BBC journalist has reached out asking for more info on ME patient abuse claims

I recommend not saying that. As Prof W disputes it and says he was not involved.

yes IIRC it says he was not involved.

I'm not saying he was or wasnt, only that he says he wasnt & unless anyone has proof that he was, then.....

 

He still lives on the Isle of Man and works in IT, and photography. I don’t recall where I saw this, sorry. He fully recovered and I think he gets a fair amount of requests which he doesn’t take up.
He’s easy to find on LinkedIn etc
https://me-pedia.org/wiki/Ean_Proctor

 

https://www.margaretwilliams.me/200...raight-about-ean-proctor-from-isle-of-man.pdf

This is pretty damning evidence against Wessely and his involvement, no?

 

Sorry Aaron i just not well enough to read/take in all that at the moment so i dont know.
But unless it contains actual letters and reports showing his involvement, rather than quotes from them, then i'd have thought that legally, no its not evidence, it's Margaret's account of evidence.

Thats only my opinion of course & I'm not saying i dont believe her, but i'm not the person who needs to be convinced.
Nor, it must be said, am i in any way any authority on any of this.

I dont want us to poison the well by over-egging the pudding, to mix metaphors. ITs bad enough that it happened, regardless of who did it, and plenty more recent examples, its just interesting to see that things havent moved on hardly at all in decades.

 

In Ean’s MEpedia page there’s a good, sourced overview of S Wessely. Including M Williams.

I agree the researcher doesn’t need to be “told” of his involvement, they can read more about it if that’s what they’re interested in doing.

 

Strongly agree. Remember too that Margaret Williams is a pseudonym. So unless it’s supported by reliable primary sources it is an anonymous account of evidence. Please tread with extreme caution.

Edit: There will be people reading this who know Margaret Williams’s real identity. They may be able put the journalist in contact with him/her if you ask them to PM you.

 

Exactly what John says. I think bringing this up again, at this time, would probably be counterproductive. But if the same journalist wanted to do a wider investigation about how we got to where we are, with patients (including Proctor) being institutionally mistreated based on an unevidenced, unscientific model which has subsequently been shown to be both wrong and harmful, that could be useful. SW is probably more responsible for that than anyone else, but there are many other culprits.

 

“Report of the Select Committee of Tynwald on the Petition for Redress of Grievance of Robin and Barbara Proctor” 19th April 1991, Isle of Man

and 'The McManus report' (McManus Commission of Inquiry into Child Care, Isle of Man) dated May 1994.

https://www.margaretwilliams.me/200...raight-about-ean-proctor-from-isle-of-man.pdf

 

Very best of luck speaking with the journalist, I’m bedbound 95% and I appreciate what you’re doing so much. Here’s a video from a whole back where Ean Procter is interviewed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDeu_OlMivU

Also here’s a website with lots of solid sources which I hope will be helpful:

https://meandmeresources.wordpress.com/

David Tuller’s virology blog is surely the most comprehensive account of the PACE trial - that’d be the best place (or with Tuller himself if poss) for the journalist to fact check Wessely’s precise involvement:

https://virology.ws/david-tuller-posts/

And lastly this by Byron Hyde (reported via Reddit):


THANK YOU!!
ps. Will you let us know what might happen next? I live in hope there will be a Panorama documentary about the PACE scandal one day, and that shows just how utterly horrific this illness can be.

 

Oh also…

Info about the ME papers that were originally sealed for 75yrs (usually it’s 30 and 75 is apparently highly unusual):

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/...ics-wrong-deny-existence-chronic-fatigue.html

https://meassociation.org.uk/2011/0...eld-in-the-national-archives-21-january-2011/

https://retractionwatch.com/2016/08...controversial-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-study/

Nigel Speight describes some more cases of ME patient neglect:
https://meassociation.org.uk/2024/0...ents-with-very-severe-me-by-dr-nigel-speight/

Link to another s4me thread the journalist may be interested in:
https://www.s4me.info/threads/maeve-oneill.23420/page-3

 

Couple more resources for the journalist in case they’re helpful:
https://www.s4me.info/threads/who-is-simon-wessely.9364/page-37

https://www.inclusionlondon.org.uk/...consider-appointment-professor-simon-wessely/

https://valerieeliotsmith.com/2022/07/05/the-poisoned-well-a-history-of-me-in-20-tweets/

 

The problem with the BBC is that DG Tim Davie refuses to answer FoI questions about its tie in with the Science Media Centre, of which Simon Wessely was a founding trustee, it put out a discraceful package by science correspondent Tom Feilden about 'activists' threatening adherents of the Wessely school, and it left Panorama's Matthew Hill out to dry over his documentary 'Sick and Tired.' Who is this BBC journalist? Someone very courageous, I assume. Maybe he/she should look at these, which you mentioned on March 17 2022. https://www.scottishlegal.com/articles/orthodoxy-on-trial-the-pathogenesis-of-a-diagnosis.