Wayne Brown, the West Midlands fire chief found dead last week while under investigation for lying about his qualifications, was also facing a court room showdown over claims about sexual affairs, bullying and other professional misconduct.
Brown had accused a former firefighter of harassment for criticising his performance and suitability to hold the £185,000 post.
That trial was due to start this month but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) cancelled the hearing following legal challenges from Ben Walker, the defendant.
In its place, Walker’s legal team had secured an abuse of process hearing for mid-February where the impartiality and quality of evidence gathered by West Midlands Police was also going to be attacked.
Walker, a 43-year-old fire safety expert and author of firefighting textbooks, had been arrested at Birmingham Airport last April on his way back from an overseas training trip.
He was held overnight and denied claims made by Brown that he was behind an anonymous email account sending abusive messages to the fire chief.
Walker explained that far from hiding his identity, he had openly raised concerns through the proper channels of the West Midlands Fire Authority and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire & Rescue Services after Brown’s appointment as deputy chief fire officer in 2019 and then as chief in 2023.
Those complaints contained a wide range of allegations of corruption and mismanagement not just aimed at Brown and were copied in to local Tory and Labour MPs Andrew Mitchell, Preet Gill and Jess Phillips.
The complaint letters were sent during the Grenfell Tower Inquiry into the fire in west London that killed 72 people and raised concerns about inflammable cladding being signed off in the Birmingham area and a fire service allegedly not listening to residents.
Walker also pointed to an alleged £15,000 “fraudulent expenses claim” by a senior West Midlands fire officer and a potential conflict in the business interests of a married couple also in senior management positions.
Separately, Walker complained about Brown’s suitability to lead the West Midlands Fire Service and sit in judgment over firefighters on discipline boards due to his past at the London Fire Brigade.
Brown, he alleged, had a history of sexual affairs at work, one resulting in a child, bullying and other professional misconduct during his 27 years working in the capital.
When Brown was promoted to chief fire officer in January 2023, Walker wrote again asking His Majesty’s Inspectorate to investigate the claims because he felt the local fire authority had swept them under the carpet.
HM Inspectorate was already looking into what it concluded months later was a “toxic” culture of “bullying, harassment and discrimination in many of the 44 fire services in England”, including London and the West Midlands.
The Inspectorate recommended background checks on existing and new staff in a report published in late March 2023, just days before West Midlands Police, acting on Brown’s complaint, arrested Walker at the airport.
Walker is regarded as an unofficial conduit for whistleblowing firefighters. During his police interview and subsequently, he revealed he had been a source for ITN’s investigation of the culture of misogyny and bullying across the fire service.
Walker explicitly alleged that Brown was using West Midlands Police “as a proxy tool to bully, dissuade and discredit” him out of fear the media were going to expose his past.
He also countered with a criminal complaint against Brown for misconduct in a public office.
In other words, well before Brown’s death last week, the fire service he led and the fire authority who appointed him were in the midst of a full frontal attack from Walker in defence of the harassment case against him.
On being charged in August 2023, Walker deployed a team of investigators to work with his lawyers and dismantle the criminal case against him while continuing to build one against Brown.
Walker’s lawyers presented the CPS with a long list of former senior fire chiefs and firefighters he was intending to call, if necessary by subpoena, at the abuse of process hearing scheduled for 19 February, including the mother of Brown’s love child.
The West Midlands fire establishment knew it had a nasty fight on its hands and continued to back Brown.
However, support began to unravel from 15 January when Walker’s investigators presented evidence that their chief fire officer had lied about having a Master in Business Administration.
The fire authority took four days before it announced a “fraud” investigation on Friday 19 January, which happened to be Brown’s 54th birthday.
The Upsetter alone had been asking questions about this case for the last six months. When the investigation into Brown was confirmed by a press officer, it was just a matter of time before an article appeared.
This, then, was the big picture behind Brown’s death sometime between the night of Tuesday 23 January and the following morning when his body was found at home.
Since his death, there has been a social media pile on by those in the dark who fear that Brown was driven to suicide as a victim of racial harassment by Walker and others.
Walker denies any racial element to his criticisms of Brown, the UK’s first black fire chief, and rejects claims he has “blood on his hands”.
In a statement about the death, Walker said:
“Whilst this is a tragic outcome that nobody desired, preventing closure for many people, it should be reiterated that if the concerns raised had been correctly investigated in 2021 and 2023 by the Fire Authority and West Midlands Police, an alternative outcome may have resulted. For record, a number of MPs, the Fire Brigades Union and HM Inspectorate of Constabularies and Fire Rescue Service were aware of the situation for almost 11 month and no intervention or referral was made until the [CV] fraud was reported.”
Walker does admit to sometimes being rude when criticising Brown on social media, but says this isn’t a crime.
For example, when the fire chief was videoed in uniform with other firefighters dancing at Pride, Walker questioned the wiseness of Brown’s “gimp” like dance moves while the public were apparently struggling to get through to the fire service over cladding concerns.
It did not help that Tommy Robinson, the far right activist, was also on Brown’s case mocking the Pride dance.
It can now be revealed that since Brown’s death, Walker has been targeted with death threats.
On Thursday 25 January, West Midlands Police gave him an official warning of threats to his life posted anonymously on social media. As a result he now has a permanent police presence patrolling his house.
The Upsetter extends it condolences to the Brown family.
However, in such an incendiary atmosphere of allegation and counter allegation, this newsletter believes it has an obligation to put what it knows before the public in the face of orchestral silence from the firefighting and police establishment.
By doing so, The Upsetter hopes to increase the peace and lead those concerned over Brown’s death to ask the right questions of the fire service, the fire authority, the police and local politicians.
Crucially, what discussions were had with Brown in the days between evidence of his CV fraud being presented to the fire authority and the chief fire officer’s death?