115.
116.
67
180
(d) She wrote an open letter to the press dated 24 March 1980:—
"What happened on the morning of 15 January 1980 may never be known. But one thing is certain. John MacLennan was hounded to death by police. For this, the Special Investigation Unit has a case to answer.
Mrs. Elliott also expanded on what she had been told. For example:—
67
(a) In November 1978, Mrs. Elliott asked MacLennan what he thought was the reason for the termination of his contract. MacLennan said: "It could be Triads trying to get at me." When Mrs. Elliott asked Judge Daniell the same question, the Judge said MacLennan was investigating homosexuals while in the Special Branch and he had seen the names of senior police officers. 68 That was clearly speculation on the part of the Judge, yet Mrs. Elliott, without knowing anything about the facts, put that forward to the public as actual facts. She claimed:-
"Police Inspector John MacLennan. . . us the victim of 'a high powered police frame-up' because he had investigated homosexual offences involving high-ranking policemen. MacLennan was 'put up' by senior policemen and dismissed from the force two years ago, until the Governor intervened and save his job.'
"69
(b) Sometime, probably in October 1979, Fulton spoke to Mrs. Elliott over the telephone and told her: "So eventually they (referring to Brooks and Quinn) said, 'Well, now, you must find the information about John MacLennan, you could do it by taking boys to his house, and then they can become witnesses'."70 Fulton certainly never mentioned any frame-up. Indeed, it was clear from what Fulton said, he was not asked to frame MacLennan. But then Mrs. Elliott repeated that as a “frame-up”: “I knew (my emphasis) there was a frame-up going on months before MacLennan's death."71 To Mrs. Aileen Bridgewater's Phone-in Radio Programme she said:-72
"Well you see I had information few months age that he was going to be framed up and I knew that he claimed he was framed up previously when he was sacked in 1978 . . .
73
Furthermore, she jumped to the conclusion (even though she knew Fulton never did what he was asked to do) that all the evidence obtained from the eight male prostitutes against MacLennan must be a result of a frame-up.
She wrote to the Attorney General on 24 January 1980:—
"... What is there to stop a group of men conspiring to give evidence of their own alleged relationship with the man they wanted to frame?.
>>74
She wrote to the Governor on 29 January 1980:-
"All the evidence against MacLennan points to the possibility of a frame-up by triads brought forward possibly by police."
She wrote to her own independent Forensic Pathologist, Professor Alan Usher on 2 October 1980:— "I do not believe the evidence as they are part of the syndicate used in frame-ups.'
"75
I note the basis or reasoning behind Mrs. Elliott's use of some of her expressions. For example:- (a) "Frame-up"-"Set-up"
Mrs. Elliott was fully aware of the vast difference in the implications behind each of these two terms: She told the Commission about her meeting with the Attorney General on 24 January 1980:-
"The Attorney General explained to me what you're talking about is not a frame-up. You might call it a set-up if you like, but it's not a frame-up. And he explained the difference between the two by saying that a frame-up is fabricated evidence against someone, whereas a set-up means setting up circumstances where a person who does something is caught in what he's doing. I didn't feel very happy about that because I had no evidence that John MacLennan was a homosexual, therefore, to set him up would imply that I was accepting that he was guilty.'
"76
This was published in the press on 26 March 1980. It is not feasible to give all the references to the repeated and numerous allegations of hounding made by Mrs. Elliott. Suffice it to say they can be found almost everywhere in all her correspondence and statements to the press produced at the Commission. Indeed, even during the Inquiry, Mrs. Elliott was still demanding to know why MacLennan was "hounded". See Transcript pages 11218 and 11260.
68
See Transcript page 11137.
69
See report in the Sun dated 19 January 1980.
70 See Transcript page 11142.
71
See Mrs. Elliott's letter to the Attorney General dated 24 January 1980. Commission File A, page 86AA.
72 Mrs. Aileen Bridgewater's role in the MacLennan Affair was insignificant. It is therefore not worthy of comments.
73 Mrs. Elliott's interview at the Aileen Bridgewater Phone-In Programme-Commission File D(i), pages 48-52. Again, it is impracticable
to list exhaustively all the references where Mrs. Elliott alleged a frame-up. It was the main theme running through all the numerous correspondence and statements to the press exhibited to the Commission.
74 See Commission File A, page 86AA.
Commission Exhibit No. B200.
75
76
See Transcript page 11155.
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