The way it's done in the Scottish Borders - cover up the scandal & protect the guilty.

I should be worried, if I still lived at my old address in Bongate, Jedburgh, Roxburgh.

I should be worried, because of all the threats I get over my campaign against the legal profession - and articles I either write here or leak to the media on politican subjects .. it seems that my house in Bongate, Jedburgh is the one usually mentioned in whatever threat of the day I receive. That's life though ... expose corruption & you have to expect something in return .. and certainly when it comes to the Scottish Borders .. the threats fly thick & fast.

Take for example this one : "We're going to blow your wee house in Bongate, Jedburgh all the way to the moon" or "expect a gas explosion you little *******". Another one I like is "There's going to be a ******* big hole in the Bongate one of these days soon" ... and there's always ones like "We're going to machine gun your house" ...etc. A fine example of Jedburgh then ...

Well, that would be fine for some, if I were there .. but I'm not .. and despite the obvious .. there are seemingly plenty of 'bad eggs' out to get me at my old house. Oh well ... it won't affect me lads .. but I would assume the current tenants of 45-47 Bongate who were, I understand, part of the crooked deal to prize the property away from me in the first place in late 2003, will have to be watchful.

I had a few threats like that from neighbours when I actually lived in the Bongate - quite a few of those threats came from well-known-to-Scottish-Borders-Council violent neighbours over the last two years of my stay there, after my mum had died.... these people hell bent on a daily torture of my life, to get me out.

What did anyone do about it ? Absolutely nothing. The Community stood by and laughed in my face. Len Wyse, the Jedburgh Provost, ordered the town's Community Council not to help me or respond to any letters .. and Scottish Borders Council took a leading role in driving me out of my home, by giving my violent neighbour everything he wanted - despite the fact the Council had a big enough file on his own threats & intimidation of other neighbours. The local Police also did nothing .. actually they were turned against me .. and after I discovered there was a serving Policeman who was an 'investor' in the nasty neighbour's plans for my house ... it became a wee bit more clear as to why no one would help me.

Maybe the current tenants of my old house in the Bongate can rely on one of the Police Officers, who was also an 'investor' in the gang of crooks who got my property in 2003 to defend them ... no doubt he will be able to help them against the hordes of threatening lawyers, some of their more worrysome clients such as ex-killers, burglars, drugs & arms dealers, & the odd politician seemingly out to cause a small mushroom cloud in the Bongate.

I bet whoever the insurers are to those premises must be thinking long & hard about their policies on those properties though.. because Jedburgh is one of those small places where more than the occasional insurance fraud takes place ... and the whole thing might just be a ruse by the group of people who conned me out of the properties in 2003 to recoup some of their own losses on the failed business & poor rennovation work they did ... adding more intrigue to the situation.

In any case, now that is out the way, I can get on to the article for today.

Scottish Borders Council went to court at the weekend, in an act typical of the Council, to stop the Sunday Mail newspaper publishing the whereabouts of a recently released sex offender who was involved in the horrible Miss X abuse scandal to hit the Borders several yeas ago. Scottish Borders Council spent at least £12,000 on the Court action against the Sunday Mail in the High Court - but failed to prevent the newspaper from running the article.

Read some more about the Miss X Rape Scandal in the Scottish Borders here :

Miss X report passed to procurator-fiscal
Vital Miss X file removed, claims MSP
Social work department shake-up after sex abuse case & Borders social work chief quits

There are a few other 'choice links' on those Scotsman pages to articles on this case, and others relating to Scottish Borders Council .. well worth a visit.

Anyway, while Scottish Borders Council spent plenty of the taxpayers money covering up their failures in the original Miss X investigation, they have now had to spend some more to protect one of those found guilty in the case from having his whereabouts published in the newspapers.

The thing is, in the Borders .. you never really know who you are living near to .. and no doubt, again, residents may well be alarmed to think of a sex offender involved in such an insidious case as the Miss X abuse scandal - which went on for so long .. to be living near to them.

It's nothing new though ... as the Scottish Borders seem to have been used s a dumping ground for all sorts of released criminals .. even, it is alleged, some ex-terrorists who shopped their own for protection & an anonymous place to live. Imsgine that ! .. residents in the Borders might just be living next to serial bombers & mass murderers, not just sex offenders.

Andrew Lowe, the Social Work Director is reported in the BBC follow up article today : Sex offender court spend defended saying "I don't feel comfortable with the spin that has been put on it by some newspapers who seem to suggest we were only about protecting the rights of the offender" Lowe goes on to claim "The effort that was made on Saturday was to ensure the anonymity of the offender so that we could do that job - with our partners in the police - as closely and as effectively as we could,"

Who is he trying to fool ?

Scottish Borders Council are full of spin themselves. From my own experience in exposing some of their frauds & fakery when it comes to explanations on Council activities .. I found them to be endemically corrupt .. and nothing has changed, from the information I still receive from sources within the Council.

I think SBC are more concerned with keeping the debate on their original failure to protect Miss X from getting back into the public domain - that is what's really at the heart of the matter - nothing to do with protecting the community .. and certainly nothing to do with working with their partners in the local police .. whom many also wonder what the local cops were doing while Miss X was being abused all those years.

Read on for the article, from the Sunday Mail, which Scottish Borders Council tried to stop being published

BEAST FREED EARLY
EXCLUSIVE Outrage as sex attacker wins release despite shunning treatment over gang's vile assaults
By Robert Fairburn

A MEMBER of a gang who raped and tortured a mentally handicapped woman has provoked fury by being freed early - despite refusing to go on a rehab scheme. Alexander Maben, 43, was released after serving just four years of a seven year sentence for his part in the attack on the girl, known only as Miss X.

But last night, his victim's relatives and politicians demanded a change in the law. A family member said: "This is a shock. It seems like only yesterday he was jailed. If he refused rehab he shouldn't be out."

Nats justice spokeswoman Christine Grahame said: "The Scottish Parliament, with the support of the SNP, is looking to end the early release scheme. "If serious sex offenders are still considered a risk to the community then why are we letting them out at all?"

Maben was caged in July 2002 for a string of horrific sexual offences. He and pals James Mercer, 39, and Ross Douglas, 30, admitted subjecting Miss X to vile assaults over three months. Douglas also admitted rape. He was given 10 years, while Mercer also got seven.

Miss X, now 34, was stripped, starved, handcuffed and severely beaten. In one attack, the trio poured turpentine over her but it failed to ignite, so they stripped her and tried to set fire to her clothes. Hotel kitchen worker Maben admitted helping Mercer force her to strip, shaving her head, sexual assault and repeatedly stamping on her head and body.

The abuse began after social workers sent Miss X to live with Mercer in Newton St Boswells, Roxburghshire, after her mother died in November 2001. Her nightmare ended in February 2002 after a friend saw she was hurt. Doctors at Borders General Hospital found 71 injuries. Maben is now in temporary accommodation.

Prisoners who address their offending behaviour by attending rehab are usually released halfway through sentences. Those who do not, like Maben, serve two thirds. A police source said: "He was uncooperative inside and has made it clear he won't conform to rehab after release." The Scottish Prison Service said: "The choice of participating in rehab programmes remains with the prisoner."

Miss X led to a shake-up of social work care for mentally ill people.