Tony and Lisa “Freedom”: The Final Chapter…

Firstly let me apologize for the very long delay in getting this blog writen and published! As many of you know from the previous blog in this series, Tony and Lisa “Freedom” brought actions against Prajna and me in both the civil and criminal courts. Naturally this meant that, until both matters were dealt with, writing of our experiences concerning these two fraudsters would have been prejudicial to our cases. Secondly, as a kind of executive summary, let me tell you that in both cases Prajna and I were triumphant.

And now to fill in some of the blanks:

First Impressions

In January 2014 Prajna and I moved into a squat just outside Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. We knew that the squat had been established around four years earlier and that it was being held by a couple known as Tony and Lisa “Freedom”. We had also been told by a friend, that Tony “Freedom” was listed on the Violent and Sexual Offenders Register for life. We made no assumptions or presumptions regarding this fact, preferring to find out for ourselves if this lifelong registration was deserved or not.
We also knew that the owner of the property had, just over a year before, tried and failed to have the squat evicted under the changes in the squatting laws.

What we did not know at that point was that that squat was also the site of the, so called “Pennine Eco Village”. Indeed, when we had been there for around a week or two and Tony “Freedom” dropped that fact into the conversation we were quite taken aback. You see there was NO eco-village there! Not a single carrot had been planted and no attempt whatsoever had been made to move toward micro-power generation and independence from the National Grid. Indeed this so called “eco-village” was being run largely in accordance with mainstream doctrines of profit and personal gain for the proprietors of the squat!

The squat consisted of several acres of land plus a large building, which had once been used to accommodate a boys home. The building itself was now being used to host Tony and Lisa “Freedoms” “Freedom Project” raves – for profit parties (donations at the door or no admittance) – each of which was advertised “in association with the Pennine Eco Village”.

Prajna and I lived on the site in our small caravan and a friend of ours lived in a neighboring van. One of the reasons we’d gone there was to be near our friend, who we knew to be very depressed and unhappy with the situation at the squat. Two men lived in the building, one of whom (Dave) I had met previously at the, now infamous, Birkenhead action (if you don’t know of this give yourself a treat and search youtube for “freemen arrest judge in Birkenhead, or words to that effect). There were very obvious tensions between Tony and Dave, who were constantly arguing and shouting at each other.
There were also three constantly fighting dogs on site, belonging to Tony and Lisa.

Tony and Lisa “Freedom” lived both in a caravan near ours and in rooms in the house. Lisa also had a place in Wigan where she had two children who, because of his registration on VISAR, had to be kept away from Tony.

So, after four years of the “Pennine Eco Village” and the “Freedom Project” and what Tony and Lisa “Freedom” described as a “Community”, there were, in total, six full time residents, including ourselves, plus Lisa, who lived part time at the squat and part time in Wigan. Two of the residents there were obviously very unhappy, and Prajna and myself were beginning to see why.

It was obvious that, far from bing a community of like minded people, the place was being run as a for-profit business, in which the residents of the squat where REQUIRED to participate. Tony and Lisa Freedom described the profits from their raves as a “slush fund”. This fund was controlled entirely by the pair and no accounts were ever revealed to any other members of the “community” – that is until I published a blog stating this fact, when suddenly Tony and Lisa published a list of outgoing expenses for that month which included the cost of having their own private conveyance MOT’d and one of their amplifiers repaired. Note, there was no mention of income or capital, merely outgoings. All were, however, required to work at the parties, mostly to set up, clean up, etc and as security.

After a short time and some discussion, Prajna and I decided, despite that by then we were beginning to see a pattern of dictatorship and fraud on the part of Tony and Lisa “Freedom”, that we would stick around and create an actual eco-village on the site of the non-existent “Pennine Eco Village”. Several friends and former residents of the site warned us that it wasn’t the best environment to do anything beneficial to the wider Freedom/Freeman/Lawful Rebellion movement and we began to hear of many abuses that had occurred on that site over the years.

What myself and Prajna saw, at face value, was a wonderful opportunity in an ideal location to actually create an off-grid, free community. There was a huge building which could, theoretically at least, become a community centre, not just for the residents but for the wider community around Huddersfield. There was enough space to create workshops and studios, and there were several acres of land ripe for cultivation. So, regardless of Tony and Lisa “Freedoms” desire to dictate all activities within “their” community, we began, with the help of our close friends, to create food gardens, build a green house and source the materials for solar energy generation.

In the meantime I commenced blogging about our observations and our plans. I said as little as possible about conditions within Tony and Lisa “Freedoms” little empire, merely observing that there was NO “Pennine Eco Village” and that there seemed to be a desire, on the part of one man (unnamed) to control all activities at the site. Tony, rightly, recognized that I was writing about him. (At this point I knew very little about Lisa’s role in the “Freedom Project”).

Shortly after the publication of that blog (published in March 2014 if memory serves) Tony and Lisa “Freedom” announced a “Freedom Project” event “in association with the Pennine Eco Village” to be called the “Problem, Reaction, Solution” event, and scheduled for May, at which Tony would talk about his own history and the history of the squat, to be followed by a party.

Requiring, in my opinion, more than a little camouflage and a distraction from his half-hearted confessions (more on this shortly) it was decided that, despite the fact that everyone with half a brain within the wider freedom movement could see that Reset was a Sorros inspired, Tavistock designed nonsense, a speaker (who turned out to be a very passionate and genuine guy, I have to say) from the Reset crowd would be invited to speak at the event, and so the name was changed to “Problem, Reaction, Solution, Reset”.

Public Confession

The day came and around twenty or so people turned up along with four or possibly five people who’d traveled from London, at their own expense, the night before to promote the idea of a constitutional Reset and tax reform. Prajna and I showed the Reset group around our very young but very attractive gardens and they all seemed greatly relieved that something real was happening at the site. – They’d been invited to the “Pennine Eco Village”, but up until that point had seen only the dilapidated inside of a party house/ squat, a few piles of old tires (collected by Tony) a bunch of squabbling dogs and been offered a couple of stripped out caravans to sleep in.

By this time, I should point out that our friend had moved away from the site and was now living the high life in sunny Glastonbury, Dave was also making plans to leave for a new life in Portugal and, if I recall correctly, was off site at the time of this event. In the meantime a young lad with aspergers syndrome, Connor, had moved into the house, to be used, as far as I could see, as Tony and Lisa’s personal assistant and, later, as a very convenient source of income for the pair. (More on this shortly.)

So, the event eventually got underway and began with a presentation from one of the Reset guys in front of a “crowd” of around thirteen or so party-goers. So far, so good. There was to be a short break between the Reset presentation and Tony’s discussion of his and the squat’s history. As it turned out the break lasted at least two hours, during which time the small group from London where beginning to wonder what was going on. The guy who’d givin the presentation was growing increasingly concerned that all was not as he’d been let to believe. I told him that, in my opinion, he had only been invited to the event to provide cover for Tony and that all would become clear when Tony eventually got up the nerve to speak.

So, after a considerable delay a, by now half drunk, audience was called back in for Tony’s presentation. Two quite drunk and quite intimidating men set the stage by asking if Tony wanted anyone evicted from the property, obviously referring to myself and Prajna.

Tony and Lisa “Freedom” sat on the makeshift stage and, to the best of my knowledge, spoke publicly for the first time about Tony’s inclusion on the Violent and Sexual Offenders Register.

Tony told of his childhood and the absence of a “father-figure” in his life, of how the head teacher at his school had hated him for having red hair, of how he’d been placed in care after robbing a local shop and of how many boys, EXCLUDING himself had been sexually abused at the care home he was sent to. He described his sexual development within this setting in which he himself was not being abused.

He told of the time he was arrested in Liverpool for picking up “rent-boys” (plural, note) on Lime Street and of how he subsequently served ten years in prison. He described how he’d been a successful businessman upon his release from prison and how he and Lisa, who he’d been with for eleven years, had had to give their business up because it was too successful.

Lisa told of the the change in the age of consent laws since Tony’s incarceration, and of how, at the time of his arrest the age of consent for homosexuals was 21. The obvious implication being that the boys Tony was imprisoned for abusing where practically men… and poor, sweet, innocent Tony had suffered terrible injustice. (We now know, thanks to their bringing actions against us that Tony was imprisoned for several counts of buggery, several of assisted buggery and several of attempted buggery, all against teenage boys! … hmmm. Please do keep playing the “innocent victim” card you two, we’re all ears!)

Following this dilution of the truth and presentation of Tony – as a fine, upstanding man, coming into the world without so much as a father figure to look up to, abused by the authorities for doing no less than providing shelter to homeless boys – questions where invited from the audience. Given that there were two drunken, aggressive men sitting in front of us intent on evicting us from the property, Prajna and myself refrained from asking anything at all of the pair, though many questions hung in the air, unasked.

I did however blog my observations and my opinions on what I had seen, heard and been told over the months I’d been resident at the squat. I wrote about the ways in which I had seen Tony bully and abuse other residents; they either did as he wished or were back on the streets, homeless. I wrote about the questionable finances and queried where all the money raised by the unpaid staff of the “Freedom Project” vanished to and I shared what others had told me about their experiences of Tony and Lisa “Freedom”. I made it clear that when I shared hearsay, it was hearsay. I made it clear that my opinions where my own opinions and I invited readers to comment, including any who wanted to speak well of this pair of (in my unswerving opinion) fraudsters.

New Arrivals

Prajna and I continued to develop our wee eco-village, and before too long we were joined by a couple we had met during our time at Balcombe anti-frack camp. Alex and Nigel had taken the time and trouble to search the web for “Pennine Eco Village” before arriving. They turned up quite out of the blue one Saturday morning in July, just a day or two after Tony and Lisa had disconnected us (albeit, they claimed accidentally) from the mains electric supply at the house.

Nigel’s first question when he arrived and once we’d made tea, was “what the hell are you doing here with a nonce?!”. He’d discovered, when researching the place, that several people had published blogs describing Tony’s history and his continuing abuse of young, vulnerable people and the fraud of the “Freedom Project”.

We explained why we’d chosen to stay there, but that we really wanted to dissociate ourselves from Tony and Lisa both physically as well as in writing. I’d wanted to move our caravan to create a kind of courtyard facing our gardens and turning our back on the house and all that was associated with it. When our friend had left for Glastonbury he had left us his caravan to use. Another friend had his Mercedes van parked on site, complete with solar panels available for our use. Alex and Nigel immediately agreed that we could and should shift the vans around and separate ourselves, once and for all, from any implied association with Tony and Lisa “Freedom”.

By the end of the day the four or us sat in our newly formed courtyard, looking out over our, by now magnificent gardens, eating food freshly picked and cooked by myself and Alex.

The next day our solar panels were wired into the van and what we’d hoped for all the time we’d been there was finally coming into being. We were off grid, eating from our gardens and enjoying community with like-minded friends.

Alex and Nigel stuck around for a while, but had to venture south for a while due to work commitments – Alex is relief manager at a hostelry in Sussex and she had a month’s work lined up.

A couple of days before they left, Nigel had been out and about on site and had heard a local guy stop buy to ask if anyone wanted to buy a caravan for £50.

The Saga of the Caravan

Knowing, as he did by then, that Tony and Lisa “Freedom” had taken to renting caravans out to homeless people Nigel, stepped in and bought the caravan before Tony had the chance.

You see, by that time Tony and Lisa “Freedom” were renting a dilapidated, stripped out van, without bed, electric, gas or plumbing, to Connor, which he, Connor, was in the process of fixing up for himself. They were also claiming carers allowance for him. They were also charging him for food, which Tony collected (with Connor’s assistance) from the skips behind the local Aldi store, as well as for internet access and for the use of electric at the house. In fact all of Connors benefits at that point were being paid directly into Lisa’s bank account, so, in effect, Lisa was giving Connor an allowance from his benefits and pocketing the rest, whilst continuing to require him to work as their unpaid security guard and general dog’s-body.

A day or two later Alex and Nigel headed off to Sussex.

A few hours after Alex and Nigel left Lisa turned up outside our van, asking Prajna who she needed to pay for the new caravan. Prajna told her that there was no-one to pay as the van was not for sale. She then disappeared only to return a few minutes later, with Connor at her side and Jarvis, the most aggressive of their three dogs, in tow. She proceeded to get into the caravan, which she knew was not hers – the van which had been given to us only the day before by Nigel – and to make herself at home.

I went to confront her, to find out what she was doing. She told me she was looking around ‘her’ new caravan and refused, point-blanc, to leave. I stood outside the van explaining to her how it had come to belong to myself and Prajna, and asked her, several times, to leave. Intent on creating trouble, she refused and proceeded to shout at me about “dishonorability” about “growing some vegetables” about taking bread from the freezer in the house (which we’d been invited to take, but which we no longer did) and about using the washing machine in the house (which we’d been invited to use, but no longer did). In fact, such was her tone and demeanor that it soon became very obvious that the only reason Lisa was there, with dog and “security guard” in toe, was to pick a fight.

After around ten minutes of pointless argument, Prajna came over to see what was happening. I told him that she was refusing to leave the van at which point he took hold of her wrist to pull her out (she was leaning forward in the doorway, all the better to get in my face and try to provoke me into violence). She pulled back from Prajna’s grip and fell backwards into the van.

Knowing that she was only there to provoke violence and wanting an opportunity to calm matters before they escalated I immediately shut the door of the caravan, shutting her inside. Straight away I realized that was a stupid thing to do and opened the door again.

With that Prajna got into the van and moved around her to usher her out. I saw her lunge for him and I stepped up into the van and at exactly that moment Tony appeared on the scene and also got into the van.

There was a struggle which resulted in Prajna and me landing on top of each other on the couch (me on top of Prajna, face up) with Tony and Lisa standing over us grabbing onto our arms. Tony and Lisa backed off and Prajna and I stood up.

I stood face to face with Lisa, who had Tony standing to her left. I told each of them in turn “You’re a fraud, and you’re a fraud”. Once again I told Lisa to get out, at which point she said the strangest thing to me: “I’m not scared of you” she said, “others might be, but I’m not.” (I still have no idea who these “others” are!

At that moment Prajna, who was standing behind me, reached over my shoulders, grabbed Lisa’s glasses and threw them out of the door (reasoning, he later told me, that she would have to follow them out). With that, Tony and Lisa both reached over me and grabbed hold of Prajna. I saw Lisa reach over my head and grab Prajna’s hat from his head, followed by grabbing a handful of his dreads (the most offensive thing she could have done to him!) and I felt Tony moving in on my right.

Prajna was hauled to the door by the pair of them and was thrown out whilst I was spun around and left behind. I saw Prajna outside the door, with Lisa still hanging onto his dreads and Tony leaning over her grabbing at Prajna’s arms. I leaned forward in this very tight space (caravan dwellers everywhere will have an idea of just how tight) and tried to push Lisa out of the van.

That’s when Tony turned his attention to me and slung me to the other end of the van where I landed on my back on the couch! I saw him coming towards me and just had time to bring my legs up to kick him away with the flat of my feet. I saw him coming towards me again and brought my legs up, this time I had enough time to make sure I’d do him some damage if he attacked me. I guess he saw the look in my eyes or realized he wouldn’t be able to get close to me and so he turned and walked away.

By this time Lisa and Prajna were outside the caravan, both grabbing handfulls of each others hair (for Prajna it was a question of either hitting her or restraining her by her hair. He choose the least damaging option). I stepped out of the van in time to hear Lisa say “you let go and I’ll let go”, obviously still in full control of the situation. They let go of each other and we all went our separate ways.

Prajna and I returned to our home caravan where I discovered he’d been significantly injured when he’d been thrown out of the other caravan. He had very deep cuts all the way up his right shin which have left him with some very angry looking scars. It was at least two weeks before he could walk without limping.

Life went on and after a few weeks Alex and Nigel returned.

Harassed Through the Courts

The episode with the caravan happened on the 13th September 2014. Some time in December, whilst we were being visited by friends, Tony and Lisa “Freedom”, accompanied by two men wearing high-viz security jackets (one of whom was Connor) and by Jarvis, their most aggressive dog, approached us, camera in hand, and served us with court summonses. Upon reading these documents we discovered that Tony “Freedom” was bringing a private, civil action against us for defamation/liable and harassment.

Immediately Prajna hit the Law books and Bailii.org and began to study relevant law in ernest. We attended the county court in Huddersfield where Prajna pointed out that Tony’s claim was “insufficiently particularized”. The judge agreed, pointing out to Tony that neither the court nor the defendants could discern from his claim what was at issue. Tony “Freedom” was ordered by the judge to go away and “particularize” his claim and he was ordered to serve his revised claim on us and on the court four weeks later (or possibly six, I can’t quite remember), and we were to submit our defence to his revised particulars of claim three weeks after that.

Upon receiving Tony “Freedoms” revised claim, we were still none the wiser as to what, specifically, he was complaining about: The overall impression being that he didn’t like some of our blogs which, together, came to over 20,000 words.

He failed to particularize which of those 20,000 words he was complaining about, to point out where we had defamed or libeled him (in fact we had not) or to identify a course of action resulting in harassment. What we had published were facts, together with our opinions on a matter of public interest, in our own personal blog, aimed at an audience of our friends and family… and no matter how he had worded his claim Tony “Freedom” could not have won an action for defamation when he had no right to a reputation as anything other that a abuser of the weak, young and vulnerable.

Maybe next time either of this abusive duo decide to use the courts to silence someone they should take the time to read the law they seek to use before commencing their ill-conceived actions!

Prajna wrote an excellent defence, quoting case law, civil procedure rules and relevant statutes. His hours and weeks of study were very well spent.

Some weeks later – and after we’d received summonses to the criminal courts, where Lisa “Freedom was bringing a private criminal action against us for assault(!), we received yet another revision of Tony’s claim from the court. Apparently he had been invited to an ex-party (i.e. without our presence) hearing and had been ordered, once again, to properly particularize his claim.

We were asked to acknowledge receipt of these further revisions and told that the Judge would consider the case once we had done so. Naturally, along with our acknowledgement, we included a letter to the court pointing out the flaws in these, so called, ‘further and better particulars’ and pointing out that once again, Tony “Freedom” had failed to specify what exactly he was complaining about. We also referred the court to the defence which Prajna had previously written, informing the judge that we would not need to revise our defence, which was as appropriate for Tony “Freedom’s” third attempt to have our blogs removed from the internet and prevent us from writing anything more about him.

In due course we received notification from the county court that the judge had struck Tony “Freedoms” case out as “insufficiently particularized”; but not until long after the commencement of Lisa’s Private criminal prosecution against us!

At the beginning of January – following the return of our friend from Glastonbury and his taking up residence in the caravan Nigel had given us, and whilst Alex and Nigel were spending time in the south house-sitting for Nigel’s parents, and following notice of a forthcoming possession hearing from the court regarding the squat – Prajna, our friend and I, not wanting to defend the bank’s claim for possession (for many reasons), moved onto neighboring land owned by our Romany friends.

We had been on that land for only a day or two when Alex and Nigel returned, bringing with them a proposition only a fool would turn down.

An Invite to Portugal

Having spent so much time with us and discovering that, like them, we wanted to move as far away as possible from “the system” – from business big and small, from the paradigm of profit and loss, personal gain, from big oil and big supermarkets, to live independently, helping others for no other reason than for love, providing for our own needs and trusting the universe to provide all that we need in order to do that – they wanted us to join them on a whole new adventure.

Alex had some inheritance money that she wanted to invest in land; in a home for herself and Nigel. Initially they had looked into buying land in England or Wales, only to discover (as so many have before them) that it is next to impossible to live off-grid, free to develop alternative communities and methods of food and energy production in those countries. In fact it is next to impossible to even live on ones own land in England! Councils and planning regulations make it so!

So, having given up the idea of living off-grid in England or Wales, they began to look further afield, shortly settling on Portugal as a likely destination. And they wanted Prajna and me to join them! They now tell us they would never have been able to do it without us, and, in fact, had not even considered the possibility until they joined us on the squat outside Huddersfield!

Naturally Prajna and I were overwhelmed and delighted with the invitation, which we accepted wholeheartedly.

In the meantime, I had been told by my fathers wife, who had been left everything when my dad had died 18 months earlier, that she was giving my brother, sister and me, a small amount of dosh in lieu of inheritance. On the day that we got the news about Portugal, £3000 was paid into Prajna’s bank account by my step-mum!

We started looking around and within a couple of days had bought ourselves a wonderful, grand caravan (a 12 year old Tabbert Comtesse. Oh the space… oh the storage!) to replace our faithful, old, overstuffed and rapidly rotting little Swift Pirouette.

It should be noted that at some time in March 2015, having undertaken to vacate the property in light of the banks claim for possession, Tony and Lisa Freedom finally left the squat in Scammonden. Just two nights after their departure the entire building was engulfed in flames!

Myself, Prajna and our friend watched in disbelief as flames shot into the night sky and the whole building was raised to the ground and the fire brigade fought the flames. What was left standing was so unsafe that the following day it was demolished.

When the police visited a couple of days later, investigating a theft that had occurred the night after the fire, they seemed to be of the belief that the fire itself was a parting gift from Tony.

I have no idea if this is the case or not, but I do know that Tony was at a party in Huddersfield that night and that one of his friends (read security guard) made his way up to the house the following day, allegedly to collect some belongings he’d left behind when he left the house in January.

I add nothing to these circumstantial facts, I merely note them as interesting.

A few months later Nigel noticed that Tony and Lisa “Freedom” had posted on facebook stating that myself and Prajna where a pair of arsonists who had fled to the desert to escape the jail time their were raining down on us!

These libelous comments were published openly on Lisa “Freedom’s” facebook profile, and were a clear attempt on the part of these fraudsters and hypocrites to intimidate, defame and harass Prajna and myself!

Continued Harassment…

On the day we bought our new caravan we, once again, received a summons each, this time to attend the magistrates court, where we were being both being charged by Lisa “Freedom” with assault and with an additional charge of criminal damage being leveled at Prajna (allegedly for damage to Lisa’s glasses).

Once again Prajna got out the law books and set to work, this time studying relevant criminal law and criminal procedure rules.

We attended a preliminary hearing where it was decided by the judge that the case would proceed to trial in accordance with the Magistrates Court Act.

We had been served no evidence, apart from four (later reduced to two) witness statements. There had been no investigation, as per the Cr.P.R; no case progression officer had been assigned; we had been instructed by the court that council would be appointed for the cross-examination of Lisa, but no such council had been appointed; and a litany of other errors in the case.

Prajna wrote to the prosecuting solicitor, which Lisa “Freedom” had been ordered to instruct (at her own expense), asking many questions and pointing out the many deficiencies in the case. Several weeks later, when we had still received no response, and knowing that our move to Portugal was rapidly approaching, and that there was very little time until the scheduled trail date (just four weeks), Prajna wrote to the court, repeating much of what he had writen to the prosecuting solicitor and adding our observations and concerns regarding the handling of the case by the court and by the presiding judge.

Shortly afterwards we received word that the judge had scheduled an “interventions hearing” in order to make sure that all sides where ready for trial. This hearing took place just one week before the scheduled trial.

During the hearing the judge revealed that he himself had been the “examining judge” when Lisa had submitted her claim – consisting of four witness statements which had obviously been written by the same person, complete with verbatim, copy/paste paragraphs and sentences, and the same spelling and grammatical errors throughout, and no evidence of any criminal damage. But, said the judge when all of this, together with the fact that there had been no investigation into the claim, was pointed out to him, his hands were tied by the Magistrate’s Courts Act and, short of deploying the rarely used “nuclear option” of throwing the case out, there was little he could do.

We asked that the case be reviewed by the CPS because, on the face of it there was no case to answer and the CPS would likely choose to discontinue. But with only one week to go it was doubtful there would be time for such a review to take place.

We asked for disclosure of all unused material and queried the inclusion of evidence added by Lisa – four photographs, with no time or date stamp, taken on two separate occasions by parties unknown and unnamed which, in an accompanying statement, Lisa claimed to have taken herself. These photographs showed bruising to Lisa’s arm; injuries she claimed to have sustained during her criminal conversion of and trespass onto our property. Injuries which she failed, incredibly, to mention in her original statement.

We were informed that the issue of the photographs was a matter for the trial itself and that, though Lisa had clearly indicated to me on the day in question that she was recording the whole conversation, there was no way to determine if she had been bluffing at the time.

In the meantime the judge was at pains to find out why the prosecuting solicitor had failed to respond to the “very important issues” which Prajna had raised in writing. Red faced and embarrassed, the solicitor, looking like he would rather have been anywhere but in court that day, suggested that he usually acted as prosecuting solicitor for the RSPCA (who employ their own investigation officers) and said very little else.

Prajna and I queried why, if we were not to cross examine Lisa ourselves, we had not yet been appointed a solicitor so that we might brief them throughly on all relevant matters.

The judge, who had at the initial preliminary hearing said someone would be appointed to us on the day of trial, also wanted to know why we had not yet been appointed anyone! He asked that we wait in the court building whilst someone was found. As it turned out we were appointed the Queen of Fiest – the fiestyest of fiesty advocates – Emma, who had, coincidentally, been in the court room during the whole of our hearing.

So, with one week to go, Nigel and Alex back with us in readiness for the trial (Nigel was appearing as one of our witnesses) and our move to Portugal just four days after the trail, we commenced to brief our court appointed and handsomely-rewarded brief.

We made appointments for ourselves and for Nigel to see her during the week, after having given her a rough outline as to what the case was all about and as to the nature of the prosecutor and her parter: Lisa and Tony “Freedom”. We then went home to pack.

One week later we turned up at court, by this time with a solicitor each. Given that we were two separate defendants, our Queen of Fiest, Emma, had made representations to the court that we each be appointed a solicitor. Enter Bulldog Ben (actually he’s much cuter than a bulldog but it’s what’s inside that counts, don’t ya think?). Two more enthusiastic and experienced solicitors we could not have hoped for, despite our mistrust of solicitors generally (based, I might add, on actual, personal experience).

With very little assistance from myself or Prajna, they argued that the antecedent history (criminal records) of the prosecution witnesses may well prove relevant to our defence and queried why it had not yet been disclosed to us. The judge (a new judge we’d not seen before) ultimately agreed and ordered that the prosecutor (i.e. Lisa) pay the £110 fee per witness, for expedited disclosure of the criminal records of each of her witnesses.

The Queen of Fiest and Bulldog Ben also reasserted our wish that the whole matter be reviewed by the CPS. The judge agreed that this should happen too and, in light of our impending move to Portugal, the case was adjourned for two months so that these matters could be attended to.

Portugal!

On the 13th May Nigel and Prajna hooked our caravan (now called ‘Hyacinth Bucket’; Dead Posh!) onto Alex and Nigel’s Mercedes Sprinter (‘Van-essa’; ‘Nessy’ for short) and began the long drive to Portugal, whilst Alex and I headed to Liverpool and a few nights at my mum’s, from where we would fly out on the 17th to join our hubbies and begin our new life!

And, oh, what a pair of basket cases we were during those few days in Liverpool. I don’t think there have ever been two more excited women on the face of the planet!!!

The hour came when finally, having spent the day flying, taxi-ing, training and taxi-ing some more, at around six in the evening, we arrived at the most beautiful mountain quinta (farm/estate) possibly imaginable and were reunited with our gorgeous men, who’d had to endure two days here without us!

Hot, sunny, lush and green, on the edge of a stunning village inhabited by the warmest, kindest-hearted people, set high in the mountains of central Portugal…

But you’ll have to read all about that in future blog posts. For now, I have to return to the final word in the saga of the non-existent “Pennine Eco Village” and the pair of fraudsters who used it as a front for abuse and exploitation:

We had two months to settle in before returning to England to deal with Lisa “Freedoms” ridiculous and ill-founded claims that we had assaulted her and that Prajna had damaged her property on the day that she had committed and act of criminal conversion of our property, culminating in criminal trespass and in injury to Prajna, for which he still bears the scars today.

All over a £50 caravan which still sits empty today on our friend’s land just outside Huddersfield.

Having heard nothing from the CPS about their review of the case Prajna and I spent our last £300 on return flights and arrived in Liverpool’s John Lennon airport on Wednesday 8th July. The case would be heard on Friday 10th at Huddersfield (Kirklees) Magistrates court.

Courtroom Drama

Having spent the previous night at our friend, The Rev’s, house in Huddersfield we arrived at court in plenty of time, along with our witnesses and a handful of friends there for support.

The CPS had, two days earlier, reviewed the case and, inexplicably, given that Lisa “Freedom” had provided us with a legal defence (that we were defending our property at the time of the incident) along with her copy-pasted witness statements, decided to continue the case.

The CPS assigned a prosecuting agent solicitor, who arrived at the court having had no sight what-so-ever of any any of the case files. But, given that we had traveled all the way from Portugal and were due to return there just two days later, and that the trial had already been delayed by two months, there was no way he could get an adjournment. Nor could our solicitors (present only to cross-examine the prosecution witnesses, but also advocating for us behind the scenes) have the case struck out. And so the trial went ahead as scheduled before a judge none of us had seen before who turned out to be a stickler for the rules.

I have to say that, even though this judge’s adherence to correct procedure resulted in us being warned several times not to keep interrupting, and even in Prajna being warned that he would be asked to leave the court room if he interrupted again, in the end we were very glad that the case was attended to so diligently!

The Case for the Prosecution

Lisa was first to give her evidence (which the judge later described as “incredible”). She told the court that she approached me to find out who to pay for the caravan (when in fact she had approached Prajna) and had been told it wasn’t for sale. She went on to say that she had entered the caravan believing it to be hers, and believing that our friend, Nigel had bought it “For the community”. To the best of my recollection, she failed to explain why she refused to leave it when asked.

She was at a loss to produce any evidence of damage to her glasses (which Prajna was accused of damaging) or any receipt for repair or replacement. She fell silent when asked how much it had cost her to replace them, eventually breaking her silence to stutter a figure (£180) which I’m sure (though this is purely supposition on my part) she recalled including in her witness statement.

She struggled to explain why she claimed to have taken four photographs of bruises to her arm in her statement of truth which accompanied her “additional evidence”, only to change her mind when giving evidence in court and state that the photographs had been taken by Tony “Freedom” and someone else. Eventually she said that because the photographs had belonged to her, and because she’d been confused by her previous solicitor, she’d submitted that non-factual statement of truth along with the photographs.

She failed to explain why she had made no mention of those injuries in her original witness statement.

Separately she told the court that Tony and her were “licensees” at the property on Scammonden, not squatters.

Between them, Emma and Ben (our solicitors) managed, in my opinion, to demonstrate to the court that, in fact, Lisa had been in full control of the altercation over the caravan and that far from being the victim of violence she had been the instigator.

Next came Toothless-Tony “Freedom” to the witness stand, complete with a full set of false teeth! (Too funny!!) His evidence was vague to say the least. He told the court that he’d not seen anything until he entered the caravan, having been called over by Connor, where he immediately sought to protect Lisa who was being attacked by Prajna (and possibly myself, I can’t quite remember).

When asked by Emma if he was Connors carer he told the court that, indeed, he was. With that Emma told the court that she had an application to submit and so we all took a short break whilst the Queen of Fiest presented the judge with Tony “Freedoms” deeply disturbing criminal record.

Emma was applying to have that record submitted in open court. This application was refused, but enough had been done. The judge had had sight of that record, and whilst it had no bearing on the current case, doubtless it told the judge all she needed to know about sweet, inocent Tony and Lisa and their “community”.

Later Tony went on to talk about “honourability” in relation to the purchase of the caravan and life at the squat generally. This, in an attempt to characterize myself and Prajna, presumably along with our friend Nigel, as dishonourable: “Dishonourability” being a word Lisa “Freedom” had used several times to me when she stood inside my property refusing to leave.

I wonder if this unimaginable duo have realized yet that “honourability” and “dishonourability” are not words in the English language!?

Later the judge described Tony’s evidence as vague and adding nothing to Lisa’s claim.

Following a break for lunch it was over to myself and Prajna to present our defence.

Truth is all You Need

First the judge invited Prajna to give evidence, but only if he took the oath/affirmation – she had previously been informed by our solicitors that he would not. Prajna’s position on this is that nobody knows the whole truth about anything, and that swearing to tell the whole truth would immediately put him in perjury, from which point on the court would not have to take note of a further word he said; Quite right! The judge refused to hear evidence from Prajna unless under oath or affirmation and Prajna felt it unconscionable to make any such oath or affirmation – despite that he was very ready to give evidence and to tell as much of the truth as he knew. So stalemate: in the end he was unable to give evidence himself but he was, of course able to cross-examine witnesses to make sure, if possible, that his evidence was elicited in court, though he had to tread very carefully in the process. Tricky stuff court procedure!

For my part I was very keen to give my evidence and inform the court what had really taken place on Scammonden that day, just as I have told it earlier on in this blog post.

Later the judge said that my evidence was clear, candid and credible.

Next up was our dear friend, Nigel, who informed the court, when asked, that during his time at the squat he made a point of having nothing to do with the people in the house or their criminality, and that he had bought the caravan and given it to us having given Connor first refusal on the purchase. He made no bones about the fact that he had bought the caravan so that Tony could not.

Sadly the judge made no comment that I remember on the quality of Nigel’s evidence. I, however, say that he helped to paint a very accurate picture of the characters inhabiting the squat during his time there.

And that was all. The Rev was not called to give evidence in the end because I had already showed the court photographs of Prajna’s injuries which I had taken on the day (complete with time and date stamp).

It was approximately an hour and a half, I think, before the judge came back with her verdict – Case Dismissed!

At this point the prosecutor made an application on Lisa’s behalf for an injunction against us!

Having failed at the county court to injunct us, this pair of low-lifes where now attempting to use the magistrate’s court to do so. It was mentioned that they had also reported us to the police for harassment: That is, having “refused” to go to the police in connection with this trumped-up assault charge, and having failed to have us silenced for civil harassment and defamation at the county court, Tony and Lisa “Freedom” were now attempting to further use the police and the criminal courts to harass us into silence! Notwithstanding that the pair had out and out lied about us on social media, characterizing us as arsonists and cowards! Un-fucking-believable!

What now?

Way back when, I wrote and published a blog post entitled “Once a Nonce…”. That post received several comments, including one which consisted of a single link to a profile on AdultWorker.com. This profile, belonging to Lisa “Freedom”, had been created some nine or ten years before and included, amongst many jpegs and pay-per-view photographs, links to several pay-per-view videos, the titles of which I will not repeat here, but the likes of which you can easily find on YouPorn or elsewhere on the net.

A few days later, the day before our first appearance in the county court in fact, that profile was removed. Sadly our technology at that point was lacking and so we did not manage to get a screen-shot of the profile. However, we do know that the police are aware of its existance and several of our friends also saw it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing what so ever against prostitutes or prostitution. In fact my only issue with that industry is that it has been criminalized, rendering participation in it dangerous and open to exploitation.

That said, Lisa’s continued depiction of herself as innocent provider of shelter to homeless kids needs to be considerably reviewed.

Not long before we left England our attention was brought to a website featuring Tony and Lisa “Freedoms” “squat collective”. It transpires that the pair are now advertising specifically for depressed and suicidal teenagers to join them on coach tours to raves/festivals/parties across Europe. Clothes are optional, according to this website, as is the use of drugs. Of course there is no mention of Tony “Freedoms” involvement with this venture on the website, but Lisa – the frontman for the duo, if you will – features throughout.

Now, when one considers that a registered sex offender with a record for buggery, attempted buggery and assisted buggery against vulnerable teenage boys, who, I have personally been told by one of his more recent victims, is still practicing this abhorrent, harmful behavior today (behavior which, in my personal experience, will scar these youngsters for the rest of their lives, if indeed they are lucky enough to survive) is, through his vile partner in crime, Lisa “Freedom”, attempting to encourage depressed and suicidal teenagers to join him in drug-fueled coach trips to raves in Europe, the question has to be asked… WTF?!?

The wider freedom movement needs to watch this pair with eagle eyes. They have not joined themselves to this movement for any high moral, political or spiritual ideal. Rather they have used it, and us, as cover for their abhorrent activities.

To them the word ‘Freedom’ seems to mean “free to do as you choose, regardless of the consequences”. Nothing could be further from the truth!

To be free is to take full and complete responsibility for ALL of one’s actions, all of one’s words, all of one’s thoughts, and all of the consequences of these!

Freedom is responsibility, not abandonment of responsibility, and the sooner people began to realize this the better off we will all be!

So, why does the wider movement need to keep such a vigilant eye on this pair of abusers? – Because the police, for what ever reason (and we all know, by now, how these things work), seem unable to stop them.

Though their internet and other activities are monitored by the police; though the local VISOR police in Huddersfield would love to get them off the streets; and though, to the best of my knowledge and according to my observations, Tony and Lisa “Freedom” have continued to use the “Freedom Project” to attract vulnerable young people into their seedy world for the past several years, the police, strangely, have nothing to take to the CPS.

Could it be that this pair are being left in place to tarnish the image of the wider movement?

So, as you go about exposing those network of pedophiles holding positions of power throughout the land, be aware that they walk amongst you also.

And Finally!

Upon refusing Lisa’s application to injuct myself and Prajna the judge did give me a warning about witness intimidation. Apparently, for up to a year after the trial witness intimidation can still be an issue.

I hope that writing of our own experiences, things we have seen heard and witnessed, and offering our honestly held beliefs and opinions on matters of grave public importance is not considered to be witness intimidation.

Everything I have written in this blog I can, and will if necessary, support in any court anywhere.

Right, so the next you lovely lot hear from Prajna and me it will be all about our amazing new life in Portugal and all of the wonderful adventures we’re having here!

Very happy to embark on a new, positive chapter in our lives, we look forward to writing again soon!

With much love,
Prajna and Kali – still living the truth and writing about it!
xxxxxxx

P.S. Chris Spivey ROCKS! Get ye to his website at www.chrisspivey.org and show this courageous, unflinching investigative reporter and his family your support.

We love you Spiv and thank you deeply for all you do! Your invite to Portugal remains open – sempre (always).