Top 10 stories of 2022: Number 8 – East Mids businessman jailed next to Ian Huntley
In the run-up to the Christmas break, we’ll be looking back over 2022 to rediscover our top 10 most popular stories of the year.
We go right back to the beginning of the year for our eighth best-read story of the year – and one of the most intriguing.
Back at the beginning of January, a long-running legal dispute between former publican Geoffrey Monks and the now-disbanded East Northamptonshire Council concluded after both parties agreed to a seven-figure settlement.
Monks, a 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.
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 prosecutions had a “catastrophic” effect on Monks’ businesses, said 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.
North Northamptonshire Council, which took over the operations and liabilities of East Northamptonshire Council in April 2021, has agreed to pay “substantial” damages to Monks.
The Council was also due to make a public apology, in open court, for its predecessor’s actions.
However, in March, it emerged that Monks had decided not to pursue a court hearing at which he was set to receive an apology from North Northamptonshire Council.
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.”
