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Press Release #2

A project log for Obsidian

Hacking MorningStar

morningstarMorning.Star 09/04/2019 at 18:1212 Comments

OK, I've rewritten it taking @salec 's kind comments into consideration.

I'm sorry if this sounds like I'm stomping around, but I have to get the message across somehow and drawing on the awesome things you guys have said about and to me is really all I have.

And now I dont fit through a normal door anymore. ;-p


My name is Jez Boxall,
although outside of the UK I’m better known as Morning.Star.

I’m a carer, my eldest daughter Keri [Bea to her friends] lives with me because she has severe learning difficulties, but still wishes to live in the community rather than be literally locked up in a care home and largely ignored – worse, have all her property stolen repeatedly, and be neglected to the point of injury. That only happened because Social Services repeatedly kept attacking me, her carer and advocate, to try and institutionalise her anyway. I’ve been unfairly accused of everything from narcotics and alcohol to sexual abuse, and the charges dropped when Social Services couldnt provide evidence, overruled, sanctioned, thrown out of my home, defrauded by local authority, my reputation smeared and my work destroyed and finally been enslaved by a corrupt authority as a carer on benefits, unable to work or realise my potential, and unable to obtain justice for me and Bea.

Since then I have been kept in poverty to prevent me getting legal assistance, on Income Support, and forced to do all the care work myself, unpaid, and against regulation – as an adult male I’m not really allowed to help with female personal care, but my daughter doesnt mind as I’m her dad. Its me who has issues with her walking around naked, and with her periods, and bathing, and, and…

I should have a female carer come in daily to assist her, but Social Services are incapable of supplying one, and insist she’d be better off in a home. Under these conditions they may even be right, but Social Services created these conditions and I’m her dad so I wont betray the trust she has in me. Besides which, as soon as they have their hands on her I’ll be made obsolete and thrown onto the streets in debt, branded a failure, and unable to speak for her when she is again abused.

However,
I am also better known as Morning.Star [1] to the rest of the world. I have world records to my name [2], awards and accolades, and even things named after me [3]. I’m an influential member of an international organisation of makers called Hackaday [4], where I release my work and research into robotics and artificial intelligence, and computer engineering [5], and have fun taking things apart and making crazy new things out of the pieces. I also post my artwork [6], music, and musings on the world, and talk with some of the worlds most intelligent people - my friends, who I might add are disgusted with what I’ve had to endure in this country. But they are unable to help, merely watch in frustration. I’m known in 34 countries, not including the UK where I am just marginalised.

I’ve been compared to Tesla, to Escher, to Turing, and to DaVinci in the last two years, also to Superman and Batman, Doctor Who, James Bond, and a few lesser known but equally legendary figures from modern culture too. And lately, my story has been described as Dickensian, which I’m not so happy about.

I’m a multiple genius working across 7 distinct fields, and some of the things I have done are truly mindblowing. I built a tiny version of a popular geek toy that turned out to be the worlds smallest, so I made one half the size and have plans to build one half that size when I have the funds. The techniques I created and adapted for this piece have now been adopted into the maker community and restarted a trend of hand-built ‘Deadbugged’ electronics design, this time in miniature. And after Nintendo realised what a great idea making robots out of cardboard was, they took that and created Labo, and didnt even credit me (or Hackaday) for it, [7] despite the project giving me my name and reputation. [8]

Because of all this I’m now exposing the corruption in our social care systems and local authority that runs all the way to the top. My story begins 19 years ago with my then partner, and the kids’ mother, attempting to kill me on 3 separate occasions during Bipolar episodes, which she suffered increasing regularly over our years together. She was never prosecuted as a result, and in fact was given counselling and therapy and allowed to stalk me and the kids for years while we hid in fear, unsupported. Finally after 6 years of that, Social Services intervened and gave me Respite, a service that they had denied even existed, as they deliberately neglected me hoping I’d fail. I didnt of course, and managed another 8 years exemplary care during which time I built my first robots, learned to paint and play numerous instruments, and researched mathematics and physics. When I’d all but completed AIME, a humanoid biped, and AIMOS, its operating system

West Sussex County Council

Spent 5 years attempting to institutionalise my daughter repeatedly using its social care arm to execute a planned intervention aimed at separating a vulnerable person from her advocate and carer because

Arun District Council

Made a mistake 20 years ago with her carer benefits leading to a £14,000 rent overpayment that they do not wish to reimburse. That's because they then sent in Social Services five years ago with an unsuccessful smear campaign - Accusations of drugs, alcohol, physical, mental and sexual abuse, criminal mental instability, neglect and fraud from a blind social worker from

Social Services Adult Disability Team

Complete with guide dog and handler, who came to my home and told me that despite having zero ability to communicate with Bea, she'd established that she wanted to be institutionalised, overruling me as her advocate and cutting me off from all the resources needed to care for her. She was dragged kicking and screaming with all her belongings to a series of

Care Homes

Where she was neglected to the point where all her clothes were lost/stolen and replaced with a jumble-sale. Including by now 6 x £25 of bra's carefully chosen to fit and support her, without underwires. That resulted in her being given an underwired one several sizes too small that cut her, and then broke so the underwire pierced her breast and caused an infection severe enough to warrant medical attention. This episode was covered up by Social Services and I only found out because

The NHS

Called on me at our home to treat her, when she was in fact being held illegally in care - hence the medical services being called to where she was officially resident. I cant really find fault with the NHS / Mental Healh services, they have been supportive even though they cannot do a thing.

They cannot treat me - there is nothing wrong with me - and they cannot counsel me for the trauma caused by all this until it is over; I have presented myself to a psychiatrist on numerous occasions, and each time been thrown unceremoniously back out of their offices because I'm genuinely a multiple genius with a historic IQ and have skills rivalling that even of DaVinci himself.

Accomplished artist and designer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrument musician, author and poet, programmer and mathematician, amateur roboticist, philosopher, and carer. These are the things that define me, but I’m capable of so much more.

My last instruction from a doctor [the only authority I actually respect enough to defer to] was to get my daughter out of care and take over the world with my robots. Which I did, thanks to

Hackaday

Who literally saved my life having become suicidal during the first three years of my enslavement at the hands of the State. Instead, supported by the combined intelligence and honour of some of the smartest people on our planet, rewarded for my efforts with prestigious awards and accolades, copied by some of our most powerful technologists, and handed a reputation for excellence that backs up a 20-year exemplary care history marred only by a corruptive authority. Who after all that could only be relied on to change the law so they could not be punished for their sins, and then finally completely revoke their remit to provide dispensation under those laws, blatantly trampling both human and disabilities rights in the process. Finally they rescinded our right to accommodation and transferred us to a

Private Housing Agency

Who promptly installed us both in a brand-new built estate isolated in the countryside with no access - the road is unpaved and filled with dangerous traffic including building works as it is still being built around us. Mud, noisy and dangerous vehicles, irate homeowners unhappy with paying a third of a million for a house that borders a social housing estate, with no playpark. Its not a place for children, let alone disabled people.

Within weeks I was threatened with eviction by the agency for non-payment of rent after Arun District Council again denied owing me money and instead tried to force me to continue paying the shortfall in rent that led to them owing me so much in the first place. Social Services then intervened and admitted that they had been engaged by the local councils to cover up this illegal mess by getting rid of me and taking Bea into care. However, as they had failed and now were working to cover this up, they stepped in and prevented the eviction, confirming to the agent that an eviction would precipitate vastly damaging legal action against the whole of Local Authority.

Leading to today, where I have a report from the Police that the 'Gentleman' who has been covertly filming and photographing me and my neighbours had been engaged by none other than the housing agency presumably under the instruction of Social Services, to gather enough evidence of 'antisocial behaviour' in order to kick me and my neighbours out now they have sided with me over the quality of our housing provision. [Quality it is not...]

Unfortunately for them, anti-stalking legislation is now in force thanks to our government's ridiculous policies and archaic laws that dont keep up with the times. With the advent of Farcebook, of Drones, etc, we now have laws that prevent individuals from taking footage of each other and posting it on Social Media without their express permission, punishable by heavy fines.

To whit, its now illegal to spy on someone as the housing agency have done, so after the manager and her lackey were then caught snooping around late at night and called on my neighbour with the excuse they were patrolling – which frightened her so much she called me – I then called local Law Enforcement to verify that spying on us was in fact illegal, which it is of course. So

The Police

Investigated the housing agency and social services, and are supporting me to regain my right to work and earn a living, reacquire the capital stolen by the District Council and continue to ensure Bea's wellbeing as I have always done without being enslaved to do so in poverty. They do this after apologising profusely to me for disturbing my work and peace, having established that I am not the threat my government seems to think I am. 4 visits it took for them to do that, looking for bomb parts, weapons, evidence of radicalisation, and questioning me on everything including my personal beliefs.

They found nothing but cardboard robots, artificial intelligence, my computer, my guitar, and a box of oversized condoms, and left after recording my details as a ‘highly dangerous care manager’ - with some humour - noting my work as ‘historic’, but they cannot intervene in a civil dispute even though it has become somewhat uncivil.

I AM still a threat of course. The legal ramifications of what Local Authority has been caught red-handed doing this time, publicly, and to a historic individual as well, are extensive. Leading to hundreds of thousands of pounds compensation for rights abuses causing loss and trauma, for slander and libel, for fraud, for discrimination, and for systemic and complicit corruption. Finally

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding Team

Are now preparing to give me access to a courtroom where I can speak for my daughter, however despite having lapsed Parental Responsibility and Custody (she is now 25), Formal Advocacy, Duty of Care, and Responsibility of Care for Bea I still need to pay a fee of £360 to deputise myself so I can speak on her behalf and tell our story. But, despite

Local Government Ombudsman

Investigating all of this twice I’m still denied legal assistance, and I dont have the money for a solictor. LGO recognise that my and my daughter’s rights have been trampled, but can only intervene to recommend a resolution and have been completely ignored right up to the CEO of West Sussex County Council, who simply swept us into his bin twice because he’s accused of fraud himself. The list of aggressors is lengthy.

Laura Potter, the blind social worker engaged by the County Council to coersively institutionalise Bea by cutting off her resources and unjustly accusing her carer (me) of a list of abuses with no evidence.

Sue Coldham, ex Social Services manager, authorised this action and then when it failed attempted to cover it up from her promoted position of Ops Manager for Learning Disability, West Sussex. Her signature on the funding for Bluebird Care, a national agency, caused them to withdraw the contract I had negotiated because they are prioritising private care due to lack of staff following the Brexit fallout, and will not take work from the State.

Nathan Elvery, CEO of West Sussex County Council and Sue Coldham’s boss, twice ignored Local Government Ombudsman instructions and interfered with their investigations leading to him being exposed as having defrauded WSCC out of a Housing Relocation Grant that he didnt use to relocate to Sussex, keeping his posh house in Epsom and the money.

Andrew Theodoridi, the replacement social worker who for the last few years has interfered with GP and Mental Health, benefits, funding and resources, and even interfered with job interviews to keep me on carer benefits, while he denies Bea Personal Care to force me to do the care work myself.

Paul Rogers, his manager, who after investigation removed Andrew Theodoridi from Bea’s case and then re-instated him to resolve [AKA cover up] the mess he made trampling our rights.

Leanne Moore and Richard Vandermark, the housing agents from Worthing Homes, who are threatening us with eviction, spying on us, and perpetuating Arun District Council’s fraud and Social Services rights abuses.

Nintendo, who took my work on Cardware and are selling it globally as LABO despite Creative Commons Attribution, and I dont see a penny. Thats for two reasons, one being Income Support that allows me to earn exactly £20 per week from my skills, and the other being that Nintendo arent prepared to recognise the originators of their ripoffs, in this case selling an empty flatpacked cardboard box for 60 quid a pop. That was an education.

Arun District Council, who overcharged me just under £15 a week for rent for 14 years while I was a single-parent carer against regulation by mistake, and then involved Social Services to institutionalise Bea and rid me from their housing list to hide it, rather than pay back the £10k accrued. Then, failing that continued to hide it until recently, revealing the £14k reason behind the 5 year bloody battle I’ve had with Social Services and themselves over care and accommodation.

The entire document chain

Is published in a redacted form with public commentary in https://hackaday.io/project/29260-obsidian covering the last two and a half years of my campaign to rid myself of the harassment that’s largely prevented me from doing much, much more.

[1] My profile at https://hackaday.io/Jez.Boxall

[2] The current world record holding https://hackaday.io/project/161111-smallest-4x4x4-led-cube-yet

[3] Adafruit’s DotStar LED strips, https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-dotstar-leds/overview

[4]
Hackaday.io, and its third of a million members
https://hackaday.io/hackers

[5] Some of my research and early work https://hackaday.io/project/162833-nostalgia

[6] Some of my artwork and music https://hackaday.io/project/19774-malleo-magicis

[7] Nintendo’s Labo, AKA Cardware https://hackaday.io/project/19920-cardware

[8] The MorningStar and its geometry, and a little philosophy https://hackaday.io/project/19920-cardware/log/65973-a-brief-interlude-in-time

Discussions

salec wrote 09/04/2019 at 19:10 point

Are you blocked by lack of funds?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Morning.Star wrote 09/04/2019 at 20:27 point

Basically, yes.

I cant work because I have to care for Bea, and that means I get State Benefits instead - rent is supposed to be paid in full, but isnt, and there are restrictions on what money I can make, ie £20 in a week I keep, and the rest goes to the Benefits Agency to topup the money they give me to feed her and pay utilities.

I'm denied Legal Aid, which should pay for a solicitor - who do not work for free unless there is a very good reason (apparently national corruption isnt a good reason)

I cant crowdfund either, subject to the £20 rule, unless someone else sets up and runs the crowdfunding and voluntarily donates the proceeds directly to a solicitor for me. I can have no involvement in this, or the State will take all but £20 a week from the fund to pay my benefits with.

And of course Arun District Council will not give me back my £14k because they know I WILL use it to sue them and Social Services to hell and back, for a quarter million in compensation.

Central government are aware of this and are actively suppressing all and any attempts to get help from the other agencies through West Sussex County Council who control the funding overall. And the Benefits Agency, who control my income and manage how I spend it.

  Are you sure? yes | no

salec wrote 09/04/2019 at 20:51 point

Today I've seen a YouTube video about an episode of The Simpsons, analysed by a lawyer. One his remark is maybe relevant: a third party can directly pay your legal fees. In that case, IMHO, it wouldn't be your income, it never passes your hands.

https://youtu.be/eWkH1CzLDU4 (from 8:32)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Morning.Star wrote 09/04/2019 at 21:04 point

A bizarre coincidence if ever I heard one :-D

Yes, you're quite correct. I'd love a well-heeled philanthropist to donate their time and money, but sadly thats not going to happen unless I get coverage in this country, and thats what the papers are for.

Still highly unlikely, unless they literally buy my freedom for themselves. Social Services already tried this tack by offering to care for Bea and employ me as a social worker myself. My response remains truly unprintable. ;-)

Equally as I said, anyone can fundraise for me, but I can have no involvement or it will be annexed by the Benefits Agency as income. All income is considered, including compensation say from a work-related accident, tax rebates, and gifts of money or goods including food.

The word is Draconian.

*edit

Remember the 2017 Prize, and the awards of seed funding from the Likes generated by the project?

Well, I won $26, and I had to declare that as income, and only after argument was I allowed to keep it for the project.

2018's Prize wasnt on my agenda after that, until Social Services gave me a £300 grant specifically to enter it. Later, I discovered that the money had been misappropriated from a carer grant intended to give me and Bea clothing and a holiday rather than 'Robot Parts', and the reason for it was so the Benefits Agency could take all but £20 of any prize I won, and laugh at me if I won the top prize, unable to take up the years residency as well as the cash.

I dropped out of the running and exposed the scam, and vowed not to return until I had my own funding and time to enter, and nearly quit Hackaday over it. It upset a *lot* of people and many have never forgiven me for it.

Draconian? Maybe criminal would be a better description.

  Are you sure? yes | no

salec wrote 09/05/2019 at 05:47 point

Well, that catch 22 part of the story is missing from the press release, IIRC. 

Say, if you would  have got them in court, and got the compensation, would benefits agency appropriate all of that as well? 

Is there any deliverance from this perpetual debt slavery but to be kidnapped and dragged to another part of the globe, out of reach of The Crown, and given new identities?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Morning.Star wrote 09/05/2019 at 16:37 point

Oops. Sorry, I wasnt very clear not that it may have mattered. Torte lol.

I said work related accident, not injury. An accident is compensated with a lump sum by insurance, where an injury is paid as a stipend, like a pension, but until retirement age. Then your own pension plan takes over [I dont have one of those either].

The rules are different, a lump sum is considered savings, which is capped. Under, your benefits are capped pro rata, and over, your entitlement vanishes.

A small few grand prize would be annexed yes, but a larger one would rescind Income Support, and then the Council wouldnt have to pay Housing Beneift - in other words, I'd have to live on the money and use it to fund Beas care until it was all but gone, a few grand that isnt enough to fund a litigious battle with anyone, and caps your benefits until it is all gone.

Thats how THAT works.

Heh, if someone in a far less corrupt country wants to 'kidnap' me and Bea I CAN be bought. Get me a passport out of this shithole and a work permit, and we can talk.

  Are you sure? yes | no

salec wrote 09/06/2019 at 09:40 point

OK then, winning back 14K guineas, wouldn't it be just a temporary vacation? What would it allow you to do that is now impossible? Can you apply for job vacancies right now?

Far less corrupt country ... Now you are being unreasonable. Why would an incorrupt country kidnap people? You need a supervillain's island nation ...

  Are you sure? yes | no

Morning.Star wrote 09/06/2019 at 09:58 point

I may not work more than 15 hours and 59 minutes in a week, or earn more than £20 in a week, or my State benefits are sanctioned. They are my income - food and utitlities.

My rent as a full-time carer should be paid in full by Local Authority's Housing Benefit but it isnt anyway, and if I am sanctioned on State Benefits then Housing Benefit is also cut and we will be evicted by a private agency who have no remit.

14K will buy me a solicitor, in short. And then I can pursue justice. That seems the best use for it, because when I get it my benefits will be capped due to having savings and I'll have to live on it.

That would last a year or so and allow me to find a job to replace the income, but I'm still unable to take the position as I'm a carer. I'm a 'single parent' in effect, but I have no access to a 'babysitter' as they have to be State registered and paid £20 an hour minimum.

Fuck 'em, I just sent my statement to our national papers anyway...

  Are you sure? yes | no

salec wrote 09/07/2019 at 04:28 point

The £360 needed to deputize yourself, are you not allowed to posses them as it would be considered "savings"?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Morning.Star wrote 09/07/2019 at 08:06 point

There is a lower cap, under which I may have some savings - a few grand, I'd have to look up the current rules to know how much exactly.

It isnt very much; the idea is that I cant save any money up on benefits in the first place. They dont give me enough, its intended to help me through until I find another job - assuming I am not sick or disabled, in which case I'd get sickness or disability benefits. I'm neither, so I get Income Support  otherwise I'd get Job Seekers Allowance, and as I cant work I dont qualify for that either.

I do get Carers Allowance, which tops up Income Support in the absence of a small income because I cant work. However, Carers Allowance works out for me at 50p an hour, so if I did work 16 hours a week doing something else as well as caring I'd be paid £1.75 an hour for everything, carework included.

Before tax.

Agency carers are paid between £10 and £20 an hour before tax, but the rules are as I am her parent I cannot be paid as her carer. I can care for someone else and be paid, and someone else can care for her and be paid, but I cant be paid.

And the national Minimum Wage is just under 8 quid an hour, so thats illegal.

I still have Universal Credit to navigate, my benefits are obsolete and are being replaced with a single payment, when the government can actually get it to work. They have tried to roll it out several times now, and it's caused universal unfairness and disruption because it plain doesnt work.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Dr. Cockroach wrote 09/04/2019 at 18:32 point

That all reads just fine Jez except for one word up at the top.

"

That only
happened because Social Services repeatedly keep attacking me, her
carer and advocate"

I would use either the word " keeps " or "kept"

Otherwise it reads great to me and can be sent on its way.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Morning.Star wrote 09/04/2019 at 18:42 point

Kept it is. ;-)

Thanks dude. :-)

  Are you sure? yes | no