Brian Pead and an associate went to the St Peter and St Paul’s church at West Newton in Norfolk to film some short videos for this website on their mobile phones. Although sunny, it was quite windy and, wanting to avoid the wind whistling through the videos, they filmed while sitting just inside the church porch.
They had noted a suspicious-looking couple posing as tourists who, by their behaviour, clearly weren’t tourists. Nonetheless, they got on with making some videos about the books From Hillsborough to Lambeth and Framed!
They had completed five videos (each lasting around 5 minutes) when suddenly another couple appeared. The female took the lead and began asking what Brian and his associate were doing. Neither Brian nor his male associate (who was doing the filming) had an obligation to tell her anything since they were in a public place and filming private videos about True Crime books is not a crime.
Nonetheless, Brian told the female that they were filming videos about two of his books. The female bombarded them with further questions and then Brian asked her for her name and why she appeared to be so interested in what two innocent members of the public were doing in a public space where no crimes were being committed. She said she was “the Verger” and gave her name as “Rachel”. (Brian later checked this out and it appears that a “Rachel Stewart” is the Verger at that church (and others). Apparently she shares a surname with the Choir Mistress who was dispatched a little while ago…
Then things started taking a turn for the worse. The male accompanying Ms Stewart said that he was the “musical director” but otherwise didn’t speak.
When Verger Stewart asked what the books were about, Brian answered, “Child abuse and police corruption.” This appeared to throw the Verger off balance and she started to claim that she was being “shouted at” – since recordings were still being made, it would have been stupid to misbehave. There was no “shouting” and the video and audio recordings prove that.
But the question remains – “Why would a ‘God-fearing’ Verger lie so easily?”
Verger Stewart claimed that she was going to “call the Rector” to check if he was happy for filming to be taking place. The Reasonable Person would ordinarily have expected her to call the Rector while she was standing near Brian and his associate but instead she walked off 100 yards to make the call before returning.
About three minutes or so later, armed police arrived – a male and a female officer, whose collar numbers Brian duly noted.
Question 2 – “Why would armed police attend such an innocent filming incident?”
Question 3 – “Why would the Verger call the Police, or did she call the Rector and he call the Police?”
Question 4 – “If the Rector called the Police, why did he do so?”
It must be remembered that Brian and his well-behaved associate had committed no crimes, were lawfully filming videos in a public space, were not noisy or causing a nuisance to anyone else – in fact, there was nobody else around because the “tourist couple” had gone, possibly to inform the Verger who turned up about ten or fifteen minutes later (possibly having driven over from Sandringham where she appears to be based.) Thus, no crimes were being committed and neither Brian nor his associate were acting suspiciously in any way (as can be evidenced from the videos they were filming.)
Both armed officers had their bodycams turned on and Brian asked for the footage to be sent to him. The female claimed that he wasn’t entitled to it – which is not true at all.
Brian suggested that the best way to defuse such a situation was for him and his associate to film elsewhere though, due to the light changing rapidly (even though it was around 4pm) they ceased filming for the day.
When logging on to ascertain the name of the Rector so that he could file a complaint about the “over the top”/ emotionally unintelligent response from Verger Stewart, Brian started joining up some dots…
…it turns out that the Rector is a friend of King Charles III.
… that Rector Paul Williams came from Tewkesbury Abbey and, upon taking office at West Newton (and other Sandringham churches) dispatched a very popular Choir Mistress, causing “an unholy row” amongst parishioners.
… https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/king-s-church-row-vicar-choirmaster-b1236639.html
O, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive!
It would be clear to any right-thinking individual that an armed response to two men innocently filming videos for this website on their mobile phones is a remarkable response and “way over the top”. The Reasonable Person would be driven to conclude that the Verger & the Rector had been triggered by Brian’s use of the phrase “Child abuse and police corruption.”
The videos can be found on this website under the VIDEOS tab.
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