Steven George was stepdaughter Alizon Pink to Alderman Bonner Pink, a Portsmouth MP who George claims abused him as a child. When Alizon started to speak out, Pink had her carted off to Broadmoor, there to go on to allegedly be abused by Jimmy Savile.
A lifetime of adversity later, as the centuries turned, it was another Portsmouth politician, independent and Liberal Democrat Mike Hancock who was being outed by self-styled whistleblower George for various corrupt activities. Hancock was later found guilty of 'inappropriate behaviour' himself, but not before he'd telephoned George and life-friend Jason Packer - around whose case much of The Hidden Hancock File centres - to let them know he knew exactly how the case against them was going to pan out.
George alleges that Hancock was working in league with Hampshire Police against his whistleblowing activities. Packer later discovered – while serving a prison sentence during which he maintained innocence 'With a clear conscience' – that he was on the autistic spectrum; George had been troubled by various health issues all through life (the implication in the text of the book being that much of this came from the abuse suffered as a youngster).
The French philosopher Jean Baudrillard once famously said that 911 'hadn't happened'. What he meant by this was that televised, two-dimensional actions shouldn't objectively have the impact on us that they do, but the media industry compels us to experience a collective trauma, nonetheless. He called this our inadvertent participation in the Simulacra.
Jason Packer had a predilection for B-movie horror and zombie films, and AI is not very good at telling who is a consenting actor and who is an abused child in these situations. Neither are investigating police and courts according to the narrative, as George proved case by case how a thumbnail image claimed by police to be of a child was in fact an adult, and anyway he hadn't collected and traded thousands, he had had accidental possession of one. George claimed that even this one had been put onto their computer in a deliberate set up. If we take them at their word, Packer, and by umbilical extension George, were about to become victims of Baudrillard's simulacra in action.
This was accidental because such images can be contained in other links. As the authorities got to grips with the internet and started to bang up legions of men for getting into the habit of looking at things they shouldn't, some local politicians saw an opportunity for reputational subterfuge – and allegedly Hancock had form in silencing his political rivals through official means.
George writes with a first-person outrage which negates true journalistic impartiality, but in fairness he has never claimed that stance. Also, the fact that the book clearly hadn't been near an editor will put off some readers - though interestingly it remains a page turner, with the feel of a first draft, unabridged Dickens novel, written in the depths of the night from a troubled soul. Too much polish can suck the life out of/sand the edges off a gnarly, soulful piece of work.
George is nothing if not forensic in his outrage. Spoiler alert: why his plea changes towards the denouement remains a mystery. So, The Hidden Hancock File is a messy, knocked together cry of pain at the injustice of the world, sure: but somehow still very effective either despite, or because of that.
By Sean Bw Parker
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