Hi all Firstly we would like to thank you all for your kind comments and support on this forum, email, texts etc. most from people we know but some also from total strangers.
We would like to make a couple of amendments to some of facts in the statement by Tod Harriers, with whom Shazz and myself have no quarrels with in fact we have received many messages of support from people in this club who disagree with the outcome to the situation.
After the pendle fell race 2014 I did make a formal complaint of assault and harassment against the RO to west Yorkshire police as they were aware of previous incidents. There were 2 witnesses to the pendle incidents reported. As the statement says the west Yorkshire police did investigate but it was into whether the RO had brought the west Yorkshire police into disrepute not into any criminal allegation made, they deemed he hadn't brought the west Yorkshire police into disrepute and concluded that the RO should receive internal punishment only for his actions, this process overall took several months and at completion I was then advised by west Yorkshire police to take the actual assault case for criminal prosecution to Lancashire police as it was their investigation as it happened in their area. I did this as advised but was informed that due to the incident having occurred over 6 months previous (this was how long it took west Yorkshire police to investigate the disrepute case) then the Lancashire police would not investigate as there is a time limit to reporting a crime, if it had been reported earlier would the outcome have been different?
In relation to the harassment notices, I was advised to take one against the RO to try and deter any further incidents but I was also informed that if I took this action then it would be likely that the RO would counter my notice with one of his own in a tit for tat fashion, which he did and when the officer arrived at my house with the notice I refused to sign and accept it as I did not warrant it and it was in my rights to take this action.
In relation to the notices I have spoken to west Yorkshire police and I have been informed that I could be in the same room as the RO and not be in breach of the notice as it is there to deter verbal and physical harassment unlike an injunction that refrains you from being in the same vicinity, so being at the race would NOT be a breach of the harassment notices as stated in the Tod Harriers statement.
The point of our rejection from the race is to “protect” the RO from coming in to contact with us so will he be entering any of the future champs races, which we always attend and if so is he not putting himself, at his own freewill into the situation that our rejection from flowerscar is in place for? Is he never going to help out at any future Tod events? as the statement says we are not banned from any other Tod races, so what if we arrive and the RO is there would we be turned away on the same grounds as our flowerscar rejection?
Lastly as you are probably now aware both Shazz and myself have been banned from this race but why? It is only myself that has the harassment notice against the RO and vice versa not Shazz, so why is she being excluded ?
A lot of this misconception could have been avoided if, like was mentioned in an earlier forum post that *all* the pertinent facts were made aware to the decision makers and before they formed an opinion they became aware of “all” the relevant facts of a case and not to pre judge, which in this case has happened as we have had no correspondence with the decision makers ourselves, we sent a quick email trying to highlight the brief facts in time for their AGM but have not received a response to this and therefor are unable to put our full case forward for their consideration, therefore a decision has been made on only half of the facts !
After all that has been said all we want is to be able to run and enjoy our sport and its fantastic community without any hassle and it is our belief that personal issues should be kept away from the fells as they should be uncomplicated and be available to all.
Again I would like to thank everyone for their support and kind words
Shaun and Shazz (runners A and B)
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Originally Posted by Richard Head
