12 August, 2025
Ardent readers of the Good Oil may have noticed my absence for a couple of months (or maybe not), but posting pieces/message online is becoming fraught with danger due to the difficulty of knowing what and is not allowed to be communicated.
In recent weeks, two prominent YouTubers have been arrested because of pieces they submitted to YouTube. They were accused of communication offences: a useful ‘catch all’ law.
Both pieces were critical, but whether they were in breach of any law is arguable. Craig Houston and the “Silver Fox” are well known with solid followings and can best be described as not left leaning, but definitely not ‘far right’. This smacks of the process being the punishment so that if (a BIG if) the charges are dismissed before trial, or even found not guilty in court, they will have suffered reputationally and emotionally.
Two months ago a person called Brendan Kavanagh and his wife were arrested at his home – in front of their children – handcuffed and taken away. It appears that at least three police vehicles and six officers were involved.
Six police officers turned up at our house to arrest both myself and my wife in front of our three terrified children for a ‘non hate’ social media crime. After a two month police investigation, all charges against us were dropped due to ‘lack of evidence.’
Source: Brendan Kavanagh/X
They were given no prior notice of any issues and the police had not previously contacted or interviewed them. They were arrested after the issuance of a warrant from a Magistrate’s Court.
Now that the charges have been dropped, more facts have come to light.
Police also searched their vehicle and their house. Kavanagh is well known from his postings on YouTube of him playing public pianos at railway stations in the UK, especially Liverpool Street and St Pancras International. He is an extremely competent pianist and specialises in playing boogie-style pieces, many of which are uploaded to YouTube.
Last year he was the subject of issues with representatives of the Chinese Government, who were doing a piece to camera at St Pancras and objected to Kavanagh playing a public piano placed in the station for free access. It is worth searching YouTube for the clip.
The reason for the current arrest was for committing harassment – details of which are unclear.
UPDATE: The Kavanaghs are now meeting up with a top lawyer next week to prepare a civil case for wrongful address.
Cases like this are becoming more common, with instances reported of people being woken at four in the morning on similar charges. Mob-handed would not be an unkind characterisation of the police presence.
Talking of police, our old friends, the South Yorkshire Police, are in the news again. I am sure that we have all heard about the “Grooming Gangs Scandal” in Rotherham where men of Pakistani descent were found guilty of grooming and raping young white girls.
I have to be careful how I comment, so below is a direct quote from the BBC.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) will take over an investigation into allegations that South Yorkshire Police officers sexually abused children in Rotherham.
The BBC reported in July that five women who were exploited by grooming gangs as children have said they were also abused by police officers in the town in the 1990s to early 2000s.
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) initially said it would look at the claims, but subsequently faced calls to be removed from the investigation in the interests of transparency.
The NCA said it would ensure “victims remain at the heart of this investigation”.
Three former police officers have so far been arrested in connection with the allegations.
Assistant Chief Constable Hayley Barnett said the force had requested that the NCA take over the investigation.
The inquiry will be carried out by officers from Operation Stovewood –the NCA’s wider investigation into non-recent child sexual abuse in Rotherham.
Prof Alexis Jay, who led the landmark 2014 report which exposed the scale of offending by grooming gangs in the town between 1997 and 2013, had told the BBC she was “shocked” the force was originally investigating its own former officers.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp had also called for a separate body to lead the probe, saying there could be no “conflicts of interest”.
He said: “It is right that the National Crime Agency are taking over this case.
“It would be completely inappropriate for the same force accused of abuse to now be investigating itself.”
Switalskis, the solicitors representing survivors, welcomed the development as a “step in the right direction”.
Among the witness accounts reported by the BBC was the testimony of one woman who said she was raped from the age of 12 by a serving SYP officer in a marked police car.
He would threaten to hand her back to the gang if she did not comply, she said.
Last month, law firm Switalskis said it had hoped that alleged abuse by officers would have been unearthed following Operation Linden – a long-running IOPC investigation into how police responded to child sexual abuse in Rotherham.
In 2022, Operation Linden concluded that SYP fundamentally failed in its duty to protect vulnerable children and young people during the period under investigation.
In a statement on Friday, Switalskis said: “We are pleased that SYP has decided to hand the investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse, corruption, and the facilitation of abuse by former SYP officers to the NCA.
“However, we remain concerned that the investigation is still being directed by the IOPC, given the concerns raised by whistleblowers in relation to Operation Linden earlier this year.
“Nevertheless, we view this as a step in the right direction and hope that more survivors will now feel able to come forward to the NCA.”
Source BBC, 8 August 2025.
This had been rumoured in Rotherham for years and the handing over of investigations to the NCA came after a huge public outcry and YES with support from the media.
Support for the police is at an all-time low and reporting on anything that could or may be seen, in the eyes of the police, as hurtful or offensive could initiate investigations into said statements, and this could be unwise.
Having taken advice from members of the legal profession (in-laws who are well respected), I will continue to comment but I have to be careful in what I report and the language that I use.
