More pieces of the Gerrish/Hoaxtead puzzle fall into place

On Sunday we published an article in which we attempted to piece together information regarding Brian Gerrish, UK Column’s Bingo-Caller-in-Chief, and his involvement with the Hampstead Satanic ritual abuse hoax.

We noted that during the UKC broadcast of 5 April 2018, Gerrish had announced,

I’m very happy to say on air that having been involved with that family in the earliest days and spoken to the little boy—I didn’t speak to the girl—I have no doubt that that abuse case is factually true, the abuse of those children under horrific circumstances did take place. 

This raised some interesting questions, and seemed to corroborate the statement of Child Q, who told police that he, his sister, his mother, and Abraham Christie had travelled to “Devon by the seaside” as well as Glastonbury, at some point between 6–10 September 2014.

We do know that Gerrish’s associate Finn Hagan dropped by Ella and Abe’s house on 8 September, and that he focused his attention primarily on Child P. He interviewed her rather secretively, as demonstrated by the fact that as soon as he heard adults approaching he shoved his still-recording phone into his pocket (which coincidentally provided us with the fuzzy face shots which would enable us to identify him later).

Finnbarr did speak to Child Q, but only briefly and conversationally, whereas his conversation with Child P was much more focused on “the cult” and the abuse he believed she’d suffered.

Comments add further detail

On Tuesday, we received a couple of comments on Sunday’s post, which spurred us to have another listen to two videos from 2015. 

The video in question is Gerrish’s first public mention of the Hampstead hoax, posted on 10 March 2015, nine days prior to the release of Mrs Justice Pauffley’s judgment on the fact-finding hearing.

Starting at 09:09, Gerrish says,

That brings us very nicely to the Hampstead abuse case. Now this is a story that we’ve had to sit tight on, whilst there’s been quite a lot of angst and outrage which is understandable, on the internet about this case, I’m going to say that UK Column was aware very early on, since September of last year, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting the mother of the children and her partner and we are happy to state again today that we have total confidence in the testimony of the two children who are speaking about horrific abuse.

We also have full confidence in the mother and indeed her partner, that they did all of the right things by discovering what had happened to the children and then informing social services.

As our commenter correctly points out, Gerrish said nothing at this time about having met either child, but admits to having met both Ella and Abraham, and to believing their version of events.

Abe and Ella slag Gerrish

The second of Tuesday’s comments pointed us back to the Abe and Ella interview conducted by our old friend Guidance 2222:

Here’s the relevant bit of that conversation:

Abe: We’re exposing them all now, the counterintelligence operatives, they work all of these cases along with the likes of Brian Gerrish…

Ella: Bill Maloney…

Abe: Bill Maloney, Lou Collins…

Ella: (speaking over Abe) who informed the police a few days after the first interview of the children. And we believe that he helps Brian Gerrish, who is also responsible for assisting to kidnap the children.

Abe: When we arrived on September 4 with the children from Morocco, he was the first person we contacted, he was recommended to us.

E: Actually someone kept imposing him on us, what I would say.

A: When he arrived, he didn’t arrive until the day after, so the day after the children had been kidnapped. We spent the day together and I was unable to give him a copy of the visual, of the videos, but I managed to give him the audio, a copy of the audio of the video. These audios somehow made their way into the hands of the local authority. And Ella was questioned about the audios…

E: And I couldn’t make sense out of it because we never had audios. And…but these questions kept coming in at a few hearings. And then somebody, after….

A: later on we realised that when Brian, we spent the day with Brian Gerrish, Ella was at court for the first day of the hearing.

E: The proceedings

A: Of the proceedings, yes. And she was unaware that I’d given him the audio. And so it didn’t click. It wasn’t until later that we realised that the only person who had had the audio was Brian Gerrish. However, we decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, because we couldn’t be sure what audios the local authority were referring to.

E: On the 11th, after the children been taken, I also emailed him this extensive file which found its way on the internet, where 40 members of the cult are listed, and also so-called sex parties. On Wednesdays. So I was explaining about this email which I sent to him, um, late night, that day of the 11th, and so because of this, audios, and um….

A: What happened was…(they talk over each other)…we were suspicious of Brian Gerrish.

E: We didn’t want to say anything, and  to make our final conclusion, what happened lately, which confirms the coverup. But on the other side…(garbled)…it shows that Brian Gerrish and Bill Maloney are also part of the controlled opposition. Maybe what will happen, what you are saying, these are internal emails, within the police, um…

A: This is my (inaudible)…this is a trail of emails that leads from Ella…well, let me give you a trail. [He then outlines the email trail which we have previously described.]

According to Ella and Abraham, Ella wrote to Gerrish on the night of 11 September, outlining details of the “cult”. Gerrish did not show up at their house until 12 September 2014. All of this occurred after the children had been taken into custody on 11 September.

There’s an odd gap in the story, though: while Abe says that Gerrish “spent the day” with them, in the next breath he says that Ella wasn’t there—she was attending the proceedings in an attempt to have the children returned to her, and thus had no idea that Abe had given Gerrish the audio versions of the children’s interviews.

Thus she was taken by surprise when she discovered that the local authority of Barnet had received copies of these audios.

It’s possible that Ella was there for part of Gerrish’s visit on 12 September, as we don’t know the scheduling of the proceedings that day.

Putting the pieces together

Given all this information, it’s difficult to state with authority that events occurred in a particular order, but based on the CRIS report and the statements by Abe, Ella, and Gerrish, this outline seems pretty firm:

4 September:

• Abe, Ella, and the children return from Morocco.
• The first person they contact is Gerrish.
• Abe takes the children to visit his brother-in-law Jean-Clement Yaohirou, where he makes the children go through their narrative. Alarmed, Jean-Clement makes an audio recording of the visit.

5 September:

• First thing in the morning, Jean-Clement notifies Scotland Yard.
• Barnet police visit Abe and Ella’s home, and take the children to the station to conduct initial interviews with them.
• Jean-Clement emails Barnet police with a document which Ella had emailed to him, outlining details of the alleged abuse.
• Police arrange a drive-round with the children for Monday, 8 September at 11 a.m., to identify where their father and an accused teacher live.

8 September:

• Police conduct drive-round with children, who are unable to identify their father’s house or that of a teacher they had accused.
• Later that day, Finn Hagan visits them at home and interviews Child P alone. When he hears adults approaching he puts his phone into a pocket.
• Christ Church Primary School receives an email from Ella stating that the children will not be returning as they have been offered a place at a school in Barnet, that they will be sad to be leaving, and that they will arrange to come back and say good-bye to their friends.  
  

11 September:

• Police conduct ABE interviews with both children, starting at 2:30 p.m.
• Child Q tells police he will be changing schools, and says his mother and Abraham took them to Glastonbury and Devon “by the seaside”, presumably to look for schools there.
• Following ABE interviews, in which children state that Abraham had assaulted them, children are taken into protective custody.
• That night, Ella writes to Gerrish. This email, which is identical to the one Jean-Clement sent police on 5 September, makes its way from Gerrish to Bill Maloney, then to Jonathan Wedger, and then to Met police, where it is identified.

12 September:

• Gerrish comes to visit Abe and Ella.
• However, Ella cannot be there, as she is attending proceedings to try and have the children returned to her.
• Abe gives Gerrish an audio version of the children’s video statements.
• A copy of this audio recording eventually makes its way to the local authority.

If the trip described by Child Q was accurate, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, it must have occurred either on the weekend of 6–7 September, or after Finnbarr’s visit, on 9–10 September.

If Abe and Ella’s version of events is accurate, it seems possible that Gerrish spoke with Abe on 12 September, having already interviewed Child Q and Ella earlier that week. We cannot make this claim with 100% certainty, but given the available information it seems the most likely conclusion.

It isn’t especially surprising that Gerrish would “forget” to mention in his March 2015 broadcast that he’d interviewed Child Q. By the time of the broadcast, Ella and Abe had nearly been arrested, and had made their escape to Spain, while Sabine had fled to Germany. Clearly, this thing was too hot to handle, and any mention that Gerrish had spoken to either child could have landed him in trouble with police, who would want to know why he had not reported it to them.

Given that the police would already have his name, as the original recipient of the email from Ella, it would seem reasonable for him to try to keep a low profile on the case. This could also explain why he didn’t jump on the case right out of the gate, but kept a very low profile until it was already in the public sphere. Even then, he was strangely low-key, blanking out the children’s faces and pointedly refusing to mention their names or the names of their mother and her boyfriend.

Gerrish may be many things, but he is not stupid. He would have been well aware of the perils of drawing attention to himself, though it seems that three years out, he’s letting his tongue wag a little more freely.