| Jul-11-04 |
| WMD: From Summer 1997's edition of Kingpin, no.27:
In last October's issue of CHESS, Jim Plaskett drew attention to the BCF's failure to act over complaints about former British Champion Brian Eley's alleged sexual abuse of children. In 1979 Plaskett, then 14 years old, reported Eley's misconduct to the then President of the BCF, David Anderton, but Plaskett claims that nothing was done to deny Eley access to young chess players. In the January 1997 issue of Chess Anderton issued a stinging rebuttal. Er, not quite. Let's look at his statement again: '[Plaskett] suggests that I did nothing in response to his complaints. This is not correct. In fact, the following year, after an incident involving the disqualification of the English Team for wilful disobedience at the Glorney Cup at which Brian Eley was England Team Manager, he was never again given any BCF administrative post or responsibilities.' FACT: The reason for Eley's dismissal as England Team Manager had nothing to do with the charges raised by Plaskett and others, as Anderton himself indicates. FACT: As a BCF-registered coach, Eley continued to teach juniors into the late 1980's. |
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Oct-08-04
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| jahhaj: Does anyone know what happened to Brian Eley? Is he still on the run? |
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Oct-08-04
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| ray keene: reputedly in amsterdam wanted by interpol |
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Dec-28-04
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| Benzol: Brian Ratcliffe Eley
Born circa August 1946 in Don Valley
He was British champion in 1972. |
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Apr-03-06
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| pawn to QB4: jahhaj: Does anyone know what happened to Brian Eley? Is he still on the run? Time to repeat this question; CHESS recently printed a letter from a gentleman outraged that the bureaucracy requires him and other would-be trainers in the UK to undergo criminal record checks before working unsupervised with children. About a year ago someone mentioned to me that Brian been seen in Amsterdam and was under the impression that "the police can't touch me". If so, I'd urge our Dutch friends that we don't want him for dodging parking tickets. |
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Apr-03-06
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| Eric Schiller: In America policies vary, but background checks and fingerprints are fairlyt standard. Such things are unfortunately necessary as not all child molestors due so under the cover of a church. I have no problem with the checks and fingerprinting required by many schools I teach in. Unfortunately, as was demonstrated by the indictment of a prominent youth coach last year, chess does attract some undesirables with evil intent. The situation in England was a lot worse than most people are aware of, and Anderton's mishandling of the situation did not help. Most of the victims have not come forward our of fear or embarrassment. Brian Eley remains at large, seen reportedly in Amsterdam. I don't know why members of the chess community don't band together and take care of business leading to his arrest and incarceration. |
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Apr-03-06
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| ray keene: i agree with everything eric says-the dutch shd give this man up-i also have my own views on what shd be done to child molestors but i doubt they are printable on a family website |
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Apr-03-06
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| Open Defence: disgraceful .. <he was never again given any BCF administrative post or responsibilities> like I'm sure that made his life a living hell... sheesh obviously victims would not come forward readily ... it takes a lot of courage and above all I would imagine that the victims might feel it worthwhile to come forward if indeed there was a chance that this creep would be locked away |
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| Apr-03-06 |
| EmperorAtahualpa: <i agree with everything eric says-the dutch shd give this man up> <Ray Keene> I guess I'm misinterpreting your words here, but you're not suggesting that Dutch authorities are deliberately holding Brian Eley back, are you? By the way, I've never heard of this guy, so I guess he has not been in the news here. Anyway, if he was known with the Dutch authorities, I'm sure they would have him arrested and extradited. |
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Apr-03-06
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| Open Defence: <you're not suggesting that Dutch authorities are deliberately holding Brian Eley back, are you?> Well I don't know the facts here, but an order for extradition, or even an interpol red corner notice is very difficult to obtain and then enforce.. I imagine the Dutch would in fact like to determine that there are sufficient grounds that warrant handing him over ... it also opens the debate on <databases, the public's right to know, the potential for misuse ala big brother> .. its sad that <most molestors are brought to justice decades after they perpetuate their henious crimes....> |
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| Apr-03-06 |
| EmperorAtahualpa: <I imagine the Dutch would in fact like to determine that there are sufficient grounds that warrant handing him over> <Open Defence> Well of course if the Dutch government stands behinds their own values and holds them highly, then nobody gets extradited without very specific grounds. But also, like you, I'm sadly not more informed about the details of this case. :( It would be great if someone who's more up-to-date with this affair could shed their light on it! |
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| Apr-03-06 |
| EmperorAtahualpa: <most molestors are brought to justice decades after they perpetuate their henious crimes....> <Open Defence> Are you referring to the Dutroux case in Belgium? If so, well even though Belgium and the Netherlands are neighbouring countries, I can assure you the Dutch way of handling pedophiles is very thorough! I know so because, believe it or not, a child molester lived in my street when I was a kid! |
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| Sep-19-08 |
| johnfagg: I knew Brian when I was a youngster - though fortunately he didn't interfere with me... He was a very charming person - which is unfortunately true of many "such" people. I played many offhand games with him and lost most of them! Not uncommonly one sees the statement that he was the "weakest" of Britsh champions"; whether this was true or just reflects people's revulsion with his misbehaviour I don't know. We know in boxing how keen people were to see Sonny Liston or Jack Johnson beaten; and then they got (via Willard) Dempsey and Ali who were both highly controversial figures in their own right! (Though I'll not hear a word against the latter...). As an artist I know that people can be both coventionally (or genuinely) evil and geniuses simultaneously. We people are not black or white, but clearly reparition should have been made. How authority behaves is a different thing altogether... |
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Sep-19-08
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| ray keene: eley may no longer be in holland-thailand was one rumour i heard. i certainly did not mean that dutch authorities shd give him up-if he is still in holland-i meant that some misguided friends may know where he is and were sheltering him thru misdirected loyalty-however this is of course all speculation-he may no longer be there at all! no-one who wins the british championship is going to be a weak player-i have faced many of them and none were pushovers. eley won it fair and square with opposition including penrose, hartston , stean, mestel, myself---i have two wins against him, no losses and a couple of draws, but then again i have much better scores against penrose and nunn and comparable scores against several others such as speelman and botterill. |
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| Sep-22-08 |
| mack: <We people are not black or white> Yes, dear. Which is why it's not particularly helpful speaking of 'evil' people, eh. |
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| Oct-29-08 |
| jkinlay: I seconded Eley in 1972, the year he won the BCC. I recall researching through the night for his final round game in the tournament against Andrew Whiteley, to find an antidote to his opponent's feared Alekhine defense. I came up with an unusual line that probably allows Black to equalize, but which was better suited to Eley’s tactical ability than Whiteley’s more strategic style. Eley won the game and secured the Championship. Ray is right when he says that Eley won it fair and square, but it was not a popular outcome. Eley’s reputation was already tarnished by that time, and for good reason: I personally witnessed some pretty abusive behavior on his part towards his acolytes. As a consequence, I no longer worked with Eley after 1972. Despite that, I am sorry to learn that Eley’s ability and achievements appear to have been occluded by his alleged personal shortcomings. |
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Feb-03-09
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| Domdaniel: <Yes, dear. Which is why it's not particularly helpful speaking of 'evil' people, eh.> Quite. <mack>, you're wicked. |
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| Jul-25-09 |
| offramp: <jkinlay: I seconded Eley in 1972, the year he won the BCC. I recall researching through the night for his final round game in the tournament against Andrew Whiteley, to find an antidote to his opponent's feared Alekhine defense.> I believe the opponent was A. Howard Williams. |
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Jul-25-09
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| ray keene: oddly there are no eley games at all here from his british championship win in 1972!! |
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