“I’m coming round to your house in the week. Fight or no fight?”
As I blogged a few days ago, a group called “the Cheerleaders” (apparently connected to a music band called “the Fighting Cocks” – see my blog entry here) has been harrassing Tim Ireland by posting his home address in various places on-line, in the specific hope that “everyone [he’s] pissed off” will see it. They have also made threats of violence – which they have later deleted – such as “machete to your throat”. Now Tim reveals that that their leader, who goes by the stage name of “Ludas Matyi”, has sent an email declaring his intention to come around to Tim’s house for a fight:
Fuck it, I’m coming round to your house in the week. Fight or no fight?
Why are they behaving in this way? It seems the “Cheerleaders” see themselves as vigilantes against Islamic extremists, and they began with pranks aimed against the likes of Asghar Bukhari (of whom I am not a fan). However, because Tim uncovered a bogus posting to a Muslim website designed to create an anti-Muslim scare story, and went on to show that Dominic Wightman (a former associate of Patrick Mercer MP) had lied to Tim and me to try and manipulate us into writing about someone against whom he has a grudge, that apparently means that Tim should be targeted by association. Tim now writes:
Today, I am seriously discussing with my wife not the ifs/buts, but the whens/wheres of moving her and the kids to a safe/unknown location.
Judging by their track record and past trolling technique, I have little doubt that this will lead to jeers from the ‘Cheerleaders’, who will then go on to assure one and all that I’m hysterical and they’re harmless, but even if I’m going to take them at their word on that, I also have to take into account:
a) The many people these ‘Cheereladers’ have sent/broadcast my home address to
b) The lies these ‘Cheerleaders’ have been putting about publicly and privately…
c) The 50+ false claims that I am a convicted paedophile that Glen Jenvey (the author) is unable to remove and Google (the host) refuses to delete
We live in a country where paediatricians are the targets of mobs of illiterate tabloid readers, so I don’t think I’m wrong to be this worried…
I know that Tim can be a polarizing figure when it comes to politics, but this is a situation which should concern everyone. If you believe in freedom of speech, this kind of thuggery and harassment must be opposed – whoever is on the receiving end of it.
Meanwhile, I also get a mention on the “Cheerleaders'” Facebook page, where there is a posting which links to a silly attack blog:
mad props to Dominic Wightman the Tory guy just stitched up another blog site :)
The attack blog is harmless enough, and it compares me to Reverend Farthing, the campy vicar from the sitcom Dad’s Army. Says Wightman in an email to me:
Since fools are my theme, let satire be my song. Glad to see you haven’t lost your sense of humour, Reverend. Regards to the shivering verger.
Tim, meanwhile, is mocked at another blog as someone who supposedly wishes to be a Tory. The idea, of course, is that Wightman wants to present our dispute as some kind of trivial spat based on political differences, rather than the more serious matter of lies. Funnily enough, this is the second attack blog set up in my name – a certain James Osposol did one a while back, although Wightman has assured me that it had nothing to do with him.
Wightman continues to insist that he has very little contact with the “Cheerleaders”, although the link to the pseudo-site curiously appeared very quickly after the blog was published. The “Cheerleaders” also posted on-line an attack piece by Wightman against Tim, several hours before it appeared on Wightman’s Westminster Journal website. Perhaps Wightman can explain further?
UPDATE: Dominic Wightman has now published an article on his Westminster Journal website, where he insists he has very little contact with the Cheerleaders and does not approve of the threats being made against Tim, while also suggesting that Tim may be behind them himself, or if not has at least “met his comeuppance”. Inevitably, he also argues that because he’s opposed to Islamic extremists, therefore his critics must be “invertebrate supporters and glorifiers (at least silent appeasers) of 7/7, 911, Bali and Madrid”. As ever, it’s an eloquent yet vacuous and overheated diatribe which can only embarrass further those who vouched for him or who have relied on his research.
His piece also alludes to the Cheerleaders supposedly putting “viruses and worms” onto his computer. This is reference to a series of menacing and insulting questions which Tim received a couple of days before Wightman’s attack piece appeared. However, the questions were obviously based on Wightman’s article. Wightman at first told me that Tim had himself written them, and accused me of knowing this; when I did a blog post that showed that would only be possible if Tim had psychic powers, I then received a message from a Cheerleader telling me that in fact they had hacked into Wightman’s computer and done the questions themselves, for no apparent reason. I reported this to Wightman, offering to make a police statement, but he shrugged it off as unimportant.
Certainly, the Cheerleaders know more about the list of questions than is in the public domain: one detail which Tim did not include when he published the list was that a Costa Rican phone number was appended to them. Wightman’s attack piece was written in the form of an interview in which he supposedly recounted Tim’s failings to a Venezuelan lawyer named Olivia James, and the Cheerleader told me that she had meant to fabricate a Venezuelan phone number, but had made a mistake. However, Wightman has now taken to publishing audios on YouTube, under an account based on the name Olivia James; and, strangely, her location given is Costa Rica. What can it all mean?
Filed under: Uncategorized
I wonder if Joe Pyle (Jr) is happy that random pop groups from Essex are a) throwing his name around and b) seemingly implying that his Canvey Island event promotes fights between members of the public, something that could certainly damage his business.
Poor bloke, I wish him well.
[…] by a group that has been posting his home address all over the internet. As Richard Bartholomew points out, one of the members of the group e-mailed Tim, saying: “I’m coming round to your house […]
D2 – perhaps someone should tactfully call Mr. Pyle’s attention to the matter?
Further, I find it hilarious that someone who runs a podcast site about unsigned indie bands has apparently confused themselves with the Cosa Nostra.
It seems the danger of exposing Walter Mitty types like Jenvey and Wightman is that you start to get dragged into their little worlds, where circles of (being polite) eccentrics feed each other’s fantasies.
Gregor – yup.
I think Tim needs to go to the police like I have and report all threats from these people.dont believe that some torys dont have links to thugs.
The police are lready looking at commets made on http://westminsterjournal.com/ bout me and youtube by dominic if you have a min email me for police ref number.
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I cannot believe what is going on. I want to tell myself that this was a little joke that got out of hand, but physical threats of any nature, from anyone, need to be condemned. – outright.
The appeal to the Cheerleaders on WestminsterJournal was not sincere enough to be taken seriously, as it spent more time grinding Tim Ireland’s face in the mud than calling for violence to end.
I was disappointed in the comments on Harry’s Place:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/09/30/fair-play/
Even though I don’t agree with Tim Ireland’s politics, this vile intimidation does not need to be just stopped – it should have the full force of the law brought to expose every one who has been instrumental in intimidating and terrorising an individual – whose only crime is to blog about issues he believes to be the truth. These Cheerleaders need to be stopped or dragged through the courts.
No-one is above the law, and I despise any and all who have (on Harry’s Place) suggested it is Tim Ireland’s fault. The threats have not diminished, even after the insincere exhortation to “sort of” stop hounding the poor guy and his family. The police must get involved.
And if anyone sees fit to attempt any overt or covert recriminations against me for writing this, I will be ready.
Enough bullshit, “Cheerleaders and their allies. Enough intimidation. Have some self-respect and respect for the values of this society. If you can’t do that, you don’t deserve to have your liberty.
[…] Charlie Flowers and various associates, who posted Tim’s home address widely on-line and threatened him with violence. Jenvey used to be associated with an organisation called the “VIGIL Network”, whose […]
[…] this. The “Cheerleaders” posted Tim’s home address on-line in various places and made threats of violence; they overlap with a music band called “The Fighting Cocks”, run by a man named Charlie […]
[…] and under a variety of pseudonyms they have been conducting a campaign of harassment and threats against Tim for some months. This has included posting his home address on-line widely in the […]
[…] overlaps with his band; as I have blogged on a number of occasions, they have been harassing and threatening Tim for some […]
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I’ve never heard of Tim Ireland, so I have no view on his politics!
But threats of violence and attempting to facilitate violence need to be dealt with by the police. There’s no free speech issue here — merely a bunch of people who need to stand in front of a magistrate.
Note how the bullying is anonymous. It always is, somehow. This is the sort of thing that will be used as an excuse for the establishment to force us all to have to “register” to go online. That is an appalling prospect.
If a public figure is espousing politics which we think are wrong, it is perfectly legitimate to run a blog to counter him. It is once it becomes an attempt to libel, smear, and intimidate, that a line has been crossed. IMHO anyway.
[…] people, most notably the blogger Tim Ireland, whom they have subjected to a campaign of abuse and threas in the stated hope that he would be forced to leave the country. As has been documented at length, […]
[…] Tim has himself been targeted with actual threats, by a gang of cyberstalkers who have used her complaints against him as a vigilante excuse for […]
[…] now-defunct “VIGIL Network”, which was run by Dominic Wightman, and with which the cyber-bully Charlie Flowers was also […]
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[…] people, but also to feel good about himself for doing so. He justified his harassment against Tim Ireland, for instance, by claiming that he was acting to protect Nadine Dorries MP. It seems to me that he […]
[…] has a grudge, and after Tim and I both wrote about this experience, Tim was then targeted for direct harassment once again. Twitter and other sites were used to publicise his home address, along with threats of […]
[…] The accusation is not just annoying: last year Tim’s home address was posted on-line by a cyber-thug named Charlie Flowers, who disliked our investigations into on-line “anti-jihad” pseudo-activism. Flowers and […]
[…] to fish out a home address. However, the campaign against Tim was more sustained, and included threats of violence and a distasteful expression of malice against Tim’s family. The campaign has also recently […]
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[…] details have been posted on-line about his home and smears about his family, there have been threats of violence, and anonymous attack blogs have been set up with slanderous accusations. Those who indulge in this […]
[…] and this is all because I dared to stand up and be counted when he was harassing Tim Ireland with threats of violence and the release of his home address to hostile […]
[…] Tim’s home address in an attempt to intimidate, and sent a stream of crudely abusive and threatening messages. Away from politics, Flowers has also used the “Cheerleaders” to harass individuals […]
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[…] recently posted to Facebook, which I discussed here; it was just the latest outburst in a long campaign of attempted intimidation which has followed from Tim’s discovery that individuals involved with a now-defunct […]