened with it by Counter Terrorism Officers for breaking the law when operating Robbie Mullen as a informant in a proscribed terrorist organisation. They then conspired to have innocent men jailed, who were later found not-guilty, in order to make enemies appear which will allow them to sell books and generate funds from donations. 

The Independent article can be found here 

To be continued....