End of the line

[DanaC]

Some of you are aware of the problems I had in my party towards the end of last year and into the summer. For those that aren't, the long and short of it was that I ended up lodging an official complaint against a fellow member (and also council colleague) for intimidation and harrassment (bullying, not sexual).

The process of such a complaint is long and complicated. It has to pass through various stages, meetings at which votes decide whether or not to progress to the next stage and then on and on....until a committee from the national party decide whether or not it warrants a hearing.

It warranted a hearing, and that happened on Sunday. Unsurprisingly, that's as far as it went. The decision the panel reached was that there was no case to answer, the evidence was too circumstantial.

It wasn;t a great surprise...I knew the second they started questioning me, exactly where it was going. When one of my witnesses gave evidence, one of the panel members turned to the accused and shared a joke with him at my witness's expense ("it's only a yes no answer" *rolls eyes and laughs*)

I was cross examined for an hour, mostly by the man I accused. When the panel questioned me they were entirely hostile.

One of my other witnesses was accused of 'sitting aggressively'.

*wry smile* Such is the machine.

I had to try though. I would do it again, distressing as it has been. I do not believe it was pointless. I do think he may pause for thought the next time he seeks a victim.


I would have done a summary earlier, but I got back from the hearing (an entire afternoon of tense waiting and an hour of cross examination) and fell quickly into my gastroentiritis miasma which took me out the game for a couple of days.