Campaign Purpose
Why I Ask for Your Help
Aim of the Campaign and Fund Raising
Progressive Completion of Campaign
One of Gehard's last stops traced on that morning was to Starbucks where he spent what appears to be his regular choice of double shot espresso coffee and a toasted sandwich. If you are abe too, please consider a £5 donation to his campaign (the cost of the coffee and sandwhich) which will help with the extentsive legal fees in fighting for truth and ensuring his right to justice. (Click on the link below)
Photo taken on 18 Aug 2019 - just short of a year after Gerhard died. He lay on his back, neatly covered by his gym towel over his head and torso, with his head resting on his over-shoulder bag. To the right, just over the hedge, is the main road circling Regent's Park and to the front left, the gate entrance to the park (Chester Road), where Gerhard would have been clearly visible to the Met Police officer locking the gate at 9pm, before dark (at which time Gerhard's alarm would also have been sounding on his phone), had he been lying there at that time. It is also an area regularly used by people doing exercise routines, and a busy pathway just on the left, leading to the gate.
What Happened
In a very short introduction, Gerhard left home on Saturday, 1 September 2018 to attend a climbing course at his club. He was late and so we agreed by sms, just before he left the club, to meet a bit earlier than planned at London Kings Cross Station to enjoy one of our regular walking activities through the city.
I arrived but he had disappeared and I found him deceased in Regents Park the next day.
Met Police declared his cause of death unknown but also unsuspicious resulting in a limited autopsy (not forensic) and a ceased police investigation, other than that requested by the coroner which left the case open until conclusion of the inquest.
It quickly became clear to me that there appeared to be a substantial effort of cover up by Met Police and a kangaroo process being followed by the coroner and in which she finally ruled suicide, despite substantial evidence to the contrary. Later forensic testing of Gerhard’s phone and review of his electronic equipment revealed material evidence substantiating further that Gerhard did not commit suicide and that he was killed. Although I don’t know precisely what happened at the scene, the evidence is starting to stack up to planned, premeditated murder. Throughout this site, I refer to killing rather than murder, only because the intimate facts have not yet been completely established nor tested through a proper court of law.
Gerhard’s lungs collapsed from a massive dose of GHB, and he suffocated. I remain resolute that GHB was not a weapon used in suicide, it was a weapon used to kill him. It is a lethal weapon and leaves no outward trace nor signature. It is tasteless and odourless, and it would have left him confused, dazed and powerless to defend himself. He never stood a chance against his attackers.
Westminster Morturay, Horesferry Road London. Gerhard's body is held in the mortuary freezers behind the large gates in the inconspicuous building with the two windows behind them. Just before completion of the 2nd day of Inquest, it was through those gates I had to walk to get Gerhard's clothes that he wore on the day he dissapeared and the large towel that he was covered with when I found him.
Gerhard’s body remains in Westminster mortuary only because of the length of time for Police Complaints of corruption to be investigated. Most remain open to this day. The cases that have been investigated are blatantly flawed and forms part of the evidence into cover up.
Recently, the Westminster Senior Coroner gave me 15 days to remove Gerhard and bury him, or Westminster Council will bury him. I have fought back to ensure his wounds, which may still contain evidence, are not destroyed. Camden Council ultimately came to the rescue and gave me until 30 November 2021 to conduct the forensic autopsy required before burial.
Grafitti photographed by Gerhard in Camden on 30 March 2018.
Why I Ask for Your Help
Gerhard and I were not well off, being two ordinary guys working our 9 – 5 jobs and having carried the cost of relocation to the UK with our three sausage dogs following along with us, barking mad. Gerhard in administration and me an accountant. The eyewatering conversion from the South African Rand to the British pound took some getting used to, but we got there, and we made ends meet living a very middle-class life.
From the time we met to the day of his death, we had been together just on 15 years, the last 5 of which we were married.
The year and a half before his death strained us financially and, on his death, it plunged me into serious financial challenges dealing with the reality of coping alone, and an endless process of engagement with Met Police, the coroner and government to try and get support in understanding the truth behind what happened and what transpired subsequently. Instead of support, I received deceit and obstruction. I simply don’t have the resources to challenge their might.
Gerhard himself was a decent guy who was well liked by colleagues and friends. He suffered with Asperger Syndrome (not professionally diagnosed but we spoke about it and acknowledged it) and he sometimes battled to cope with his environments – work, marriage and friendships. It left him feeling lonely, isolated and frustrated and because of it, we agreed to give our marriage some space and allow him to venture into London to explore a “new world” for himself without the encumbrances of marriage. It was to ensure honesty and remove the need to lie or hide anything from each other. We did not define an end date or an outcome. The story of letting the bird fly away and if it returns, it always was yours, if it doesn’t, it never was. Our relationship was defined by our own love for and inter-dependence on each other. It was our world to define and own.
In that journey, Gerhard stumbled head on into the predatory side of the big city, he was vulnerable to it. He was introduced to drugs and he paid a heavy mental price for it. It triggered psychosis and a rapid break down of his metal health which culminated in a suicide attempt in January 2018. Soon thereafter, he went through a successful process of rehab and had begun a very positive road to returning his life to the potential it always had for him.
Gerhard did wrong. There is no getting away from it. The choices he made were his own. But he took responsibility for them, and he faced up to the challenges of righting them.
He did not deserve to die or be killed for it.
Pippa died in June 2018. She had a last loud woof early in the morning and passed away while I was downstairs preparing their breakfast and Gerhard was at gym. A gift from Gerhard's mother, Annetjie, and named by her, she lived a good 13 years and died peacefully in her bed. Gerhard was making good progress on his recovery and studying for a new career in computer programming and his hobby of creative photography.
And that is why also, I ask for your help.
Gerhard was “the little person”. He was not a leader of the pack, or the life of the party. He was just that ordinary guy, as am I. I must fight for him. And I will fight for him. And I need your help for that. Neither of us will ever have peace without it.
There is one final but important aspect that I would ask you to consider too. It is not about Gerhard or me. It is about corruption in Met Police at senior levels, the injustice of it. It is about a coroner services that has the power to fail without accountability and in effect, contribute and enable institutions such as Met Police and Health Services to cover up and get away with it.
Nothing I do, no justice that may be achieved for Gerhard, will ever bring him back. But by unearthing the truth and exposing the deceptions, I hope it will, with further effort, contribute towards change and by shining a light on it, may prevent someone else having to endure the traumas I and too many others are having, and have had to endure. And that too, is why I ask for your help.
Aim of the Campaign and Fund Raising
I have been working, as best I can, within the “system” in order to, in the first instance, understand the circumstances of what happened to Gerhard and in the second, to ensure his right to proper investigation by Met Police and the coroners, that is thorough and truthful.
Instead, as you will read within the campaign site, I have been confronted with persistent dishonesty to the extent of a shocking level of deceit of which can only be considered as corrupt; it is too great and too frequent to be considered failure. But it did not stop with Policing. The thread continued into the coroner services, a place in which I expected to find the highest level of commitment to truth, and I didn’t.
I have reached the very end of what is possible to work within those systems and am now faced with the only possible approach to breaking open the truth in what lies behind Gerhard’s killing, and events in investigation that followed, being through legal action. A process I truly hoped to avoid, not only because of the frighteningly high cost of it, but also because I believed in the British establishment to be of the finest in the world. Possibly I was just naive, or you may even say, just plain stupid. Well, I did, and I hope in time I may still be able too, but I fear it.
The only realistic way forward now, as I have been advised by legal counsel, is through a High Court Application to have the first inquest quashed and a new inquest sought to reinvestigate the facts of what has transpired. A successful application and outcome from a new inquest will provide the basis for proper and true investigation into:
- Establishing the truth into how Gerhard died
- The extent of any cover up by Met Police officers in the investigation
- The extent of any obstruction and failure of inquisition by the coroner in the first inquest
- If there has been a cover up, what lies behind it, and who has controlled and contributed to it
The costs to date have already been substantial for me, and include:
- Two rounds of Forensic Testing by an independent laboratory of Gerhard’s phone which produced evidence known by Met Police but withheld, and has persistently refused to accept as new evidence in my request to reopen the case.
- Assessment from a barrister on the content of a dossier of the individual discovered in a journal of a list of people who had supplied drugs to him, and who can be substantially and directly linked to Westminster City Council, Ultra High Net Worth London business, government and the Conservative Party at the highest levels possible.
- Instruction to a barrister for:
1. liaison to obtain all evidence presented at inquest which includes scene footage for purpose of the high court application of a new inquest
2. submission to a professional forensics organisation to undertake a private forensic autopsy with reference to specific wounds for evidence that may be contained therein
3. through the same forensic organisation, to independently review all evidence presented at inquest
4. liaison with Met Police to obtain explanation for their actions
5. advice and guidance on the legal implications of information and material that may be published in this campaign.
Total cost to date of the above already paid for has been: £ 18 920
Further costs to for which support is required:
• The immediate cost of a forensic autopsy referred to above that must now be performed by 30 November which is to be quoted. I am unsure of it’s cost but expect it to be approximately £10 000 - £20 0000 especially if there is to be later support in evidence evaluation.
• The cost of the High Court application. The barrister, who is specialised in such applications as well as Police actions, has estimated it to be between £20 000 and £30 000.
• Representation throughout a new inquest process has also been quoted at between £20 000 - £30 000.
Summary of Costs
Already spent £18 920 (myself)
Through funding support:
Forensic Autopsy £10 000
Forensic Evidence Analysis £10 000
New Inquest Application £20 - 30 000
New Inquest Representation £20 - 30 000
Total Cost still to be incurred: £80 000
The objective is to raise as many funds as possible by a realistic date of 31 January 2022 in order to commence with the High Court Application and to continue to ensure funds are available to ensure full and proper representation at Inquest. The stakes are too high for anything less.
Photographed by Gerhard at the Leak Street Tunnels, Waterloo Station on 14 April 2018, on one of our many walks in and around London.
Progressive Completion of Campaign
The Fight for Truth in why Gerhard was killed, by whom and the extent of cover up that pursued is a tough battle against a formidable foe; the detail of which is complex, exhaustive and multi-faceted.
No one piece of evidence or behaviour can nor should be considered in isolation. The truth lies in a micro dissection of the evidence covering the pillars of deception which include the physical evidence at the scene and on Gerhard’s body as well as the behaviours and actions of Met Police officers from the most junior levels step wards up to the most senior possible, Coroner behaviours of both the coroner responsible for case management and her immediate boss, the senior coroner, links to Gerhard and the threat he posed to the political climate at the time of his killing, and the threat of organised crime it held over senior politicians and business persons in London.
Contained in it, lies proof and motive.
Within the time frames available, the need for current action and a continuously evolving landscape surrounding the investigations into Gerhard’s killing, it is not possible to present the campaign as a single “novel”.
In order to better achieve the aims of the campaign and allow the reader to digest the information and facts that are presented, it is easier, and I hope more effective, to write, present and release it in phases with the intention of weekly or at least bi-weekly updates to the website and notifications to any followers of those updates and release of new information to be done through newsletter email notification.
Social media is a useful platform but difficult and costly to target due to its randomness. In any case, I have limited social media savvy and an even more limited social media following. Hopefully along the way, through public interest and support, the fight for truth can gain momentum.
It is my intention also to reach out to wealthy interested parties and to support organisations to better achieve the objectives in fighting for truth. It is also my objective to use print media and pamphlet distribution to achieve a wider public reach.
The areas of next focus will be surrounding the threat that Gerhard posed, the political landscape at the time of his death and during the inquest, the relationship between politics and policing which has had the potential of enabling the cover up, and the links of Gerhard’s killing to the Conservative Party.
The next phase, once the landscape has been laid, will be to dissect the evidence and lead on to the finalisation of just exactly who would have had a vested interest in Gerhard’s killing and ensuring his death be recorded as suicide.
I would ask the reader to see the process through to the end, giving support where you can in allowing truth to triumph.
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