Nolan Show exclusive - David v Goliath. A local man tells how he's fighting the might of Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman.

Aug 08, 2018, 09:13 AM

A really important story on the Nolan Show about what happens when a citizen tries to defend their reputation against powerful public bodies. This morning we reveal how the Public Services Ombudsman threatened a man with contempt, for sharing a report that was about him. That's the Public Services Ombudsman that's there to ensure you are "served by a fair and efficient public administration that is committed to accountability, openness and quality of service." That citizen waited three years for her report - and is now being told he can't share it with anybody. Here's the story - a report was on the Charity Commission's website which was inaccurate about this man. The Ombudsman investigated - and found in his favour. But they then told him he couldn't tell anybody. Gregory Burke mentioned the Ombudsman's report - and some of her findings - in an email to government officials - and that was enough for Marie Anderson to write to him and threaten him with contempt. She went further - she threatened that he would be "fixed with all legal costs". That's the bottomless resources of the state threatening one individual citizen with legal costs. He found that terrifying - who wouldn't? But the Nolan Show has been forensically looking into the Ombudsman's threats against this citizen. Our legal advice has raised big questions about the claims made by Marie Anderson. We can't find - and the Ombudsman has been unable to provide - anything that legally prevents Mr Burke sharing the findings of this report. The thrust of the Ombudsman's argument is that to do so would prejudice a high court case. How can you prejudice a judge, sitting with no jury? But maybe there was something weren't aware of - so we asked the Lord Chief Justice's office if they were aware of anything that could stop us reporting the findings of the Ombudsman's report. They said "the court has not made any orders that would prevent publication of the case details." So why the threatening letter from the Ombudsman to this one private citizen? "I will use this correspondence to fix you with all legal costs incurred by this office" she said. Gregory Burke was involved in a dispute with the Charity Commission. He won a dispute with them in a Charity Tribunal, and thought that was that. But it wasn't. Stephen spoke to Greg about what happened next - and then got reaction from legal expert Joshua Rozenberg.