How British Police Assaulted Me – Adeyinka

We have all read sad stories of Police assault in our daily papers: the young man with the sunny smile and the bright future who was gunned down in his suburb. The depressed dad with financial problems selling cigarette on the street who was choked to death by the Police in front of passerby. And we think: How terrible! How tragic! We turn the page. Life goes on.

And then, one day, life blows up in your face. You get the news that someone you love – a son, a dad, a husband, a wife, a daughter, a best friend – has been killed or assaulted by the Police.

It happened to me – one Tuesday morning in September 2015. Lukily, I am still alive to tell my story.

I have spent the last five months in a state of acute anxiety. The blame for my appalling situation lies with the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, which should never have charged me.

Prior to my arrest and detention on the 8th September 2015, my wife and I had agreed to a mediation settlement and have done so amicably in 2012. We had agreed a financial settlement between us and a joint custody arrangements through the help of an independent third party (Camden Mediation), shortly after I had filed for a divorce.

 

Two years on, however, relations with Opeyemi, my estranged wife, still sounds cool, at best. We get on well enough to manage our children in a co-operative and efficient way. She lives in the village, the children stay three nights in one week with her and four nights with me. Life is centered around school runs and ferrying the children to extracurricular activities.

 

Life happened! The mediated agreement for joint custody of the children I had with Opeyemi had broken down because she had not complied with it reliably since June 2015. She wanted us back together as husband and wife. I wanted her to sign a postnuptial agreement as the minimum condition to be with her again. She became sensitive about my relationship with other women, accused me of cheating and moved out, taking the children with her and prevented the joint custody from being effective.

The next two months, I appealed to her through her family, friends and my family to allow me access to our children and for them to attend school as she had removed the children from school. This, she refused.

I refuse to agree I’m less important in the lives of our children than their mother. It is insulting and untrue. Mothers and fathers are equal and should share out time, according to practicalities, so I petitioned the Family Court to make an enforceable order for her to comply with our mediated agreements.

I read online Lord Chancellor and Lord Falconer legislation on provocation, particularly in domestic settings, referring to the sentencing advisory panel of manslaughter by reason of provocation and copied this as a Whatsapp message to Opeyemi’s uncle. This was my tenth Whatsapp messages to him in over two months after his niece had taken our children away, pleading with him to help me with access to my children. I had hoped the message will force him to intervene in the situation. He misconstrued it wrongly and interpreted the message as a threat. He forwarded it to my estranged wife, who then blackmailed me with the message.

I worry about our children not going back to school after the summer holiday. It’s hard enough for Ademidun who was born with learning difficulty and kids with learning difficulties love routine, so if I wasn’t there, there would be a meltdown. We knew from preschool onwards that he had some issues, because he didn’t integrate with other children. We regard him as our great gift, because he’s opened a whole world to us. Our journey to support him and recognize his special abilities has also forged a huge bond between us all.

Plenty of parents of kids who have issues run into problems because of the husband – and it usually is the husband – cannot accept that their son isn’t going to be them. That was never true in my case. I have always loved Ademidun for who he is. But to have my estranged wife denied him education was something I am not going to accept. So, as a last resort, I had gone to the Police on the 8th September 2015 to try and get a police escort that will accompany me to my estranged wife’s address, and collect our children in order for them to attend school.

I was so scared – the people I had always been brought up to believe are there to help you and protect you were physically assaulting me. I thought they were going to kill me.

For refusing to avail them my mobile phone when they wouldn’t disclose why I was being arrested, one policeman ran into the room and without saying anything bodytackled me, smashing my head on the wall in the process. The second joined in and they violently kicked and punched me, twisted my hands to my back. The officers never explained why they were arresting me.

I was pushed against the wall with a hand around my throat. I blanked out for a second and they smashed my head onto the table, at which point I told them to stop treating me as a slave. They beat me the more, accused me of playing a racist card and I was dragged down to the Custody Sergent’s desk and then bundled into a cell.

After the beating, the Police contacted the nearest hospital and have a doctor come over to observe me. They were significantly worried my breathing was abnormal. I requested for painkillers and led back to the cell.

The Police then made an impossible and absurd allegation against me that I confided in one of them to go and kill my wife if am granted a bail. They told my estranged wife and her uncle exactly what they were going to say in their statements, that they believed I am going to kill her. They bullied them into making false statements against me.

The experience is traumatic and horrific. It’s obviously very raw, and while the bruises have healed, the mental scaring is probably going to be the hardest to heal.

I have spent the last five months on remand at a maximum security prison in a state of acute anxiety. Whilst imprisonment can ruin lives, no one is in any doubt that it should be taken seriously. But, vexatious allegations can ruin lives too. That is something Tokunbo AremoOdua (a pseudonym for Tunde Ogboye, who now goes by the moniker Tunde Salam) and co should have considered before embarking on their disgraceful malicious allegations about me. Acting on the say-so of my estranged wife, AremoOdua and co made false sexual allegations and malicious claims about my conduct and launched a high-profile assault on my person, causing huge distress to my life and drove me to suicide whilst in custody.

Given my reputation, to have these people accussed me of something I haven’t done, was a bit rough. Seeking to pursue a vendatta against me for political differences, AremoOdua accussed me of raping and attacking my estranged wife with a knife. He claimed he had contacts within the Police in England and that I was assaulted by the Police for resisiting arrest. He mocked me, told me over the phone how the Yoruba were happy I have been locked away and that the Ibo are facing tough time under Buhari and have got no time to help me. He said several horrible things to me and even concluded it was my support for Jonathan that got me into trouble.

Indeed, the case against me was a Whatsapp message I had sent to my estranged wife’s uncle to try and reinforce a demand for access to my children as per mediated agreement; two months after she had prevented me access to our children on allegation that am having an affair with another woman. AremoOdua and co have dragged an innocent man’s reputation through the mud. Yet, none of them hasn’t had the decency to apologise. I do not wish my message to be about him and others (redacted names). I just want people to know how he took advantage of my helpless situation to show his hatred towards me whilst he accussed the Ibo of being responsible for my predicament.

Whenever a problem arises, the innocent is invariably blamed, and then condemned before he or she has a chance to explain himself or herself. It is all rooted in a disease that causes rational people to hate anyone they do not agree with. I am not taking this lightly. The Police have picked on the wrong person. This is going to be a full prosecution. I don’t care how long it takes or how high it has to go.

I have won the first battle. I had written a letter to the Judge from prison complaining about the difficulties with disclosure of further Whatsapp messages I had sent to my estranged wife’s uncle which the Police had refused to disclose. I saw the failure to make these messages available as a breach of the prosecution duties of disclosure and an abuse of process. I had wanted the case dismissed. But in court, the Judge showed great concern as to how the prosecution had responded to my disclosure request and granted me a bail on his own volition after five months on remand.

A need to see the world in black and white lies behind the Police desperation to see me pay for a crime that has not been proven beyond an alleged Whatsapp message that was sent not to cause distress or anxiety, but merely to reinforce a demand for access to my children.

Sorry to be a bore, but I need your help and support. I have been locked up in prison on remand since the 8th September 2015 until yesterday, 1st February 2016. The Police assaulted me, alleged that am playing a racist card for resisting thier assault and thus racially aggravated the charges against me. I want to fight till I get justice. I have done so with the help of my siblings and close family friends since September 2015. I need your moral and financial support to finish the fight. My trial has now been adjourned for the 29th of February 2016.

Thank you.

Adeyinka Grandson