Common assault (contd)

Further to our previous entries (see here and here) we have sent notifications of the incident to London North Middlesex Intergroup (which covers the Uxbridge Friday meeting where the assault was reported) with copies to the Trustees of the General Service Board, the General Service Office (York) and London North Region. We have proposed that the Intergroup concerned institute a full enquiry into the incident to ascertain the identities of all involved, then report the matter to the police, and take action to ensure no further repetition. This kind of behaviour cannot and should not be tolerated within the Fellowship. Dependent on the response we receive, and the action subsequently taken, we shall consider what further steps we might take ourselves...... This one isn't going to go away!

We also note from other entries that Richard E has previous 'form' when it comes to threatening or assaulting other members. He has already been arrested and charged for “spitting in a female member's face in a Sunday night meeting in Barnes south-west London”, something which he apparently omits to mention when lecturing the rest of us.

NOTICE

To all of you out there who get your kicks from bullying or sexually exploiting other members (so-called '13 Steppers') we serve YOU notice. We will have absolutely no hesitation in 'outing' you on the site, naming names and giving full details of your conduct together with the groups where you operate. In dealing with you we will follow the same procedure as above passing on information to the relevant intergroup(s) - together with the aforementioned cc's – and, where appropriate, notifying the police

You will no longer be able to act with impunity

We will not collude in covering up your ABUSE

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED 

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anonymous)

Common assault! (contd)

Further to our previous entry “Common assault!” we have been sent further clarification on what actually took place (our thanks to the members who provided the info).

Firstly the meeting in question was Uxbridge Friday night. See below:

Apparently this locale has become a focus of a “Big Book fundamentalist cult” (possibly Primary Purpose - and see here) which has infested the Uxbridge, Slough, Ruislip and Harefield areas (you will note the name Richard E crops up … more on this particularly nasty piece of work later)

The cult members in question introduce themselves as recoverED (as distinguished from those who are merely 'recoverING', an inferior species, something which is made clear in the formers' sharing which is generally arrogant and “belittles the rest of the fellowship as being useless etc”). According to our correspondents the woman in question (whom we will refer to as the 'assaultee' as opposed to sponsee, and her sponsor as the abuser) was herself a rather unappealing character (not that this justifies the assault in any way) who shared that should she fail to phone her abuser at the precise time the phone would be slammed down on her. Moreover her abuser did not make suggestions but rather issued “rules and orders”. The woman's subsequent sharing was “littered” with numerous quotes from the Big Book whilst the general impression given was of someone who had been thoroughly “brainwashed”, her voice even being described as sounding “like a robot”. When time came for other members to 'share back' as is customary the assaultee made a point of ignoring those who were 'not on message' and instead ostentatiously read her Big Book while they were sharing. Clearly common courtesy does not constitute part of the cult curriculum.

Our correspondents add:

“But it does look like cult violence is on the up in AA. There is a thug who goes to the Friday Hampton Wick cult meeting called Richard . And he has apparently threatened to "punch the lights out" of anyone who openly challenges his supreme sponsorial authority. And he is sponsored by another nutter called Rupert who has set up yet another cult meeting in Surrey somewhere. A friend of mine attended it recently and said it was sickening. This is what happens when the prisoners run the prison, and the lunatics run the asylum. People come to AA to try and stay sober, not to fight endless battles with criminal gangsters and sociopathic loonies”.

Richard's hobbies (apart from threatening to punch people's “lights out”) include verbal abuse as well as a general liking for getting “physical”. Apparently he was a gangster in a previous incarnation. Seems like not a lot's changed there then! An altogether sick and twisted specimen!

Cheers

The Fellas (Friends of Alcoholics Anomymous)

PS More to follow on this …....

Suicide in Gerrards Cross

A recent email: 

“Hi love your site - don’t suppose you can tell me who runs it? Does it originate in Beaconsfield? I don’t like the cult meetings. Never been to Ealing but I've experienced Harefield Friday. I've met that Richard. He scares the shit out of me. He came to Uxbridge and told everyone they were sick. Said he wanted to take me through the book and help me recover. I'm sober in AA 34 years. What does he think I did in 79! I want to go to Bayham Road Ealing but I don’t know what to expect. Never met Happy Dennis. So I got the message you do the steps in 6 weeks then you have recovered - people like me are sick. Some lady involved with the idiots at Harefield committed suicide - jumped in front of a train at Gerrards Cross. I was sat next to her on Friday. She was dead on Saturday. That was 2 years ago. They where turning up at her house taking her to AA. She didn’t want to go. Was a good friend of mine. Someone tried all that with me in 77. It didn’t work. The cult took over South Harrow. Everyone left and it closed down. They had a look at Pinner but we are too strong for them. Thanks for the site. I read it every few days. Will you e mail me back. I don’t care you can print my e mail online if you want. Too many groups using the AA programme. Too many different interpretations of it. Thanks again. Keep up the good work ….....”

Our response: 

“Hi …...,

Thanks for the mail. We're glad you find the site useful. As for us we prefer to remain anonymous – there are far too many 'personalities' floating around AA as it is! But the site was started off by a few members in …... and then expanded from there. We've even gone international with contributions coming in from the US and Australia amongst others! But we're not exclusive - as far as we're concerned anyone is a member of the aacultwatch team who understands what we're about and supports us. Obviously some people are more active than others but we depend solely on information supplied by AAs to keep us up to date with what is going on in different areas (and countries). As for Happy Dennis not all the Bayham Rd meetings apparently are run by him. There have been a number of defections and some of the meetings have reverted to standard AA ie. relatively sane. But if you really want to see a show apparently the Sunday Bayham Rd meeting is where they all “jump for joy” …. rather you than us!

We don't believe we've heard about the suicide you mentioned but that's precisely the thing we're trying to ensure doesn't happen in the future. Certainly we'd be interested in any details that you are able to supply about that.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Cheerio

The Fellas”

(our edits)