Welcome to the Address The Harm® season round up, where we reflect on the landmark progress achieved by our guests and the ongoing battles for institutional accountability across Britain's publicly funded institutions.

Since recording our six episodes, we've witnessed extraordinary developments: the government's repeal of the 'presumption of contact' in family courts following years of advocacy by Right to Equality and Fair Hearing; the Chinook families' historic first meeting with the Ministry of Defence after 31 years; revelations about England's maternity scandals being "much worse than anticipated"; and the IOPC's findings on Hillsborough officers that sparked both progress and institutional defensiveness.

But we've also seen the familiar patterns continue: Freedom of Information responses that contradict each other, institutional memory loss designed to avoid accountability, and survivors racing against time to be heard before compensation frameworks are finalised and inquiry recommendations remain unimplemented.

This episode connects the dots across all six episodes of the season, celebrating the wins whilst acknowledging how much further we need to go to end the system where Britain's publicly funded institutions investigate themselves when they cause harm.

Content warning

This episode references domestic abuse, child abuse, police misconduct, maternity deaths, the infected blood scandal, institutional cover-ups, and systemic failures across multiple public institutions. Please take care whilst listening.

Key quotes

"The presumption of parental involvement was introduced in 2014 after pressure from fathers' rights groups - against the advice of the Justice Committee. It entrenched a 'pro-contact' culture that prioritised parental rights over children's safety."

"This isn't incompetence - it's institutional memory loss designed to avoid accountability."

"This raises serious concerns about the continued desire to avoid accountability, the persistent lack of transparency and honesty with victims and the public, and clear systemic failures across multiple authorities."

"It took THIRTY-ONE years for any minister to meet the Chinook families."

"The £200m+ IICSA inquiry has produced 20 recommendations awaiting implementation."

"Whistleblowers face institutional destruction for exposing safeguarding failures."

Contact

Email press@addresstheharm.org, follow @addresstheharm on social media and visit www.addresstheharm.org

Take action

• Support our crowdfunding campaign at crowdfunder.co.uk/addresstheharm to help us build community and record more episodes with post office survivors, Church of England abuse survivors, care leavers, families of maternity deaths, Grenfell survivors and others

Address The Harm is hosted by Leah Brown FRSA, founder of The WayFinders Group and architect of The Coalition for Institutional Accountability.

Copyright 2025, production copyright Leah Talks Ltd. All rights reserved.

Episode description
Maggie Oliver is a former Greater Manchester Police detective who became one of Britain’s most important whistleblowers by exposing institutional failures to protect children from sexual exploitation.

She joined GMP in 1997, working in Serious Crime. During Operation Augusta, she interviewed victims as young as 11. Of 97 perpetrators identified, only three were taken to court. She was told victims “were prostitutes making a lifestyle choice” – “bad kids” not credible witnesses.

In Operation Span investigating Rochdale, the same patterns emerged. When she tried to be heard, she was written off as too emotionally involved. She resigned in March 2013 because speaking truth required leaving the institution. Nine men were jailed, but hundreds of perpetrators were never charged. The system investigated itself, paid compensation, and changed nothing.

Maggie founded the Maggie Oliver Foundation, supporting nearly 5,000 victims and survivors. Her charity is leading the only judicial review challenging government failure to implement the 20 recommendations from the £200m+ IICSA inquiry. In this episode, Maggie discusses how the
“independent” IOPC redirects 96% of complaints back to police forces, why institutions block survivor testimony from reviews, and why meaningful accountability requires survivor-led oversight with real enforcement powers.

Content warning
This episode discusses child sexual exploitation, abuse, institutional failures, police misconduct, and whistleblower retaliation.

Key quotes
“Senior officers make decisions. As a junior officer, you do as you’re told. My job wasn’t to do as I was told, it was to uphold the law.”
“When institutions that are meant to protect them turn away, the damage is multiplied a million-fold.”
“You cannot trust a report that is not listening to those who have experienced what happened then and what happens now.”
“Of 80,000 complaints to the IOPC last year, complaints never actually reach the IOPC. They’re immediately redirected back to the police force being complained about. Only 3,000 came back.”
“What is the point of a national inquiry if the government don’t implement the recommendations? It gives survivors false hope.”
“I would rather my charity does not exist than accept money that would give somebody a mechanism to silence me from speaking the truth.”

Contact
Follow @addresstheharm
Visit addresstheharm.org
Email: press@addresstheharm.org

Take action
Support our crowdfund: crowdfunder.co.uk/addresstheharm
Support the Maggie Oliver Foundation
Download the white paper at addresstheharm.org

Address The Harm®️ is hosted by Leah Brown FRSA, founder of The WayFinders Group and architect of the Coalition for Institutional Accountability.

Copyright 2025, production copyright Leah Talks Ltd. All rights reserved.

Episode description
Dr Susan Phoenix is an unconventional psychologist who has transformed profound personal loss into a lifelong mission to help others navigate grief and institutional betrayal.

On 2nd June 1994, Susan’s husband, Detective Superintendent Ian Phoenix of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, was killed when RAF Chinook Zulu Delta 576 crashed on the Mull of Kintyre, Scotland. All 29 people on board died, including the majority of the UK’s senior Northern Ireland intelligence and counter-terrorism experts.

For 17 years, the two pilots were wrongly blamed for gross negligence whilst institutions protected their own reputations. Susan joined the fight to clear their names whilst navigating her own devastating grief. The verdict was eventually overturned, but 31 years later, fundamental questions remain unanswered because the UK Government has sealed the official files for 100 years.

Susan is the author of ‘Out of the shadows: a journey from grief’ and worked with journalist Jack Holland to tell Ian’s story in ‘Phoenix: policing the shadows’ - now available as an audiobook narrated by her son, Niven. She uses her expertise as a psychologist and her lived experience of institutional betrayal to help others fighting for truth whilst grieving profound loss.

Content warning
This episode discusses death, bereavement, military crashes, institutional cover-ups, gaslighting, and the long-term psychological impact of unresolved grief and institutional betrayal. Please take care whilst listening.

Key quotes
“The coffins were closed. That was the biggest thing to me… I had been a military nurse, I had seen bodies, I had seen all kinds of things, and I remember begging and saying, look, it’s just a piece of skin, I need to see it”

“They threw those boys under the bus. They were scapegoated and they kept that going for a long time. 17 years. The families of the pilots fought for 17 years to clear their son’s names to protect somebody’s reputation”

“I was gaslit by many people across many agencies… people would say, well, you know, Susan, don’t make a fuss because the other widows, they wouldn’t like it”

“I do know the Ministry of Defence are waiting for us older widows to die off. Of course they were, it made sense. The fact they have now closed the documents for 100 years”

“It’s not just a historical issue, it’s about transparency, accountability and justice for the 29 people and their families who died as a result of someone choosing the wrong, un-airworthy aircraft”

“The danger, the arrogance that they can allow our young servicemen and women just to be the old fashioned cannon fodder. Nobody cares… This is wrong. And that’s what’s kept me going for 31 years”

“Sealing files for 100 years isn’t accountability – it’s institutional cover-up at its most extreme”

Contact
Follow @addresstheharm on social media
Visit addresstheharm.org
Email: press@addresstheharm.org

For ALL Chinook media enquiries, contact: tim@timreidmedia.com

Take action
Support our crowdfunding campaign at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/addresstheharm
Share this episode to amplify survivors' voices
Support the Chinook Justice Campaign and sign their petition demanding the files be unsealed https://www.chinookjusticecampaign.co.uk/
Download the white paper at www.addresstheharm.org

Address The Harm®️is hosted by Leah Brown FRSA, founder of The WayFinders Group and architect of the Coalition for Institutional Accountability.

Copyright 2025, production copyright Leah Talks Ltd. All rights reserved.

Episode description

Helen experienced institutional harm across multiple sectors - NHS healthcare, social care, safeguarding services, and employment systems. Her journey through every agency, regulator and ombudsman reveals the devastating pattern of institutional self-investigation that re-traumatises survivors whilst protecting organisational reputation.

With unique insights from experiencing these systems from both sides - as someone seeking help and as an NHS employee - Helen shares how institutions defaulted to "deny, attack, reverse victim and offender" rather than correct avoidable errors. She was recently part of London Safeguarding Voices, a survivor-led group that provided crucial input to statutory services until funding was cut, silencing these essential voices.

Fifteen years on from avoidable NHS errors in 2009, Helen is still fighting for her care to be put right.

Content warning

This episode discusses childhood abuse, trauma, medical negligence, institutional failure, discrimination, employment tribunal experiences, and the systematic failure of safeguarding systems. Please take care whilst listening.

Key quotes

"Everyone suspected and realised that there was harm and danger in my home but no one added that picture together across all the agencies"

"The same organisations that ought to have protected me as a child were now failing me as an adult"

"I categorically knew that I was taking the dose that I was taking and that the GP had got it wrong... but the PHSO was so strongly wanting to be on the side of the GP who'd made the mistake that they were trying to gaslight me"

"It seems madness that the same people who are responsible for doing the harms are the same people the system puts back in charge of correcting those harms"

"Unfortunately we're in a position where we can't trust our NHS anymore"

"The public live in a society that's broadly fair, just and civil to each other, where we respect each other as human beings and this often isn't our experience in the public sector or the system"

Contact

Follow @addresstheharm on social media
Visit addresstheharm.org
Email: press@addresstheharm.org

Take action

• Support our crowdfunding campaign at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/addresstheharm
• Share this episode to amplify survivors' voices
• Download the white paper at www.addresstheharm.org

Address the Harm is hosted by Leah Brown FRSA, founder of The WayFinders Group and architect of the Coalition for Institutional Accountability.

Copyright 2025, production copyright Leah Talks Ltd. All rights reserved.

Episode description

Issy Vine is a former Metropolitan Police 999 call handler turned campaigner for institutional accountability and violence against women and girls prevention. After five years working in the Met, Issy left the force following experiences of workplace misogyny and harassment that were inadequately addressed by institutional processes.

She reported a colleague for racist, misogynistic comments and following her home—he was dismissed for gross misconduct at Scotland Yard, then rehired four months later when the appeal chair deemed dismissal "too harsh" and also claimed the VAWG campaign and Casey Review had too much influence on misconduct panels. When Issy escalated her concerns, her report was hidden for five months.

Of the Coalition’s four pillars (acknowledgement, apology, accountability, amends), Issy prioritises acknowledgement and apology which institutions resist because it means admitting failure. She argues that politicians cannot claim to care about ending violence against women and girls whilst enabling it within the very institutions meant to tackle it.

Content warning
This episode discusses violence, abuse, workplace harassment, and suicide. Listener discretion is advised.

Key quotes
"The colleague that I reported who said the most horrific things and escalated and followed me after work was just allowed to carry on taking reports and stuff for the whole time he was under investigation. And I just think that's really gross."

"No one should be able to mark their own homework."

"If you really want to end violence against women and girls, you need to really, really focus on policing first."

"I just want you to acknowledge what you've done and I just want you to apologise for what you've done and acknowledge what you put me through when all I did was just sign up to work for you to help."

"The force operates on gaslighting tactics. They are very silent, so they make you wait and wait and wait so you just feel like you don't get responses for ages."

Contact
Email: press@addresstheharm.org
Instagram / TikTok / X @addresstheharm
Website: www.addresstheharm.org

Take action
Support our crowdfund
Hosted by: Leah Brown FRSA (@leahtalks_)
Production: Leah Talks Ltd © 2025

Episode description

Cristina Odone and Julia Margo from Fair Hearing expose how Britain's family courts fail domestic abuse survivors. After enduring 10 years of litigation and 37 hearings, Julia transformed her experience into systemic change—training over 200 senior judges and establishing domestic abuse education at the Judicial College.

Together, they secured £283m government funding for victim support and fought for landmark legislative reform. Since recording, amendments to the Victims and Courts Bill now automatically remove parental responsibility from serious sex offenders who've abused their own child. The government announced plans to repeal the 'presumption of contact' recital in the Children's Act.

Yet 99% of family court cases still result in unsupervised contact, even where serious abuse is proven. Cristina and Julia reveal why: 80% legal aid cuts, pseudo-experts pushing parental alienation theory, and Article 8 rights that make reform near-impossible.

One in four adults experiences domestic abuse. The evidence for reform is overwhelming. So why won't institutions change?

Content warning: This episode discusses domestic violence, child abuse and suicide. Listener discretion is advised.

Key quotes

"I lost my cognitive function for a time... PTSD and the health impacts of domestic abuse are treatable and one can recover. I've recovered."

"19 children were killed over 18 years by a parent who had been accused of domestic abuse. That's 19 children over 18 years."

"For a victim, it is not the outcome of the hearing that is so important, it is the fact that she has been heard. Validation is so important to them."

"I wouldn't be working in this area if I didn't think there was the potential for change. I've seen so much change since we started working in this area."

Contact

Email: press@addresstheharm.org

Instagram / TikTok / X @addresstheharm

Take action

Support our crowdfund at https://crowdfunder.co.uk/addresstheharm

Hosted by: Leah Brown FRSA (@leahtalks_)
Production: Leah Talks Ltd © 2025

https://www.youtube.com/@AddressTheHarm

After each episode, a special update will follow.

Since our first episode was published there have been extraordinary developments. Our podcast host, Leah Brown FRSA addresses crucial clarifications about the infected blood scandal. We also report on letters and messages received, provide an update on our campaign and explain that no survivor's experience invalidates another.

Get involved

Email us with corrections or your story: press@addresstheharm.org
Visit addresstheharm.org to read our white paper, support our crowdfund, and follow @addresstheharm on social media.

Episode description

Andy Evans was infected with HIV and hepatitis C at age five through contaminated haemophilia treatment provided by the NHS. He's one of the few to survive the 42 years since. In 2006, he co-founded Tainted Blood to advocate for the 30,000+ people infected by contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. About 3,000 have died.

After 18 years of campaigning, the public inquiry reported in May 2024. Rishi Sunak called it "a day of shame for the British state." Documentary evidence was deliberately destroyed. Compensation is finally being paid.

Andy discusses the decades-long cover-up, why 40 years is too long to wait for justice, and his message to other survivors fighting for accountability.

Content warning: This episode discusses difficult topics including violence, abuse, terminal illness, and death. Listener discretion is advised.

Key quotes

"Around about four-fifths of us with HIV are now dead... It's carried a great sense of responsibility because these are people that I met over the years and who are no longer with us."

"For such a long time we were cast aside as conspiracy theorists, that this couldn't happen in the United Kingdom."

"You need to have the publicity, you need to have the recognition, you need to have the understanding of the general public. And only with that can you make progress."

In memoriam

Gareth and Hayden Lewis, Darren Flack, Gary Kelly, Sue Gorman, Mike Dorricott, and all those who fought for justice but didn't live to see it.

Contact

Email: press@addresstheharm.org

Instagram / TikTok / Facebook / X @addresstheharm

Take action

Support our crowdfund at https://crowdfunder.co.uk/addresstheharm

Hosted by: Leah Brown FRSA (@leahtalks_)
Production: Leah Talks Ltd © 2025

#AddressTheHarm #InfectedBloodScandal #TaintedBlood #InstitutionalAccountability