Former businessman draws a line under ‘two torrid decades’ after receiving apology from council
Former business owner Geoffrey Monks, who wrongly spent time in jail in a cell next to Ian Huntley, has decided not to pursue a court hearing at which he was set to receive an apology from North Northamptonshire Council.
The long-running legal dispute between former publican Geoffrey Monks and the now-disbanded East Northamptonshire Council has concluded after both parties agreed to a seven-figure settlement, thought to be around £4m.
North Northamptonshire Council, which took over the operations and liabilities of East Northamptonshire Council in April 2021, agreed to pay “substantial” damages to Monks.
The former pub landlord lost his business, his home and his health after East Northamptonshire Council prosecuted him in 1999 over alleged food safety offences at the Snooty Fox Public House in Lowick.
The settlement concludes a High Court action brought by Monks in 2019 in which he alleged that East Northamptonshire Council pursued a “vendetta” against him through the courts amounting to abuse of process. The last time a claimant successfully recovered damages for “abuse of process” was 1861.
Monks, who is now aged 67, was advised on the case by a legal team which included Geraint Thomas and Rebekah Parker from the solicitors firm Laytons ETL Global and the barrister Paul Mitchell QC.
The Council’s campaign against Dr Monks began, he said, after he asked a prominent local solicitor, Jenny Lawrence, to leave the Snooty Fox in 1998 following a dispute about a bottle of wine. Lawrence later alleged she had suffered food poisoning at the Snooty Fox and made a complaint to the Council, sparking its initial investigation.
The final decisions to prosecute Monks in relation to the Snooty Fox and another of his pubs, the Samuel Pepys at Slipton, were made by the then chief executive of East Northamptonshire Council, Roger Heath.
In his High Court action Monks alleged that Heath was at the time involved in a sexual relationship with Lawrence. The Council did not deny this allegation in its defence.
Monks was convicted in relation to the Snooty Fox in 2000, despite the presentation of what his legal team called “thin and contradictory” evidence against him, and was ordered to pay a fine of £13,500 and costs of £8,300. In 2003, when he was unable to pay the fine, Monks was sent to a category A prison, where he was placed in an adjacent cell to the Soham murderer Ian Huntley, who was at the time awaiting trial.
He was convicted in relation to the Samuel Pepys in 2003, although this was later overturned on appeal. He had to wait until 2015 to see his original conviction relating to the Snooty Fox overturned, following a referral from the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
The Snooty Fox
The prosecutions had a “catastrophic” effect on Monks’ businesses, says his legal team, and he was forced to sell all three pubs he owned at a loss. He also lost his home.
He suffered a heart attack while in prison and has experienced serious health issues ever since.
The Council was set to make a public apology, in open court, for its predecessor’s actions – however, this was adjourned at the last minute earlier this year after Mr Justice Soole, the Judge in Charge of the Queen’s Bench Civil List, raised the question of jurisdiction. The issue of jurisdiction arose because there is currently no express provision in the Civil Procedure Rules that allows for an apology of this type to be made specifically for the tort of abuse of process (as opposed, for example, to defamation, apologies for which are regularly made in open court).
At that point Mr Justice Soole made an order for a preliminary hearing to take place on the first available date on or after 1 March to consider the issue of jurisdiction.
This allowed Monks some time for reflection and, in consideration of the substantial local and national media coverage already received for his vindication, and the fact that councillor Jason Smithers, leader of NNC, has already publicly made substantively the same apology as would have been given in Court, Monks has decided not to pursue the matter any further.
This decision was reached in discussion with his legal representatives, the solicitors Laytons ETL and the barrister Paul Mitchell QC.
Monks’ decision not to proceed with the hearing to determine the jurisdiction of the Court to hear NNC’s apology was conditional on NNC agreeing to provide him with a written letter of apology, which he has now received, and to undertake to retain a copy of the apology on its website for a period of at least three months, which NNC has agreed to do.
Monks said in a statement: “The last two decades have been a torrid time, and I would like to express my appreciation to North Northamptonshire Council for recognising the impact of its predecessor’s actions. I now hope, as far as possible, to draw a line under these matters.
“What kept me going for the past 20 years was a burning desire to make sure that the same thing could never happen to anybody else again. I hope that all local authorities, and other prosecuting authorities, will now look at the safeguards and checks and balances they have in place to ensure that nobody else can have their life ruined by a prosecution that never should have taken place.”
Monks’ legal advisers understand that the circumstances leading to the original decision by East Northamptonshire Council to prosecute him are the subject of an active police investigation. Monks will, therefore, said he will be making no further comment.
