Behind the Mask.

All of the main players have left, but questions remain over the death of Wayne Brown.

The West Midlands Fire Rescue Authority papers (below- see point 4.1) from February 16th confirmed that Monitoring Officer Satinder Sahota has now joined Greg Brackenridge, Joanne Bowcock and of course Wayne Brown.

Having not registered at any other law practice or organisation on the SRA website, this may imply that Sahota did not resign because he had another job to go to. The neutral may contemplate that the “resignation with immediate effect” was not optional. In turn, that led me to consider why, having survived like an amoeba during a nuclear holocaust, why Sahota would have suddenly left, then that sent me on a tangent which revisits some extremely disturbing anomalies that, despite their hatred of me, anyone who actually cared for Wayne Brown should be following up on.

Sayonara Saty.

The starting point here is the position of Monitoring Officer. The role to ensure good governance, legal compliance, best practise. In fact the government itself defines the role as;

“a statutory position in local government responsible for ensuring the lawfulness, fairness, and ethical governance of a council's operations, decisions, and elected members. Theyact as the principal legal advisor and routinely prevent maladministration and unauthorised expenditure.”

There is no need to gild the lily, except to state the obvious that the imposition by the Secretary of State of the ‘Best Value Inspection’ indicates failures at all of the above. Having been personally criticised by the Judge in the employment tribunal Tolley v Birmingham City Council for failure to follow procedures, with an implied impugning of his honesty, Sahota was also roundly criticised in the Coroner’s Inquest regarding the death of Wayne Brown for again, failing to follow documented procedures- resulting in the prevention of future deaths report, and judging from the profuse sweating on the stand possibly wasn’t being honest there either.

However, this got me thinking about the frankly bizarre Coroner’s Inquest final hearing, scheduled originally for three days and concluded (with breaks) in a little over three hours- so I dug out my records.

Excuse me? No, I don’t think I shall excuse you.

Joanne Bowcock did not appear at the Coroner’s Court. No detailed explanation was provided, except that whatever the excuse given was, to the satisfaction of the Coroner presiding (who had sat on the Local Resilience Forum with Wayne Brown and failed to mention this at the Inquest opening, declaring it to the court only after apparent publication in a newspaper).

Joanne Bowcock had a statement read out, which is now a matter of public record. I shall refer to it here, but also cross reference it with other information that became known at the Inquest and more questions present themselves.

Time Passages.

24th January 2024: Information provided by West Midlands Police

1025hrs: Joanne dispatches Marc Hudson and Kris Darnley to Wayne Brown’s address in B13 (approximately 20-25 minutes in regular traffic) from WMFS HQ).

1030hrs: Joanne called WMP and requested that they send a unit to Brown’s B13 residence.

Why did Joanne call the Police only FIVE minutes after sending Darnley and Hudson out? Surely it would make more sense if they had attended, noted Brown’s vehicles’ presence and no response to the doorbell or knocking or phone calls, then they or Joanne at that point then called Police to effect an entry?

There is something that bothers me here;

Two corroborated sources in WMFS confirmed that Joanne was asking at HQ at 0815hrs if anyone had seen Darnley or Hudson and if they had to send them directly to her. Two hours and ten minutes before she sent them to B13.

Paragraphs 28 and 31 of Joanne’s statement read to the Court stated that she recommended Brown returned to Essex (29) and that she considered that he was down there (31).

If she thought that Brown was in Essex, why did she send anyone, or call the Police to attend his residence in B13? This remains unexplained.

Joanne’s written statement makes no mention of her sending out Darnley and Hudson, or making the call to the Police at 1030hrs. That was disclosed by the Police.

She makes no mention of the information on the statement of PS James Pugh 22516 that she attended Lloyd House to speak with WMP’s Senior Leadership Team. Subsequently Joanne made a MG11 prosecution statement against me on 30th January 2024.

You can’t handle the truth!

Now, the above information is FACT, a matter of public record. This is now what I believe, given information that is in the public domain to be the ‘real events’. This is to some degree, ‘hunch’/ ‘conjecture’- I WILL retract this, should evidence be provided that categorically shows this to be incorrect. Until then, my opinion is this.

Paragraph 20 of Joanne’s statement claims she was contacted by a journalist from The Sun putting it to them that she was having an affair with Wayne Brown which she denied. However, a WMFS source (who has since left HQ) caught them kissing in the back stairwell on Monday 22nd January. Also, Joanne’s father, the late Mr Philip Ward disclosed to Barbra Campbell that in December 2023, Joanne had told her younger sister and mother that after her return from a planned vacation in Canada that she was going to be “leaving ‘White Wayne’ (Bowcock) for ‘Black Wayne’ (Brown)”.

It would seem odd to have corroboration from such remote and independent sources if there were no extra-marital shenanigans and I’m in no danger of being sued by stating that both of them had ‘previous form’ in that regard. So let us consider that the Bowcock-Brown axis had become more than that of colleagues of a mere ten weeks.

That would give plausibility to a situation, where being seconded up here from Oxfordshire, that Joanne may well have been staying in B13 with Brown.

Now, having provided denials to The Sun on the previous day, and the intense scrutiny that the WMFS was under at that time, had Joanne and Wayne been confirmed to be ‘involved’ it would be professionally ridiculed, but also lying to the press would be another breach of the Nolan Principles, NFCC Core Code of Ethics and the Fire Standards Board Standard on leadership ethics- authored by ‘White Wayne’ Bowcock.

If Joanne had been staying with Brown and discovered his body, called it in to WMP, those circumstances (of any affair) would have been known by the tabloid press (who’d have delighted in catching out someone lying to them), the workforce, respective families and opened the door for more scandal.

It takes some calculation and coldness to leave a body, remove traces of one’s presence from a scene and then go to work and maintain a pretence for some hours. But, it is not beyond the realms of possibility. Wayne was dead, nothing could be done, so why ruin two careers and lives rather than just one?

The two suicide notes at the scene are reported to have been in different handwriting. Could one have been composed post-mortem?

WMP do not appear to have corroborated Joanne’s location in the 24hrs beforehand, which could have been done by phone GPS, vehicle tracker, ‘Ring Doorbell's’ belonging to neighbours in B13, CCTV.

There is no indication on any of the Police reports that Joanne’s location was ever checked. Or… is her attendance at Lloyd House (and subsequent statement) related to this?

This may be accurate, it may be wide of the mark, what is true though is that this is plausible and unanswered questions remain, odd omissions from witness statements have not been explored. Again, upon recipt of any information that categorically disproves this, I shall publish and state those findings for the record.

By the Book.

A friend of mine and his good lady wife (a solicitor) were once invited to ‘Chez Bowcock’ when serving in Nottinghamshire FRS. When we consider that Joanne was exposed for falsely claiming for twenty years to have obtained a LLB Hons degree in Law from the University of Liverpool, this provides some insight into her mindset.

Upon entering the house, several bookshelves were prominent, containing many decades of the All England Law Reports. Now these are all online, but even in the past, a Chambers or a Solicitors Office may have a set of these books, it would be unusual for any individual practitioner to have their own copies. My friends wife, familiar with these, commented, started asking a few probing questions and the subject was soon altered.

Now, if someone can maintain a lie for twenty years, invest in thousands of pounds worth of books as decor and a ‘conversation piece’, is is that much of a stretch to remove oneself and any possessions from an apartment containing a body before sounding the alert several hours later?

It doesn’t add up.

I personally don’t think it is coincidental that Joanne did not attend the Coroner’s Inquest, because I don’t think she could answer with clarity what exactly went on and would ruin the ‘decided narrative’ of how this played out. I would also not gamble against her being advised by WMFS and WMP to ‘pull a sickie’ and not attend as the above anomalies would have been obvious to those within both organisations.

Brown’s Estate should be seeking to establish exactly where Joanne was in the 24hrs leading up to Brown’s death.

When ‘informed’ of Brown’s death, Joanne’s reaction at WMFS HQ was described as ‘hysterical’, being peeled off the carpet and very visibly weeping, wailing and inconsolable. This was all very public and disproportionate for colleagues of a mere ten weeks (accounting for leave periods), as was delivering a eulogy at Southwark Cathedral, chaperoned by her step-son but oddly enough not husband ‘White Wayne’ who also did not sign Brown’s Online Condolences Book.

Concluding a Coroner’s Inquest in three hours when scheduled for three days raises eyebrows. The amount of questions remaining is astounding and the ‘interjections’ by the Coroner astonishing; “You do not have to answer that Detective Chief Inspector, and I shall remind you Mr Walker, you are not to cross-examine witnesses- this is not a criminal court!”

There are still a number of stakeholders who do not want the truth about Wayne Brown, his life and his death to emerge. It is clear that the West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority and Service are trying to put ‘daylight’ between the current regime and those linked to those past events. That is understandable and even sensible. But, it leaves those damaged (in every sense) with no closure and less recourse. I’ll be ok, I want to move on and have no interest in punishing those uninvolved for the ‘sins of the father’ but there are people that have been hurt far more than me in a different way that unlike me, cannot begin the healing process with a cheque.

I invite a response; if Joanne or anyone can provide categorical evidence of where she was on 23rd and 24th January 2024 and it did not corrrespond with Wayne Brown’s location, or can explain the time anomalies, then I shall be happy to publish.

Finished?

I’m not quite sure which record to finish on today as nothing really seems apt. The question is whether someone made a quick exit, so I suppose some Southern Rock could do the trick.

Until next time…