Peter Dixon tries to cover the mess

Two letters from Peter Dixon when I got back, and neither was a birthday card. The first one practically calling me a liar “dishonest” because every chiropractic member of the GCC has denied communicating with me? Well what can I say. Did Peter really expect members to admit to talking to me, and be kicked off council or perhaps he is hoping, that by accusing me of dishonesty I will react and name a few names. Well Peter Dixon is one of the GCC members I have spoken to since Maxine White was forced out of GCC headquaters. Unfortunately I cannot remember who else I spoke to specifically about Maxine White, they tell me so much. However I will borrow from former minister Geoffrey Howe and say being reprimanded by Peter Dixon and Margaret Coates must be like, being savaged by a dead sheep. Not surprisingly Peter wants me to remove a number of statements I have posted because Margaret and himself think they “Are highly defamatory of the General Chiropractic Council and its chief Executive, Mrs Margaret Coats.” To be defamatory, a statement must be untrue and contrary to what they may say, I do not lie. Allegations have been made to me by, a former employee of the GCC, a number of registered chiropractors, I even heard a member of the General Chiropractic Council describing Margaret Coates as a bully. These allegations are supported by a letter from the employee to members of the GCC which I have a copy of. Unfortunatly I am unable to provide details, because the contents of the letter is the property of the GCC and Peter Dixon tells me these details must remain confidential Peter Dixon tells me, it is also a Breach of Confidentiality and Data Protection Act for me to inform people that former GCC executive officer Greg Price was “forced to resign for posting messages on anti chiropractic websites. But still getting a reference and landing at another regulatory body”. I would find it hard to believe that Price was given this job without a reference from the GCC or that he has not been in touch with Margaret Coates since he resigned. As for why Price resigned, there can be no doubt that while Peter Dixon et al would prefer we did not know, it is in the publics interest to know that a senior executive officer of The GCC, with a statutory duty to protect the public and promote the profession, was posting derogatory messages about registered chiropractors on anti-chiropractic websites, I am proud of the fact I exposed Price and that he had to resign from the GCC as a result. We should also keep in mind that Price had regular contact with many of the witnesses bringing charges against registered chiropractors, Did he try to pervert the course of justice for these chiropractors. Remember this is a guy who claimed,that it was defamatory for Monica Handa to say she found talking to him in the lead up to her PCC hearing “stress full”. The GCC were seeking a court order to have Ms Handa’s identity revealed up to the day Price resigned. In October 2005 a GCC officer became a member of this site. They implied they were a registered BCA chiropractor. They posted 27 messages on the site some of them obscene. They tried to delete some of the postings when solicitors Addleshaw Goddard started to investigate the site which cost £52,000 of chiropractors money. The same computer still logs on to the site most days and the person working the keyboard reads the postings. The GCC refuses to say who the culprit is. Under a freedom of information request I am told Margaret Coates has used the computer with this IP number. The GCC say they do not have the software to record who posted what on this website. Greg Price has denied doing it so we are left to speculate. Peter Dixon says “these comments are defamatory in their natural meaning, which is that Ms Coates posted messages on www.chiropractic-uk.info . So let me make it perfectly clear, I do not know for certain who this GCC officer is, I have my suspicions as to who posted the messages and which GCC officer regularly visits the site. Is it Margaret Coates? I dont know and it would appear neither do the GCC know who the person is. What I can say is the officer whoever they are is an incompetent fool, they are bringing the profession into disrepute, they and their associates should be run out of GCC headquarters and you have to question the integrity of people who would hide this disgraceful behaviour from the profession.

Richard Lanigan
Richard Lanigan

Richard Lanigan DC.BSc (Chiro) MSc( Health Promotion) was born in North London 1957 of Irish Parents and was educated in Ireland. Originally trained as a PE teacher, he moved to Denmark 1979, where a serious knee injury got him interested in rehabilitation and training methods. Richard founded Denmarks premier fitness centre "Sweat Shop" in 1982 and travelled all over the world to find how best to prepare athletes for competition. In 1984 he became fitness and rehab consultant to the Danish national badminton teams, handball teams and many football club sides. This approach to optimal performance is normal in 2010, however back in the early 80s it was very revolutionary, when stretching was limited to putting on your socks and knee injuries were immobilised for months in plaster.
Richard developed rehabilitation and fitness programmes for many of Denmark’s top athletes including Kirsten Larsten and Ib Frederickson, all England singles badminton champions in late 80s. "Team Denmark" hired him and his facilities to help prepare many of Denmarks athletes for the LA and Seoul Olympics. In 1990 he worked with Anya Anderson, Olympic gold medallist and voted worlds best female handball player at the Atlanta Olympics.
Richard advised Copenhagen’s main teaching (Rigs) Hospital on starting their rehab facility in 1984. In the same year he started working with Denmarks leading chiropractor; Ole Wessung DC, who demonstrated the effectiveness of Chiropractic in improving athletic performance, so impressed was Richard that in 1990 he moved back to England to study chiropractic at Anglo European College of Chiropractic and was student president for two years between 1993-1995.

Richard was awarded a fellowship by the College of Chiropractors in 2008, however in January 2009 Richard chose to stop using the title chiropractor in the UK because the British regulatory body for chiropractic (The GCC) had not maintained international standards of chiropractic education in the UK and including prescribing medicines in the chiropractic scope of practice, a fig leaf for incompetent UK chiropractors to hide behind. Richard has another clinic in Dublin and is a member of the Chiropractic Association of Ireland and the European Chiropractic Union.
Richard has four children Eloise aged 3, Molly and Isabelle aged five and the eldest Frederik aged twenty one is pursuing a career as a professional tennis player and has represented Norway in the Davis Cup in 2006 & 2007. None of Richards children have ever taken any medicine, www.vaccination.co.uk they eat healthy food, take lots of exercise and have their spines checked every month, www.familychiropractic.co.uk
Richard has had much experience working in the Cuban health service where Doctors are keen to incorporate drug free interventions (acupuncture and chiropractic) and prevention in their health care programmes www.henryreevebrigade.org

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