Council worker "lied" about police investigation of artist Victoria Culf

[DustyWindowsills]

I dimly recall a news story about this last year. Artist Victoria Culf, while setting up an exhibition at Council premises (a museum), chatted about gender issues with a council worker (who brought up the subject). Subsequently the Council blocked her from easy access to her own exhibition, on the grounds of a police investigation into a hate crime. She is now suing the Council.

It now turns out (so her legal team claim) that there was no police investigation. The council worker made it all up. WTAF?

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/council-staff-lied-about-police-investigating-artist-for-gender-views-bbnf5cs2m

This is the Times. Sorry I don't know how to do those archive link thingies.

An archive thingy? Let me

https://archive.ph/qzql6

I really need another word that means dystopia because I feel I'm using or thinking it so much it's getting devalued. The 'council employee', imo, should be named, shamed, fired and charged.

I am staggered at the awful, deliberate targeting of Victoria because she said words that were hurty. Yet, strangely not surprised because as we know, hurty words are punishable by the process. Jenny Stickers in Newport, for example.

Thank you Icake. 🙏🏻

I'm trying my hardest (and possibly failing) to reserve judgement on the council employee's motives and/or mental state. But the Council should have made more effort to verify the facts before taking action against the artist. If she wins the case (and I'm guessing her lawyers wouldn't make this claim without evidence), then perhaps this will be a wake-up call to lazy fuckwits in local government.

Wow! This is why Keir Starmer needs to get serious with these people - there is no end to their lies and deviousness in support of their ‘cause’. What will it take to make them stop?

Bring back the pillory? I'm sure someone could get their hands on some rotten tomatoes to chuck.🍅

That's an awful story but typical of how transactivists have been allowed to behave.
Long overdue for some consequences for certain individuals

Surely its gross misconduct.

This is my local council. I'm absolutely appalled that it happened, especially knowing that I paid for it.
I really hope the whole place isn't captured, I've only noticed a moderate amount of pride stuff etc.

It’s appalling. It’s also appalling that it’s given the Christian Rights group more grist. And I say that as a practising Christian. Thank goodness for JKR.

On the bright side, well done Watford police, on this occasion.

I can’t believe this… and yet I can. When your entire belief system is based on lies and fantasies, why not spin some more? And our taxes pay for these people. Poor Victoria. I hope this case goes everywhere… I keep thinking ‘surely this will be the one that wakes people up’.

I'm of the opinion that the council employee in question should not just be named and shamed but jailed aswell regardless of his/her mental state.
At the best this person started a conversation about trans people expecting a pro trans response, when he/she didn't get the response he/she wanted, he/she tried to get her arrested. When the police shut that down by saying it was free speech not hate speech (😱🥳) this person then lied to his/her employer evern making up a false crime number with the clear intent of sabotaging Victoria's art show and end her career.
This conduct shows malice of for thought, a continuous pattern of lies, intimidation, harassment and victimisation all due to his/her religious and/or philosophical bigotry. Now that's a hate crime right there and the sort of thing that the police should be investigating and the case should be prosecuting.
I truly hope that the police now investigate the council worker and he/she winds up defending his/her actions in a criminal crt. A few prosecutions of TRAs who make malicious reports to the police should shut that shit down once and for all

Thank you for posting this article, and glad that Victoria has support.

this bit is a bit worrying and something I was unaware of

The dispute between Culf and the council comes against the backdrop of concerns over the employment rights bill, which is going through the House of Lords.

When implemented, that legislation will impose a legal duty on employers to “take all reasonable steps” to prevent their employees being “harassed” by third parties.

But critics have argued that legal protections already exist for third-party sexual harassment and physical assaults, and that the reformed law would criminalise conversations between customers or members of the public that are overheard by employees and which they find offensive.

https://christianconcern.com/cccases/victoria-culf/
There is some explanation from Victoria (in the video) on what she says happened. A mother to mother conversation.

Sadly museums and galleries/NT are largely employing these kinds of young people. There’s a huge move to ‘queer’ the collections etc. In the 90s there was a move to employ working class/minority staff, to represent users. Now it’s swung the other way.
PP. whose council it is, I would totally complain. These places don’t exist to reflect the personal opinions of staff, which is what’s happening.
I hope she wins.

It is worrying, it's exactly the problem Free Speech Union have been campaigning about regarding this soon to be law, that Labour are pushing through in it's on going effort to regulate the behaviour and thoughts of a supposedly free society.

I hope Victoria wins, and the council employees at least gets sacked. Maybe Victoria can sue whoever it was after she's finished taking the council to task.

The council worker responsible should be sacked for misconduct in a public office.

Time this shit stopped.

When did it become okay to lie like this to further your own agenda?

If the report is factual imo it is.

As the member of staff abused her position to engage in defamation as she knew that her false claim would be circulated within the various departments ( and that people would gossip about it) and flow back to Victoria Culf. All of which leads to totally avoidable internal financial cost of managing a false claim.

She set about creating a false document trail by claiming there was police ongoing action when police records show a PFO reply to her allegation. Faking a crime number and a "call back" is a high level of dishonesty and maliciousness to deprive someone of their contractual right to freely access the services.

Now the costs involved in a court case and loss of reputation which flows from that.

When the person telling the lie has no personal risk of harm?

I will bet if the staff member believed her pay pension and any other assets were collateral (rather than the taxes of the public she worked for) for the lies told there would have been no lies to begin with.

‘I'm of the opinion that the council employee in question should not just be named and shamed but jailed aswell regardless of his/her mental state.‘

You missed off ‘their’ 👺. Bigot!

For reasons I struggle to comprehend, Council workers enjoy a kind of diplomatic immunity that eludes others in public life, in particular MPs or the Cabinet. Perhaps by the trick of their not being 'public figures' - they always keep their names out of the press, so therefore it's not in the 'public interest' to expose them. Social workers and Safeguarding heads are never ever named in any scandal story, be it awful care homes or the Sara Sharif scandal.

The result is quite brazen, it's horrific - they have absolute power within their own fiefdom and we know what that does to people.

Commenting on the latest evidence around the alleged fabricated police investigation, Culf said that council officials told her “in no uncertain terms” that she was “being investigated by the police and needed to prepare a statement”.

She added that she “genuinely feared a knock at the door or a call asking me to explain myself, or worse”.Culf said that it had now emerged that those fears were based on “a pack of lies, designed to intimidate me”.

This is just awful, the thing is the people who do this often genuinely think they are in the right, standing up for the oppressed and on the "right side of history".

How do you even start with someone willing to be this dishonest in order to promote their beliefs?

Fucking hell that's awful. Really makes me anxious to think that officials can lie like this.

They could still be at risk if Victoria brings a private prosecution, i would but I'm vindictive when it comes to abuses of power

I actually know about this case and the specifics as I’m a local to Watford. Happy to share info once the court case is resolved