Secret Reports

The request was successful.

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

I made a FOI request as the Data Subject on 29/6/09 asking for copies of reports that were written about myself by Wirral Council's Department of Adult Social Services Service Manager Mark Jones in 2007.

I received the following reply on 13/8/09:

"Good Morning,

I must make sure you understand the current situation and I want to be as clear as possible so there is no misunderstanding. Wirral Council has no knowledge of these alleged reports ever having existed and we have no copies of them on our systems. As I have stressed previously, neither DASS HR or Corporate HR or our Group Solicitor; who were all involved with your grievance/ whistleblowing has ever had sight of any such reports.

I understand this is not the response you wanted, but it is a truthful answer and I have asked all appropriate personnel about the alleged reports. This is why I took the liberty of sending you all the information that we do hold so the Council is being as open and transparent as possible.

I am sorry I am unable to help you further in this particular matter.

Kindest Regards

Jane Corrin".

Notwithstanding the erroneous and patronising response I assert that these reports have always existed and there are at least 4 witnesses (including myself) who can testify to the fact that these reports were accessible on the internal Wirral Council server in May 2007.

Furthermore I know that these reports were entitled: "Personal Treatment" and "MM Grievance Analysis".

For clarification the former report starts off with the statement that "Martin is always right" and concludes that "Everyone despises him".

The latter report is much more concerning as it contains such comments as "State or imply that MM was abusing sick leave(!)" and Mr.Jones requests access to my confidential Occupational Health reports.

Whilst I accept that Mr.Jones was married to my line manager (Sheila Finnigan-Jones) at this particular time,I cannot accept that this gave him legitimate access to my medical records.

Therefore this particular FOI request is concerned with the following:

a) Confirmation that the above reports "Personal Treatment" and "MM Grievance Analysis" written by DASS employee Mark Jones were saved on the Wirral Council server in 2007 and acknowledgement and full public access be made to these documents.

b) Full details of Wirral Council employees to whom these reports were forwarded to ( It has been alleged by a cedible witness that a former DASS Director requested that Mr.Jones worked from home for a nember of days to compile the above reports so I can only assume that Mr.Jones did not embark on these reports for his own amusement)

c) Copies of all correspondence from Mark Jones requesting access to my confidential Occupational Health records.

As I am requesting forensic examination of historical electronic records (which I understand from working for Wirral Council should be readily available) I wish to be advised as to whether there will be a "reasonable charge".

Yours faithfully,

Martin Morton

Kemal Houghton left an annotation ()

I can testify that the reports requested by Martin Morton most certainly did exist and that they were stored on the main server, without any security,where anyone could access them. I'm not surprised that they have been moved to a more secure place, if not deleted altogether, but surely there must still be some paper copies around - unless Tom Ryan has had them shredded.

The Loose Cannon left an annotation ()

Am I right in thinking that, although documents are moved and/or deleted from a server, they do still exist and can be accessed by an IT forensics expert?

Dear Wirral Borough Council,

Please can an internal review of the attached original request be actioned.

http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/se...

Yours faithfully,

Martin Morton

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

4 Attachments

Good Morning,
Thank you for your email below. An ICT Officer has conducted a
historical search across documents held within the time frame specified;
using key search words and the following attached documents were
retrievable.
There may be some repetition in the documents and you may have already
had sight of some of the content from your original request for
information.
However I have included the 4 documents and hope you find the
information of use.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

show quoted sections

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

I originally requested two of these documents (which I always knew existed) on 11th October 2007 when I asked DASS HR Manager Tom Ryan to access my personnel file.

This resulted in the infamous shred-fest which Mr.Ryan authorised on the same day and subsequently lied about and despite an appeal to DASS Director John Webb soon after to investigate this incident I have had to wait until August 2010 for definitive evidence that DASS managers have colluded with a co-ordinated and callous cover-up (forgive the alliteration).

The 2 additional documents you have provided (and for which I thank you) are curious as the the authorship is ambiguous.The contents are direct quotes from correspondence I received in a letter from former DASS Director Kevin Miller in 2007.
However can you please confirm that the "Analysis of
Martin Morton's Grievance" document was written by Mark Jones (writing in the third person).

Considering the time delay in confirming the existance of these documents (which as my original request details were originally denied) I can't help but be taken aback by the sheer breathtaking cynicism of releasing the documents two weeks after the announcement of a full Independent Enquiry into this scandalous case.

I'm not shooting the messenger here.It must be utterly dispiriting that your so called loyal and honest colleagues would compromise you in such a way.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Morton

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

Shameful and disgusting. They HAVE been lying. Well, we knew that anyway, but here's the proof.

InfoMgr, FinDMT, Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council

Good Afternoon,
Thank you for your email below. I have checked the properties stored on
the documents in question and there is no author's name; I am unable
therefore to confirm the identity of the author of the documents.
Kind Regards
Jane Corrin
Information Manager
Wirral Council

show quoted sections

Dear InfoMgr, FinDMT,

Thank you for trying.

Yours sincerely,

Martin Morton

nigel hobro left an annotation ()

And what happened to the people who said this report was never written, never existed and could not be found.

In all the half excuses of the documents provided , blown up into a justification for MM's treatment the one thing we do KNOW...is that these documents were deliberately concealed for several years.Normally when WBC has, and only when WBC absolutely has , clear evidence and indisputable , do they act, Did they in this instance?

Martin Morton left an annotation ()

Dear Nigel
The irony is , guess what? - I had the reports all along and had them since 2007!........
Mark Jones had left them on the Council's main server so anybody could access them ( and a few people did).
However he and others (as witnessed above) continued to deny their existence.
At a memorable meeting with former Director of Law Bill Norman and my then solicitor - he also denied their existence .Much to his surprise (and indeed my solicitor's) I then produced the documents from my brief case and asked him to comment.
He asked whether the documents were signed as without a signature there was no proof that Mark Jones had written them.
I subsequenty approached Jones 's wife Sheila Finnigan- Jones at a social event at The Brass Balance in Argyle St- placed the documents before her with a letter asking her and her husband to tell the truth about the documents as they were deemed inadmissable as evidence of conspiracy and harassment.
After I left she apparently burst into tears.She and her husband then refused to be Martin Smith Bullying investigation and complained to Bill Norman who wrote to me about compromising the investigation....because as we know telling the truth always compromises an investigation.
Martin Smith fails to mention any of the above in his woeful report
and coyly refers to "management reports".
However there is a couple of paragraphs in his report which highlight the staggering dishonesty (and on which he makes no comment).Former DASS Director Kevin Miller denies any knowledge of the reports only for his HR Manager Tom "The Shred" Ryan to dob him in it and say it was Miller who commissioned the reports and based his response to my grievance on what Mark Jones had written!!!.
I had draft copies of these secret reports when Jones called in to the office called "the naughty room" and a colleague asked him what he was doing - he looked straight at me and said : " If I told you I'd have to kill you ....if I get the chance to work closely with the Director I'm going to take it".
I wrote this sly devious exchange on an envelope - which I still have.
Are you getting an idea of what I was up against?
Regards,Martin

nigel hobro left an annotation ()

Yes indeed. A historic moment occurs to me and it is recorded in State Trials.

Thomas More would not breach the Act of Supremacy by denying the King's supremacy over the Church in england. He had been a friend of Henry VIII so the Chief minister Cromwell was up against it to be rid of him. Thomas More kept silent on this question thereby not committing the now capital offence of denying the supremacy.

Cromwell approached Richard Rich , a pupil in law of Sir Thomas More and had him give witness in court that he had heard ther former Lord Chancellor deny the supremacy. For that perjury Richard Rich received the Attorney-Generalship of Wales

Saint Thomas answered in court

"I would not sell my soul for the whole world, but for Wales??"

Martin Morton left an annotation ()

Most appropriate as Mark Jones returned to his native land along with fellow collaborators Sheila Finnigan-Jones and Phil Gilroy and sought refuge in Wales ( All initially Wrexham Social Services with the latter moving on to Denbigh).
Needless to say their careers have flourished in the wake of destroying mine.
I still wouldn't be them.

Paul Cardin left an annotation ()

And when you two were making these last two annotations, I was enjoying my 55th birthday...

...in WALES.