The ‘Hot Melt’ was a process which used plant and a laminating machine to laminate two components of a dressing together, the dressing itself and a paper backing. Despite being a dressing, the machine was not situated in the cleanroom area of Unit 33. In the process, the glue was held in a large heated tub in order to melt it for application through a metal extruder. The production personnel would from time to time accidentally turn off the heating for the glue; it would be a fitters job to remove the solid mass of glue from the tub. This was acheived by turning the heating back on to melt the glue and dissolve it using gallons of Methyl Ethyl Ketone. The MEK would flash off on the heated glue and the fitter would inhale the mix of MEK and glue vapour. Several of us complained and we were told MEK was safe to use: not according to the hazard sheets that came from the Health and Safety Officer ‘F M’ we were given, it wasn’t. I now have problems with my chest including pleural plaques which I am told by medical people is related to asbestos. I believe the ‘Hot Melt’ also played a part. The process was removed from ConvaTec Deeside and was shipped to another ConvaTec facility.

As serious as the above situation was for employees, the following shortfall was really bad news for the patients who were to use the 4” x 4” dressings packed on the Multivac packaging machine. I am about to describe an ‘improvement’ that was made to the Multivac about two or three years into my time at ConvaTec, around 1992/93, possibly 1994. The situation was resolved when the Multivac was phased out of production in the late nineties, but all in all the machine packed millions of dressings in the intervening years. The department production manager ‘F M’ requested the engineering manager to enlarge the size of the blisters on the Multivac to make it easier for the operatives to fill the blisters with product thus enabling the machine to be sped up. The engineering manager enlisted an outside engineering firm to re-machine the blister forming station. They did just what he requested but omitted to follow the existing profile, compromising the outline of the blister which then did not fit the sealing station. The result, a blister that often failed a burst test. Quality control would remonstrate and be bullied into submission to accept the blister for distribution to the patients. The sealing dye rubber was packed up with tape and cardboard to try to improve the situation, but nobody picked up on the real cause of the problem accept myself who due to the reporting structure was not listened to. When I said nobody picked up on it, that isn’t quite true. An engineer from ConvaTec America came over to inspect the machine but he drew a blank. As the inspection took place under a veil of secrecy, I couldn’t get to impart my knowledge. The Multivac machine was in the cleanroom because the dressings were used in an operating theatre environment. They had to be guaranteed sterile. Not good!!

Around 1998/99 I became so fed up with the way the place was run, jobs for the boys; a cavalier attitude to compliance; a bullying boss and quite open fraudulent use of company assets, I decided to complain to HR. I knew I would be complaining about something nobody in a position of authority would want to hear, so I kept some of my powder dry, explaining to the HR manager that they had a problem with people ripping the company off. It was clear to all that ConvaTec loaned personnel to a supplier that occupied an adjacent site on the Deeside park but I did not mention at the time that the ConvaTec gatehouse monitored the security for the same supplier. The suppliers company was run by a friend ‘F M’ of the ConvaTec factory manager ‘F M’. By raising my head above the parapet I knew it was only a matter of time before I would suffer the consequences. It’s a sad fact, whistleblowers once they break cover are doomed!! ConvaTec was a division of Bristol-Myers Squibb and they had an ombudsman that disgruntled employees could contact when normal complaints procedures had broken down. In reality the Ombudsman’s office was an intelligence gathering resource that reported to the Bristol-Myers Squibb General Counsel. Unfortunately for me, the General Counsel was also the head of the division of which ConvaTec was a part; he was the last person who needed to know his management team was being accused of being bent by a maintenance fitter several million pay grades below his. Knowing I was on my way out, I thought I’d play them at their own game, so I wrote out a complaint which I placed in the ConvaTec internal post addressed to the Ombudsman. I was phoned at home by a manager I didn’t even report to. He told me the letter had been removed from the post and that I would face disciplinary action which would lead to my dismissal. I never heard any more from him but I was not dismissed on that occasion. As it happens, he went before me.

In the following months I was asked to talk to the company doctor who suggested that MEK was a completely harmless substance and that I was suffering from depression. I could see which way that was going, it would have been a short step to accept I was suffering depression and accepting a pension to go early. That would have been an acceptable outcome, but by now I had the bit between my teeth and I wasn’t receptive to a plan that wasn’t even put to me. It did tell me one thing. Nobody at ConvaTec was in a position to offer me an early retirement package, it must have come from the top at Bristol-Myers, as that was who would be paying for my early release. I accept, it was BMS acting honourably and me being belligerent.

A restructuring was announced in due course and guess who was to oversee it? Not the factory manager. Not Human Resources. None other than the former departmental production manager ‘F M’ who had now been promoted to a higher managerial position. The fact he oversaw the restructuring would later be denied by the company at an employment tribunal. The freemason would later be promoted to the ConvaTec board. His position there was shortlived. Meanwhile, I emailed both the head of ConvaTec and the Bristol-Myers Squibb General Counsel, to tell them I didn’t believe the reasons being given for the restructuring. At this point I still had the option to leave and take a pay off despite my emails to the company hierarchy. This presented me with something of a dilemma, if I accepted the package on offer I could go, walk away. If I didn’t, I would have had a call from HR to tell me they had an historic complaint about me from the Quality of Working Life Group representative. I thought about it for a couple of days and decided to take the package, with a view to taking action later. During the period before the restructuring, I had become interested in the Internet and all the possibilities that might hold. I had registered a number of domains with a view to selling them on at a profit. One of the domains was legalrights.co.uk. Quite how I could use the visp (Virtual Internet Service Provider) facility I had purchased I didn’t know. So in December 2000, having accepted a package from ConvaTec, I left employment. I had been home only a few hours when I received an email from a London barrister offering me £100 for the domain legalrights.co.uk. Intrigued, I did a few searches and realised the barrister had quite an Internet presence. He had a website esettle.co.uk, which offered a solution to parties who were in legal conflict with each other. Very innovative and maybe the way forward. I fired off a complaint to ConvaTec, via esettle.co.uk, claiming constructive dismissal. I received an email from the ConvaTec HR manager saying they had received my communication but did not intend to settle in that manner. A couple of days later I had a phone call from a pal of mine, who was a fellow glider pilot, to offer me £50K to settle the matter. I accept I should have gone back with a counter offer, but I didn’t. I’d let another opportunity to settle slip through my fingers. I further accept that on the face of it Bristol-Myers Squibb had acted honourably to this point and I must take my share of the responsibility for the subsequent events.

The first sign that other interested parties might be involved and working against me came in early 2001. I’d decided to take action against my former employer, though I wasn’t quite sure what route to go down. I initially reached out to ACAS, but they wouldn’t meet me. I didn’t know enough about the law, but suspected going down the breach of contract path may be a possibility, or maybe taking advantage of whistleblower laws. I didn’t know. I took all my paperwork to Eversheds solicitors, Manchester. After copying all my documents, they advised me I didn’t have a case. I decided to take my case to an Employment tribunal on my own. A few weeks after I had submitted my application for a hearing I missed a call on my mobile. On ringing the number back, I got through to Wrexham Employment Tribunal. They initially denied calling me. This development was quite worrying as that was the tribunal I’d made application to but I hadn’t given them my mobile number. I reported the matter to my MP. She wrote to the tribunal and received a reply saying my number had been dialled randomly. My case was actually heard not at Wrexham, but at a tiny hall in Denbigh. Needless to say, there were no members of the press present. The panel directed that the evidence from me need not be presented but would be examined by them during the recess - I did not give evidence and was not questioned by the panel on anything I’d written. I lost the case. I spent part of the remainder of 2001 on an IT course at a company in Liverpool. Following the course I was assigned a placement at West Kirby Grammar School for Girls as an IT technician, for the last term of the year.

I would say my life turned around because I was a whistleblower, my enemies would say my life turned around due to the fact I was a security threat because of a note I wrote when at ConvaTec. Several weeks before the restructuring was announced ConvaTec was getting all its ducks in a row; finding out what I had to say about the machinery in the unit I worked in made sense to someone in a high place. I was asked to report on the condition of the machinery in the unit. My assessment of the plant was pretty negative, some had been developed in a machine shop on site, some machines were from respected manufacturers, but had been modified. One particular machine which I thought was a complete load of rubbish got the following assessment from myself: “5kg of Semtex would improve this machine; 10kg would prevent any components being incorporated in another piece of technological wizardry'“ It was meant as a joke. Christmas 2001, my enemies would use those words against me. I actually believe, but can’t prove, this was brought to the attention of the FBI earlier by the BMS General Counsel, when I first wrote the note. I also believe the FBI oversaw the 2000 ConvaTec restructuring. I further believe my spell at West Kirby Grammar School for Girls was overseen by our own home security, MI5, working in conjunction with the FBI; I had previously suspected MI5 involvement at the Employment Tribunal. If any one of my assumptions is correct, taking into account the note and the report by the Quality of Working Life Group Representative at ConvaTec, I shouldn’t have been working at WKGS. So my question is: if I was a threat to people at ConvaTec, wasn’t I a threat to the girls at West Kirby Grammar School? David Blunkett was by this time Home Secretary having taken over the helm from Jack Straw midway through 2001. He formerly held a ministerial post as Employment and Education Secretary, so he should have been fully aware of all the implications of me workingng at a girls school.

How senior was the FBI agent who oversaw my case? Second in charge of the FBI. Could he have done what he was going to do when still working for the FBI? No, the following account involves a period when he was between employment, having left the FBI in 2001 and before joining Bristol-Myers Squibb in early 2002. I have no further comment or criticism to make about the American Authorities, Bristol-Myers Squibb or ConvaTec. However, the Department of Justice at a later date entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb, when the Ex-FBI man and his former ex-FBI boss were working for Bristol-Myers Squibb. One as a board member. Though I haven’t scrutinised the agreement, I suspect that somewhere in the small print there is a clause that exonerated the FBI guys from prosecution for the indignities and abuse I was about to suffer in Barbados 2001. A massive conflict of interest, but enough said on the subject.

The above paragraphs are included to provide context and background. I am sure ConvaTec in 2026 is a properly run company with sound Health and Safety procedures in place, together with equal promotional opportunities for all its qualified employees. Likewise, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Part 2:

On December 22nd 2001, I arrived at Barbados, perfectly well but having had an eventful flight. One week later I’d had a mental breakdown and was suffering from acute anxiety. Here is my version of events. As previously stated, I believed MI5 had been on my case for some time. There were different things that happened and different things that were said during the year following the Employment Tribunal that led me to that conclusion. I was now about to be introduced to MI6. Tony Blair was Prime Minister at the time, Jack Straw had been Home Secretary during the activities of the previous year. He had been responsible for MI5. He’d recently been moved by Tony Blair to the post of Foreign Secretary. He now had MI6 at his disposal.

The first spook I came across was on the flight to Barbados. It took a very short time to realise the person in the seat to the left of my wife on the outbound flight to Barbados was a spook, probably an MI6 agent. To confirm my suspicions halfway through the flight I played with my shoe in a very exaggerated manner. This caused alarm to my fellow traveller. On landing he dodged the immigration queue and raced into the terminal, to relay his intelligence. I thought no more of it and travelled without any further delay to my hotel, the Almond Beach Club in St James, which has since changed hands and name. At this point I didn’t know about Richard Reid the shoe bomber, who traveled from Paris to Miami on the same day.

MI6 got to work immediately with what some might describe as a gaslighting operation; gaslighting doesn’t do it justice, it was a full blown physcological warfare operation. The day after arriving, I met a group of people on the beach. Somehow or other we got talking about mesothelioma contacted in the workplace. We talked about the correct way of claiming against an employer, should one be unfortunate enough to find oneself with the condition. We went on to talk about some arsehole who tried to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb, all very esoteric. A day or so later, I saw a bulletin on TV about Richard Reid the shoe bomber. The fact MI6 had gone to so much trouble, convinced me I might get framed. Had I been confident to date, my confidence took its first knock. Perhaps I had over thought the situation, perhaps I hadn’t. Several friends who we met up with each year when on holiday, complained the place was overrun with spooks. If MI6 operations were categorised as quiet, normal and noisy, this operation was noisy, very noisy. Towards the end of the first week, I confronted my daughter’s boyfriend, who she would later marry, saying I knew about his involvement and demanded £2 million to settle with BMS. This is as near as I get to identifying anyone who worked for the security services against me. Other members of the family had said, I’d picked on the wrong one this time, so I would say that they knew too. Being branded a communist by one member of the family didn’t help matters either. It has to be said, much of my family were against me, but time is a great healer and many burnt bridges have since been rebuilt. My step daughter would later divorce, but at the time her husband was a loud gregarious presence in our lives.

During the 1980s I’d been a furniture dealer who also bought and sold the occasional picture. In later years I became a picture dealer who bought and sold the occasional piece of furniture. The trade back then was largely unregulated, very few items changed hands with VAT added. Cash was king. At some point in 2001 there was a not-so-chance meetingng up in a restaurant between the gregarious one, an old acquaintance I knew from my dealing days, myself as well as wives and girlfriends. The conversation went along the lines that I’d sold the acquaintance a dodgy painting at some point and that an image of the said picture had been published in a book with an accreditation to him. I can quite honestly say that I have no knowledge of what picture he was alluding to. The gregarious one quizzed me on who we had just met and to what was he referring. I couldn’t tell him, but maybe MI5 could!! The gregarious one had made a big point of telling me he couldn't be blackmailed. Well neither can I. What I do know is that operations like the one staged in the UK cost money. I believe it was a business associate of the gregarious one who acted as a conduit for funds reaching the UK.

Our holiday had been scheduled for 2 weeks, but after a week of MI6 attention I was in no fit state to do anything other than go home. I’d been perfectly healthy mental health wise up until this point in my life, not counting the ConvaTec doctor’s previous diagnosis of depression. When I returned home I was prescribed antipsychotic tablets as well as anti depressants, which I am on to this date.

Part 3:

The MI6 operation in Barbados was a softening up exercise. When I got home, MI5 took over again from MI6 - Tony Blair still Prime Minister, David Blunkett now Home Secretary. A day or two after returning home I found it necessary to visit my bank, the Halifax in Liscard, Wallasey. I was dealt with by two members of staff who after prolonged discussion said I was mistaken, I didn’t have an account there. One of the tellers remained in employment with Halifax for many years until retirement, I knew her name, let’s call her teller one. The other teller I do not know her name but I believe she left employment with Halifax some short time later. I returned home in order to bring proof of my being a customer of Halifax. When approaching the bank for the second time I was met by teller one who said, “let me out of there”. I did her no favours by publishing on a website her response and I fear I had left her open to blackmail from MI5, having presumably signed the Official Secrets Act. Her outburst had no effect on my thinking, as I knew already that the Halifax episode was an MI5 gaslighting operation. I will come back to teller one later in my story. To say what happened at the Halifax Bank was devastating would be to exaggerate the matter, what it did do, was contribute to my paranoia. More on the cover up that followed the incident in a later paragraph.

In the months that followed there was a continuation of the gaslighting, involving friends and acquaintances of mine. As I am not naming names there is no point in putting meat on the bone of these incidents. Suffice to say, the British secret services know how to drive subjects to a very low place. Some whistleblowers may even consider suicide, I didn’t, but other whistleblowers may well have done. I will dedicate a paragraph at the end to another whistleblower, Doctor David Kelly. Some people might say I was a security risk not a whistleblower. I would disagree. No Home Secretary would have allowed me to work at West Kirby Grammar School for Girls if they really believed I was a legitimate threat. Everything about my case has been covert; not once have I been challenged or questioned by the security forces. I was a whistleblower who blew the whistle on unacceptable freemasonry practices, certainly in Industry and possibly in the Employment Tribunal service, as well as fraud and Health and Safety issues.

One thing I can’t overlook is the spoof films MI5 present to whistleblowers, in order to undermine them. There is a particular antique expert who has been on the Antiques Roadshow for many years, so I assume he is under contract to the BBC, the supposedly independent state TV broadcaster. He featured in the spoof film I viewed. The purpose of the film I watched in the period following the Barbados holiday was designed to further unsettle me and suggest my family were involved. I viewed the film on my own home TV, how this was done technically, I don’t know but there was wiring for the TV signal in the garage of the house, presumably MI5 had forced entry. I would like the BBC to be held to account and to explain their involvement in this activity. The reader may consider this trivial, but it’s deadly serious as it’s intended that the subject, myself, would attack members of the family saying I’d learned of their involvement on the TV. It’s enough to have you sectioned.

MI5 carried on operations for many years and were active on my case as late as 2024. What follows are examples of a couple of the operations they planned against me:

Many years after the Barbados operation, MI5 still pretending my case was about security and not whistleblowing decided I shouldn’t be flying gliders. On a gliding trip to Feshiebridge, Scotland, I was subjected to another MI5 operation. My glider was partially vandalised. No actual damage was done, but it was letting me know that needn’t always be the case. I didn’t fly on that trip and following other events that occurred when flying at Bidford Gliding Club, where my safety was compromised, I decided to give up gliding, a sport I’d been active in since the age of 15. I hold no malice against pals I met in the gliding community, I can’t say the same about MI5, Jack Straw and subsequent Home Secretaries. Treating me as a security threat had consequences for other family members.

Which brings us to Halifax Bank Teller one, an attractive middle-aged lady who, as far as I know, is happily married with children and grandchildren. I don’t know where she lives, nor do I follow her on any form of social media. Following the events that transpired after my return from Barbados, I believe teller one was compromised by MI5 after opening her mouth about the events at the Halifax Bank, Liscard, Wallasey. This would have left her open to demands from MI5. I was surprised to learn her husband was seen by a friend of mine in a local pub with another woman. I was even more surprised to see her outside my house looking angry and forlorn. From then on, wherever I went, supermarket, chemist, dog walks, sandwich shop teller one seemed to show up with her beguiling smile. I was aware her presence in my life was yet another MI5 attempt to compromise me. I didn’t rise to the occasion. I have recently ignored her and it must be said I haven’t seen her to speak to for a couple of years. In the past I have complained to Halifax Bank both in Liscard and to their bank’s complaints department. I received no reply from the local bank and a denial from the bank’s complaints departmen.

28th November ’24, I received an email from a member of The Rotary Club of Wallasey, asking could we communicate by email as he had tonsillitis and couldn’t speak. I’d left Rotaty several years earlier. Let me explain. Over the years I had raised my issues with successive governments together with Halifax Bank. They all had their own way of fighting back against my claims. When I was young I was a hellraiser. Some members of the Rotary knew my background. My recollection of the dates are vague but around 2016, following a request from my wife, we’d both joined The Rotary Club of Wallasey. We were probably members for about 2-3 years. Where, you might ask, does Halifax Bank come into this? Rotary being an old established organisation when they want to get rid of  a member, someone doesn’t just come up to you and say you’re no longer welcome; I had an almost ceremonial exit. I’d posted on Facebook a comment to the effect “we’re meant to believe that when our solicitor, our adversarie’s solicitor and the judge are all on the square, we’re not disadvantaged”. I wasn’t confronted about my post but the president at the time, was giving his weekly speech and kept referring to the job at hand. He then made the comment we should all write to our bank managers - that rang a bell - at which point all gathered turned and directed their collective gaze at me. It took no more than a few seconds for the penny to drop. I left Rotary. Wallasey Rotary club members are a very varied lot, teachers; businessmen, chemists, struck off solicitors, who could best be described as pillars of the community. I wish them well.

Part 4:

You will not be surprised to know that after 25 years there is more that could be included in my account. A lot more!! For instance, I was forced under threat of being sued to sign an undertaking to prevent me disclosing information about ConvaTec. See Documents page. The actual undertaking given was that I would not make any ‘false and/or disparaging’ comments about ConvaTec. I rather foolishly signed the document. Many years later I asked ConvaTec to release me from the undertaking. They refused. I accept I am in breach of the undertaking and am willing to defend myself against any proceedings ConvaTec might issue. What I have to say about ConvaTec is disparaging but not false. The undertaking was drawn up by Eversheds representing ConvaTec, less than two years after they’d advised me on the same case. I believed this to be a conflict of interest on the part of Eversheds. The Law Society did not agree and cleared Eversheds. If ConvaTec do issue proceedings, I do hope Eversheds have the original complaints I made to them still on record, whether in digital format or original copies. Well shredded, I expect. I suspect some bright spark somewhere will suggest that I be challenged on my breach of the undertaking, without thinking it through. What it does prove is that ConvaTec, and probably Bristol-Myers Squibb, tried to shut me up. As I say, I am no longer in conflict with either company or the American authorities.

I’m not exactly guilty of hiding my light under a bushel, having posted widely on the Internet and written extensively to UK politicians, including my MP; subsequent Justice Ministers and Home Secretaries as well as the Prime Ministers of the day, all of whom have ignored me. If I could play a part in putting pressure on the government of the day to introduce legislation to compel freemasons in Industry, the Judiciary, the Police and associations like Rotary, to declare membership, I would be happy.

I wrote to the Hutton Enquiry regarding the death of Doctor David Kelly, but was not asked to give a submission or evidence. I really think I could have had meaningful input into the enquiry given my experience. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had experience of other UK whistleblowers committing suicide. Please use the contact form below:

Jim Lynchehaun

Footnote:

Can I say from the offset, I have found writing this account incredibly cathartic. It has always amazed me how people in authority are not prepared to act or even ask questions when issues like this are raised. The Press included. I have been emailing my MP since the events occurred but have received no reply, apart from the original response in 2001. I have contacted the people and organisations listed below in late December 2025 (apart from my MP). I expect if I give them until the second week in January, 2026, I will be able to add “No Response” following their names. They will of course hide behind the “I do not comment on security matters” as a defence, but on the other hand, a couple of them make small fortunes advising on, and talking about, their roles in the ‘War on Terror’. If you’re at one of his lectures, why not ask Jack Straw what he knows about Richard Reid, the shoe-bomber. What makes me laugh is the fact these people get fortunes for presenting their version of events but every effort is made by the establishment to shut me up. My intention is to expand on the above and sell my story to a media/film company, then the viewers can decide for themselves if my story is true or not. Finally, I apologise to anyone who knows me or is related to me and feels this account is offensive and brings them into disrepute by association. It maybe offensive to some, but it’s the truth, a bit embarrassing at times, but none the less the truth. If you feel you have been impacted in any way by the above events, I apologise but can I suggest you take it up with the UK authorities.

I have attempted to contact Sir Tony Blair for comment through his foundation: No Response

I have attempted to contact Jack Straw for comment through a speaker’s website: No Response

I have attempted to contact Lord Blunkett by way of the House of Lords email service: No Response

My MP does not respond to my emails and hasn’t done so for a number of years: No Response in over 20 years!!

Will I get a response from the Prime Minister?: No Response

Will I get a response from the Home Secretary?: No Response

Or, will I get another response from MI5?: Still Waiting