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The Vampire Hunter Chronicles Continue
Remember when I said, "To that I can only say, in closing, that I am very grateful an ocean and far more liberal libel laws lie between myself and the Right Rv'd ... I have a feeling they will just be barely enough"? (You don't? You should visit more often)
Let's just say if Misters Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton were alive today I would kiss their feet. Oh, and anyone in the UK who thinks the US is a morass of lawsuits just waiting to crystalize into a police state? You should take a closer look at your libel laws my friend, because you're in a lot more danger of getting your mouth duct-taped shut than I will ever be.
Again, I won't post Mr. Manchester's notes to me, because he's asked me not to and I'm just a reasonable sort of guy. However, I own my own copyrights and so you can just read between the lines of my own response, listed below.
While we cannot judge the merits of whatever case you may be contemplating against ourselves or our host company, it should again be pointed out that we are US citizens and currently reside within the United States. Any attempt at legal recourse against ourselves or the staff at Logjamming will therefore have to be made in a US court abiding by US laws, and we already have very solid advice to the effect that any case you would attempt to bring would have no chance whatever of succeeding in this country.Further, should you attempt any sort of legal recourse in the UK against us or our host provider, we must remind you it will be effectively impossible for you to collect any kind of damages from us or our provider in the unlikely event you should win. Again, as US citizens residing in the United States any such attempt would of course require you to file for action in a US court, and to date the few times a UK citizen has attempted this it has been immediately thrown out (c.f. /Matusevitch v. Telnikoff/, 702 A.2d 230, 347 Md. 561 (1997), and /Bachchan v. India Abroad Publications, Inc./, 585 N.Y.S.2d 661 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Co. 1992)).
The only party even tangentally subject to the UK laws you cite is Rackspace, and as noted previously their lawyers are looking into the matter and once they have made their decision we will of course comply with their requests immediately. Until that time, as always, you are welcome to post rebuttals of any portion of any comment you deem factually incorrect on our website.
Thank you for your attention in this matter.
That's telling them!
Mr. Manchester - Keep a stiff upper lip and all, chap, because you've not got a chance!
Posted by: Ron on April 15, 2004 02:55 PM
I'm gaving e-mail troubles. There's a lot of semi-scholarly vampire stuff out there:
Check this out:
http://www.cesnur.org/dracula_texts.html
STAND UP AND BE COUNTED, MR MANCHESTER
I find it quite incredible that Mr Manchester is threatening legal proceeds (see above) against this Website over highly criminally libellous statements HE made against myself in the first place! These most 'unholy comments' have already been answered by myself (or some of them) on another thread; but I see that Mr Manchester is back to his usual ploy of hiding behind aliases by pretending that such statements have been written 'without his direct knowledge'! All pure and utter 'bulldust'!
My Manchester happens to have some sort of warped obsession with myself. He does this sort of thing continuously. When I am forced to put a few 'home truths' back to him, a common reply is from some alias to the effect of . . . These (my) remarks have been brought to the "bishop's" attention [inverted commas my own] but he feels that it would 'be beneath his dignity' to proffer any explanation or reply. Really!? But it is not 'beneath the "bishop's dignity" to have made vile accusations against myself in the first place! In fact, if anybody is entitled to take 'legal action', it is myself! But that is probably just what Mr Manchester would like; then use the Court case as an end to further his obsessive publicity-seeking exploits.
Mr Manchester is always threatening to sue people if he can't get his own way. He has learned that small publishers or publications when they are issued with ultimatums of libel. But it is a fake ruse. Most of these 'threats' come from a certain 'Michael Thane' who is described on Manchester's notepaper as 'Legal Advisor of the Vampire Research Society' . . . again, all totally untrue. 'Michael Thane' (who invariably never gives any official address or phone number) is just Manchester himself again writing under an alias. As a matter of further interest, The Law Society in London have confirmed in writing that 'Michael Thane' is not a bona fide solicitor!
I am going to quote an article from the leading BOOKSELLER magazine which was published November 29th 2002, the contents of which are really self-explanatory. It reads . . . "Internet bookseller Countrybookshop. co.uk has been threatened with libel action for listing a title on its site.
The writer and self-styled vampire hunter Bishop Sean Manchester sent an e-mail to the bookseller warning that legal action would be taken if the site continued to 'distribute' Man, Myth and Manchester, a pamphlet by the occult writer David Farrant. Mr Manchester claimed the pamphlet defamed him, but he has not pursued Mr Farrant for libel.
But the Bakewell-based independent bookshop with a substantial online business has never brought or sold the pamphlet. Its web listing for the title is taken direct from its bibliographic data feed, supplied by Nielsen Book Data.
Other online booksellers listing the book include Amazon.co.uk and WHSmith.co.uk.
The retailer is vulnerable to action due to a loophole in the law. The bookseller's defence of innocent dissemination, made statutory in the Defamation Act 1996, fails if the bookseller has been given 'reason to believe' that the material that the material in question contains a libel.
Geraldine Rose, a director of Countrybookshop.co.uk, said: "Anybody could say that about any book - we could be taking books off all the time." Ms Rose said she would leave the title there until she received a writ. But case law suggests that could be too late.
David Hooper, libel expert at Pinsent Curtis Biddle, told the BOOKSELLER that while the COUNTRYBOOKSHOP had not sold the title it was at risk as long as a sale was possible.
"All the bookseller is doing until now is advertising the book's availability. It does not 'publish' the book until it makes a sale. If it prevents itself from making a sale there is no claim. People tend to remove the title from sale unless the publisher offers to indemnify them".
Sydney Davies, trade and industry manager at the Booksellers Association, said Mr Farrant had offered to indemnify any bookseller against libel action. But he advised caution: "Publishers can offer but it depends how far a case goes - the costs can run very high".
The Law Commission recommended a revision of the Act, but this is not likely until after the Commission completes a study of defamation over the internet.
'This case is just more ammunition for our campaign [to revise defamation law]," Mr Davies said. Our lawyers will use it as just another example of abuses of the Act."
When questioned by the BOOKSELLER, Mr Manchester denied threatening legal action and said … "Assumptions have been made all round."
Richard Lewis
. . . . .
It might be seen from this, that when people actually turn around and call Mr Manchester's bluff to take legal action, he quickly backs-down.
It is then possible to see this sad little man in his true colours … Quite willing to peddle his hateful allegations about others; but not so forthcoming when he is called upon to back these up.
David Farrant, President, The British Psychic and Occult Society/ The Highgate Vampire Society.
Posted by: David Farrant on April 15, 2004 07:12 PMThe Manchester-Farrant feud IS BECOMING SOMETHING OF A LEGEND IN OUR OWN TIME!.
I was first given details of it by the then Lord Manchester in the 1980's when he was the patron of the Yorkshire Robin Hood Society--after he met me at the Barnet Carnival where I went to meet John Pope de Locksley, president of the lONDON Robin Hood Society.
I can't say I was particularly interested in the coal-hole dwelling villain mOnsieur d'Farrant--as his circumstances was described by Lord Manchester from his country residence.. However, to cut a long story short, when my Robin Hood book Secrets of the Grave was in manuscript form I sent it to out patron for his comments and
to liase with him over any inadvertent errors. I still have the blustering epistles sent to me by meesrs Thane and Crawford, the "legal team"threatening to sue me for writing things which the lord bishop had written about himself.
Am I potty or is he,does he want to sue him,self for writng malicious defamation about himself????!!!!
Luckily I wasn't born yesterday and took no notice of this bullyboy blustering .And his nibs resigned his yrhs commision.......
However, if anyone is remotely interested, I have a full break down of all that nonsence pertaining to his nibs objections to sotg, but the point is that realising that his nibs was going all off at a tangent over me, and it got worse--folks!!!
it made me consider seriously that what he said about David Farrant may also be a cock and bull story.
The thing I would really like to know, and am personally appealing to the bishop who I know will be following this thread avidly, is WHY??????
For God's sake Sean--WHAT IS YOUR OBJECTIVE IN ALL THIS???DO YOU WANT DAVID TO" REPENT",do you care so much about him? Why dost thou persecute him--and myself and others--to a lesser degree.?
What do you want to achieve?
Is your Highgate vampire/spider really true? if not, did you write it as a deliberate hoax or did you imagine it all?
What, I wonder ,makes the bishop "tick".Is he a real bishop and does he hhold real services in a real church? Enquiries so far have drawn a negative.
Has the bishop backed himself into a corner from which he cannot escape with his grandiose claims and penny dreadful vampire stories?
So please, Sean, a straight answer from yourself!!!If David did do anything wrong and ended up ion prison, then is it not very Christian of you to splatter this over every message board you can find? I don't think there is much Christian about that!
Scott asked very politely for an apology but so far none has been forthcoming. If you feel you have nothing to aplogise for, then why not tell us the reason why?
You are a very exasperating man!
Barbara
Posted by: barbara green on April 16, 2004 04:50 AMAlso I, have been threatened to be taken to court, but Sean Manchester did not have the guts to write to me personally, instead he wrote to my parents which is the biggest laugh of them all to say I'm 31yrs old. He didn't dare write to me.
Also not long after that (in previous statments, Manchester says that he never sends anyone material about Mr. Farrant) well I can assure you that he does because he sent my parents a load of circulated rubbish about David, ie that he 'sacrificed a cat' which is totally utter nonesense if you visit http://groups.msn.com/FriendsofDavidFarrant you will see David sat on a settee with his pet cat which from someone who allegedly sacrificed one well this photograph says it all I think.
My parents did no more than to throw this rubbish in the wastebin which is where it all belongs.
Manchester I think its time you grew up and got on with your life. As Barbara pointed out in the previous message, what is it you hope to acheive by doing all of this, and what is your objective? Whatever it is you will not get anywhere. IN FACT YOU WILL DO QUITE THE OPPOSITE AND MAKE YOURSELF LOOK EVEN DAFTER IN THE PROCESS!
Thanks
Catherine Fearnley
Regional Secretary for The British Psychic and Occult Society
OMG now you have them on another thread. This is completely crazy. How do you get them to go away.
Posted by: Pat on April 16, 2004 09:23 AMRe: How do you get them to go away.
Holy Water? Garlic?
I don't know, give them livejournal accounts?
Posted by: CaptainHowdy on April 16, 2004 03:45 PMIT IS NOT MY INTENTION to post up irrelevant or frivolous material on this thread, but I feel that as deliberately untrue (and most decidedly 'unholy') accusations have been made publicly about myself by the 'Society of St. George' elsewhere on this site; here might be an appropriate place to enlighten anyone interested in slightly more accurate facts which arose out of my arrest and imprisonment in the 'Highgate Vampire' case.
The following article appeared in CITY LIMITS magazine in 1987, and is mostly self-explanatory . . .
[David Farrant, President, BPOS]
COURTIN' THE SUPERNATURAL
An occultist has won an astonishing battle with the Government, via the European Commission of Human Rights. But even he could not have forseen how long it would take. Quentin McDerermott reports . . .
DAVID FARRANT, President of the British Psychic and Occult Society, is a legend in his own time. Way back in 1973, when stories of vampires in Highgate Cemetery abounded, TITBITS published a photo which was later used in court to 'prove' that he desecrated bodies in the cemetery's tombs.
Farrant denied the charge - and still denies it - but got two years for interfering with remains (though the court conceded he did not actually touch a skeleton). He also got two years for sending voodoo effigies to two police officers, who he claims, had used violence against a friend.
One of the charges levelled against Farrant - on which he was acquitted - was that he was responsible for carrying a headless body out of the cemetery and propping it up behind the wheel of a car parked outside.
While Farrant was serving his sentence at Blunderston Prison, Suffolk, the prison authorities stopped 18 letters written by him. They included letters to the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), the Lord Chancellor, the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions, PROP, MP John Stonehouse, and his own MP Robert Kilroy-Silk.
Also stopped was a letter to a Magistrates' Court clerk, attempting to initiate a private prosecution against the two police officers who led the case against him. The prison also refused to register him as a member of the Wiccan religion.
Farrant failed to get his convictions overturned in the British courts, or to get Europe to uphold his original complaints about his trial. However, his complaint about the way his letters were stopped has been upheld.
The Commission ruled unanimously that stopping 17 of the letters constituted a breach of Article 8 of the Convention - although the stopping of one letter to Stonehouse, and a two-delay in posting another, did not.
The Commission's report was adopted in October 1985. However, it has taken a full 16 months for Farrant and his solicitor to see it. The Government has known of the decision since 1985. "Its pathetic, isn't it?" said Stephen Grosz, last week.
The reason Farrant has only now heard of the decision, is that it was only in February this year that the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers adopted the Commission's report. The Ministers decided to take no further action, as the prohibition on private criminal prosecutions by prisoners has been removed, and the restriction of correspondence relating to such prosecutions has been abolished.
Last week Grosz commented, "It’s a long time to wait, for not very much".
Farrant says he will battle on to prove his innocence. he is still trying to find a man called 'Hutchingson', who took the offending photograph in 1973, and an amateur film crew who may have been in Highgate Cemetery around the time he was arrested.
As President of the 20 year-old British Psychic and Occult Society, which he founded, he continues to investigate unexplained phenomena. But one phenomenon which remains unexplained is how courts and ministers can take 12 years to reach a ruling on a prisoner's grievance, and call it justice.
[CITY LIMITS, April 9-16 1987].
Posted by: David Farrant on April 17, 2004 03:36 PMI was wondering where the Robin Hood thread had gone as I was I think the last to post on it with the s tory of Robin Hoods death. Its not a pretty story, but well documented historically......(and I can think of worse gory death stories on film, like the passion, and braveheart)has someone complained ??
barbara
Posted by: barbara green on April 18, 2004 04:03 AMWell,its all a bit of a mystery.........
Posted by: barbara green on April 19, 2004 04:06 PMManchester sent me stuff about David Farrant, and I don't even know him! Catherine Fearnley's telling the truth.
Posted by: Peppermintmoon on May 3, 2006 10:39 AMOMG I thought you blocked these people a long time ago and now here they are again.
Posted by: Pat on May 4, 2006 08:42 AMI'm not anyone's 'people.' I just saw this and responded.
Posted by: Peppermintmoon on May 4, 2006 10:40 AMI wish they'd quit posting and start fighting vampires. Or at least have a hot vampire chick seduction scene.
I'm voting for the seduction scene. Especially in anime. Because there'd be tentacles. And tentacles are fun.
Posted by: ronaprhys on May 8, 2006 05:38 PMI have as much right to post here as anyone else.
Posted by: Peppermintmoon on June 20, 2006 10:55 AM