Maggie Oliver and the conspiracy crew?

In yesterday’s Comments section, some of our readers were discussing the recent “police whistle-blowers'” meeting which took place last week in Manchester.

In attendance at the conference were people like Jon Wedger, the ex-MET officer who claims he was harassed out of his job for being too diligent in his pursuit of a paedophile ring; Maggie Oliver, who resigned her position as detective constable with the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) claiming that the force had failed the victims of the Rochdale sex grooming scandal, and…Robert Green?

Mr Wedger, who we last saw wandering along a canal pathway  with Bill Maloney, discussing his belief in the RAINS shit-list of alleged paedophiles infamously compiled by Dr Joan Coleman in the early 1990s, introduced Robert thus:

Let me introduce our first civilian of the evening, we’ve got Robert Green, and Robert come to prominence…a few years ago because he’d exposed a child prostitution ring that involved special needs Down syndrome children, and for the fruits of his honesty and integrity, he was banged up in prison! 

So Robert, if you could tell us really, your story’s quite well known, but…in essence, what did they end up doing to you?

We strongly suspect that the innocent victims of Robert Green’s hate campaign might take issue with Mr Wedger’s description.

In fact, following Robert’s 2012 conviction, a Crown Office spokesperson said,

This was a serious matter involving the publication of offensive and alarming allegations which had a significant impact on the people who were the subject of the material George Robert Green published.

Following a trial on summary complaint, Green was convicted of breach of the peace and breaches of bail. Sentencing is a matter for the court.

Much like the harassed and defamed families of Hampstead, Robert Green’s victims were attacked out of the blue, and had to endure years of abuse from those who supported Anne Greig’s bizarre allegations.

It’s hard to believe that Mr Wedger, who recently said that he and notorious conspiranoid Maloney have been friends for about seven years, and who is also pals with Brian Gerrish, would be unaware that his friends promote conspiracy theories such as the Hollie Greig hoax. As a police officer, we’d have expected him to have the judgement to separate ludicrous, ungrounded fantasy from real, verifiable evidence.

Similarly, we’ve been dismayed to see a woman many of us consider a real-life heroine hitching her wagon to this shameless parade of conspiracy spinners.

Maggie Oliver, known best for having taken an ethical stance in favour of the young female victims of grooming in the Rochdale case, has been popping up quite regularly in the company of Mr Wedger et al, from the party at the end of his canal walk earlier this year to last week’s “police whistle-blowers” gathering.

We understand that Ms Oliver expressed support for Mr Wedger when he left the MET in  2016. It seems natural that an affinity might form between two police officers who felt that their forces had let down both them and those they’d tried to help.

However, it seems that Mr Wedger has chosen a very different path. He has been waging a publicity campaign of late, and attempting to raise money through various means, such as his “I Stand with Jon Wedger” whistle-blower-wear page.

Yes, you too can own your very own Jon “Puppy-eyes” Wedger coffee mug or t-shirt, for the low, low price….

We don’t know whether Maggie Oliver fully understands the reputation of this crowd, but it seems very unlikely that befriending them will do anything to enhance her own image, nor to promote the values which she stands for. This would be a real pity, as the world really does need more people who are willing to stand up and speak out for the vulnerable and the disenfranchised. We hope she will quickly learn to tell the difference between real whistle-blowers and the sham variety.