19th February 2025

After over 200 posts about The Stealing of Emily, we want to take a moment to thank all of you—nearly 600 readers—for engaging with our content.

One issue we haven’t yet covered is the theft of children’s Child Trust Funds. Banks have misappropriated these funds, affecting approximately 1.4 million children and young adults.

At the time, the government incentivized parents to deposit their own money into these accounts, promising that the funds would be available to help their children start their adult lives. However, instead of being accessible, this money now sits in bank-controlled slush funds, with little hope of children ever receiving what is rightfully theirs.

Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman and the Police Ombudsman have been ignored. Letters to the Prime Minister of England—despite changes in leadership—have resulted in nothing more than a generic response:

“Your message has been passed to the relevant Government Department for their attention.”

This has not changed under multiple Prime Ministers and, quite frankly, is just passing the buck—especially when the latest leader claimed he would make changes for the betterment of the public. Now, what is that old adage? Never trust a solicitor… or was it a sales agent?

“My daughter was a minor when this investigation commenced. Under the law, any ongoing investigation at that time must be considered as mitigation based on her status as a minor at that date, rather than at the later date of the investigation itself.”

The OPNI just produced a data report with no content from the Police, stating that the Police had done nothing wrong—despite being entrusted with locating my daughter, who has been missing since 2016. All OPNI did was cite Article 3 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which defines its territorial scope and determines when and where the regulation applies. They merely padded out my letters with my email signature and blacked out three instances where it stated:

“The system has been failing for more than 14 years—why has nothing been done to halt this corruption of services? Why is my daughter, Emily, missing and not locatable when East Sussex claimed they could provide better care than I could? She is not. Why is she turning into another Madeleine McCann? What are you going to do about this?”

Most critically, my daughter has been missing and unaccounted for after 14 years in the care system following her mother’s death—this due to East Sussex County Council’s failure to act.

Most critically, my daughter has been missing and unaccounted for after spending 14 years in the care system following her mother’s death—due to East Sussex County Council’s failure to act.

Mr. Keith Glazier head of East Sussex local Authority informed us that this ongoing mismanagement had resulted in East Sussex accumulating millions of pounds in debt. Despite clear warnings that the council was on track to double this amount—pushing it toward financial collapse—he refused to implement any meaningful changes. Instead of addressing the root causes of the crisis, the council deflected responsibility, blaming the government minister for failing to provide sufficient funding.

Even when it was pointed out that vast sums of public money were being wasted and that the care being provided was inadequate—failing to meet even the most basic standards—no action was taken. The refusal to acknowledge or correct these systemic failures has left vulnerable individuals, including children, at continued risk, while taxpayers bear the burden of a spiralling financial disaster.

So what about IBAC and the Children’s Director who was reportedly responsible for destroying customer complaints in East Sussex, Kent, and Norfolk? IBAC was unable to investigate in England after failing to hold Dunkley accountable—he is believed to have escaped using a visa that had already expired.

It seems that, in relation to Ultranet, there was a strong desire to remove him. Since the OVIC investigation, everything has gone quiet, and the requested information has still not been provided.

Well, something must have happened, right? It seems the government has finally had enough of the corruption within many local authorities. The Ministry of Housing is now running a consultation on restructuring governance in Hastings, East Sussex, and the surrounding areas, including Brighton and Hove.

The proposal aims to create a devolved single-authority structure with a directly elected mayor, replacing the current fragmented system. The government argues that this change is necessary to curb wasteful spending and tackle the corruption that has plagued these councils. Contact details can be found on the activity overview page at https://consult.communities.gov.uk/lggc/sussex-and-brighton-devolution-consultation/

We have already participated in this consultation process, which is set to conclude in April 2025. We will be sharing more details in our next post—so stay tuned and keep reading!

New powers and investment: how East Sussex could benefit from devolution

A message from Keith Glazier

“You may have seen that the government has agreed a plan to transfer more powers and funding to people in Sussex: a change known as devolution.

“The government wants more decisions to be taken locally – on things like large transport projects, planning housing, and economic growth. Some of the funding for these will also be controlled locally.

“In charge of those new powers and money would be a combined authority for the whole of Sussex. This new body would be made up of a mayor to be elected by you in May 2026 and representatives from East Sussex County Council and our neighbours in West Sussex and Brighton & Hove. “As leader of East Sussex County Council, I support this opportunity. I believe it will give you (and our neighbours) a bigger say on decisions which are made at the moment in Westminster. As well as money to fund them.”Local councils in East Sussex will continue to provide almost all of your day-to-day services and will work closely with a mayor and combined authority on the largest issues which affect all of Sussex.

“This opportunity will bring some other changes. One is that the government has decided to postpone county council elections due in May in places where devolution is planned, including in East Sussex.

“This will allow work to prepare for the election of a Sussex mayor in 2026 and avoids spending more than £1.5 million of public money this year.

“In future the government also plans for you to be served by just one council (known as ‘unitary government’) rather than the present two-tier system of East Sussex County Council and a borough or district council (Eastbourne, Hastings, Lewes, Rother or Wealden).

“Discussions about how to arrange this are continuing and we will keep you updated.

“Right now, this does not mean any changes to your services. I can assure you that we’re working harder than ever to try and meet your needs, even in this toughest of financial times.

“The government has begun a public consultation on its plans for devolution and you can give your views from now until 13 April.”